GAS inaugurates its new flagship store in Kyoto, which joins the mono-brand stores in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe, proof that Japan, a country where GAS has been present with a branch since 2005, is currently the Vicenza Brand’s primary foreign market.
The GAS flagship store in Kyoto, 160 square meters in the heart of Kawaramachi Shijo, one of the city’s trendiest areas, was designed by the Milan-based APRIL Studio, based on the RE-THINKING retail concept already created in the Venice, Budapest and Berlin flagships. Designed for the most representative GAS locations, it is new concept of “sartorial” architecture, based on maximizing the uniqueness and spirit of the space itself and aimed at creating synergy with the brand through the use of its distinctive elements. Backlit opaline polycarbonate walls and the characteristic “Denim Icon”, the display designed ad hoc to focus fully on GAS’s core business, have been introduced into the interior architecture, where the ribs are left completely exposed, a space that reinvents itself in new, surprising roles. Divested of superfluous elements, the store is totally centered on the product, the star of a permanent video-installation that enhances interaction between customers and the brand.
2009 turnover in the Japanese market was worth almost 912 million Yen, with a 6.2% increase over 2008 and a further 8.6% increase forecast for 2010, which will lead the Brand to close the year in the country with a turnover of almost 1 million Yen.
