Chanel Opens Tokyo Flagship

Chanel (Paris) has opened a new flagship store in Tokyo. The store was designed to accommodate its narrow lot, consequently stretching nine stories tall.

The flagship's design is the brainchild of famed architect Peter Marino, who fashioned it with windows of different sizes to make the building look like a sculptural object, according to Women’s Wear Daily. The luxury retailer also commissioned panels from artist Shuji Mukai that hang on the exterior’s graphic black-and-white façade.

Six of the floors are dedicated to selling merchandise, and each floor features only a single room. There is also a beauty salon on the eighth floor.

The store, located in the city’s Ginza district, replaces a previous store that the company opened there in 1994 but had to be demolished because it wasn’t up to earthquake-proof codes. The company also operates another, larger flagship elsewhere in Ginza.