Check Out Tadashi Shoji’s Cool New Conceptual Boutique

Tadashi Shoji is bringing something special to your retail experience: his focus, in opening his new Glendale boutique, is to offer luxury shoppers an elevated experience through branded, experimental installations.

You’ll find the Japanese fashion designer’s eclectic evening wear dotted throughout the new 2200 square foot space at this new conceptual store, which was created, in part, by March Studio—the architecture firm is also responsible for Shoji’s first design house, located in Pasadena, as well as his flagship boutiques at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA; Lagoona Mall in Doha, Qatar; and most recently, the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas.

To help evolve the design process of the store, Shoji and March Studio invited students from Woodbury University School of Architecture to study the brand, explore the boundaries between branding and retail identity, and to ideate on installation concepts for the new Galleria boutique. The students’ involvement came about through Woodbury University School of Architecture’s adjunct faculty Lara Hoad, AIA LEED AP, Design Director at March Studio, and Todd A, Erlandson, AIA LEED AP, principal architect at March Studio.

The student concepts will focus on installations using repurposed and off-the-shelf materials juxtaposed with the fine detail and craftsmanship of Tadashi Shoji’s collections. The Galleria boutique will serve as a concept retail laboratory that can be replicated to other existing and upcoming locations focused at offering a full branded shopping experience.

With more than 700 global points of sale currently, the brand is in expansion mode with additional retail rollouts planned for San Jose, CA and the Middle East in the second half of 2016 and several more in 2017; fragrance and shapewear launches are planned for 2017.

Currently, Shoji’s designs can be seen by his faithful celebrity clientele, of whom include Michelle Obama, Octavia Spencer, Ciara, Mindy Kaling, Britney Spears and Nina Dobrev, to name a few.