Hermes has opened its fully renovated location in Sapporo at the Daimaru department store in northern Japan. Amongst modern skyscrapers, this refurbished store reveals the ever-changing abundance of the house’s different métiers and foregrounds Hermès’ roots in Japan, a country in which it has 35 addresses.
Located on Hokkaido island, the store has a window overlooking an exterior pedestrian esplanade, and an interior façade connected to the main entrance on the ground floor. This façade is a nod to the rising sun and represents a circular pattern reminiscent of sunbeams. At the entrance, in the subdued lighting of the traditional Grecques, visitors are welcomed by women’s silk and perfume on the right, and fashion jewellery and men’s silk on the left.
In the centre of the main area, silk accessories draping on wooden frames lead towards the leather universe, sheltered by its private alcove, and equestrian accessories. The store is built along two axes parallel to the entrance whose sections connect with each other through wooden arches. The right side hosts the jewellery and watches, the women’s ready-to-wear area, as well as a confidential cove-lit salon.
As for the left side, it showcases the home universe and proceeds to the men’s ready-to-wear. Each space reveals its respective shoe collection. The floor is made of terrazzo studded with stone bits ranging from ochre to orange, with a few green and blue variations, while the welcoming Faubourg mosaic follows a concentric colour gradient.
Allowing different textures to let the light caress soft surfaces and shapes, the Parisian architecture agency RDAI brings the brightness of a pearlescent morning to the overall atmosphere. The rugs spread across the space, an arrangement inspired by the furrows of a Zen garden, echo the circular sunbeam patterns between deep blue and mellow orange warming up the glossy main wall.
