Untitled_Japan
summary
In 2002, CWA was honored to win an international retail design competition for the Japanese women’s clothing line, “Untitled.” Japanese clothing conglomerate, World Co. Ltd sponsored this invited competition. Untitled is a bridge-line of women’s clothing that aims to capture the young Japanese woman as she makes the transition from more youthful clothes to mature business attire.
With Untitled, we sought to spatially and aesthetically address a cultural contradiction in the attitudes of young Japanese women. Our goal was to create a sophisticated, feminine retail environment while also infusing the space with a young, playful spirit. The design needed to accommodate the voluminous stock of mass-market youthful retailers yet embrace the coming-of-age implicit in a mature woman’s business attire. Our retail concept chose to employ rich materials in a playful manner that flows in an open plan between flexible systems of storage and display.
Our vision for Untitled is a clean, modern and fluid organization of spaces, materials, lighting and display systems. This method of organization creates a dynamic environment for the display of Untitled’s lines. It encourages a casual, meandering circulation both within and between the Core and Future spaces while establishing a unique new visual identity for Untitled. The rich palette of materials suggests a sophistication not found in more youth-oriented retail environments. The playful, organic way in which these materials are utilized - and the flowing sense of spatial organization - suggests informality that welcomes the young adult woman to Untitled.
Though similar in their elegance and spatial organization, the relative character of the Core and Future shops is quite different. The Core shop is defined by opaque plaster volumes, or ‘slabs’, which house the clothing and accessories on display. Translucent and transparent walls, or ‘planes’, of glass define the Future shop. It is against these glass surfaces that the Future shop’s clothing and accessories are displayed.