New kit on the block

Backed by street-wise fashion chain store Beams, these seven new stores are upping the style quotient in Daikanyama. Martin Webb sizes up this brand new shopping experience.

addictive baggage at B Jirushi Yoshida

The Beams team has a swagger in its step these days as shoppers hungry for streetwise clobber and funky home fittings flock to its smart stores from here to Hokkaido. Not content with hogging a huge portion of the new Marunouchi Building, Beams is now behind a neat little cluster of seven stores in well-heeled style-freak hangout Daikanyama.

P.O.V. Beams

Tropical shopping in P.O.V. Beams

This two-story store’s modern pine and aluminum interior is clearly a winner: P.O.V. Beams is the busiest of any of the newly opened outlets here. On the first floor, design-led womenswear in a sedate pastel palette and an affordable selection of jewelry are pulling in crowds of hip young things. Up on the second floor, Beams’ very own casual menswear project, DIS, makes its debut, and is mixed in with the kind of wallets, chains and gadgets 20-something guys go gaga for. Easily offended shoppers should beware the pornographic poster behind the counter.

Beams BOY HOME

Photo credits: Nathan Shanahan/Modern Life Is,.

Final Home, Paul Frank and Diesel’s 55DSL are just some of the names behind the colorful goodies available here. The store is dominated by two enormous palm trees, and a 20-foot glass wall lets in light all day, adding to the breezy, tropical atmosphere. Beams Boy’s first ever clothing line for men was launched here last month, and a collaboration with sports brand Champion has produced some great-looking training tops and sweatpants that are sure to be big hits this summer.

B JIRUSHI YOSHIDA
Japan’s answer to Louis Vuitton, Yoshida Kaban equips everyone from office workers to schoolgirls with their simple and practical nylon bags. The result of a brand new collaborative outing with street trend leaders Beams, this store carries a broad selection of exclusive “double name” items along with Yoshida’s staple: lightweight bags with their signature orange lining. The phenomenal power of this unimposing label is not easy to grasp until you’ve experienced owning one of its indestructible creations.

Beams T DAIKANYAMA

High-tech T-shirts at Beam T

Nobody beats Beams when it comes to T-shirts, and after the runaway success of the Harajuku branch, the second Beams T joins the family of stores here. A mechanical rotating rack conveys a selection of funky designs along two sides of this second-floor hotbed of graphic design talent. From witty visual gags to wacky cartoon characters, bold slogans to intricate graphics that will make you squint, the world’s favorite garment is on sale here in a gamut of guises.

BOXFRESH
This British streetwear brand has finally opened a store in Japan after four very successful years in the US. The walls of the store are covered in graffiti and some of the highlights here include murals, customized skateboards and T-shirts featuring the work of top London-based street artists, including down-from-day-one legend Solo One. The clothing comes in classic navy, khaki and white, and many items have detachable branding in the form of enamel pins and Velcro tabs. This is also one of the only places in Japan to get your hands on the cult graffiti art magazine Graphotism as Boxfresh make street art the focus of their worldwide expansion.

FRAPBOIS

Frapbois's serene store

Somber and loose-fitting is the signature look of Frapbois designer Eri Utsugi, leading light of Tokyo’s new wave of fashion talent. Her immense popularity among Japan’s more thoughtful fashion consumers has given this understated fashion project the impetus to open a string of new stores nationwide, the latest and most attractive of which is right here. The walls, shelves and floors of the two-story store are made from wood that looks as though it’s been salvaged from an ancient pirate ship, and treasure chest-like display units also add to the maritime ambience. The eerie music and weird yet wearable clothing make this a singular shopping experience.

HEAVEN 27
Daughter of Francis Ford Coppola of Godfather fame, Sophia Coppola has had Tokyo’s girliest followers of fashion in the palm of her hand since the 1994 launch of her Milk Fed label. Cute and casual, the look is dubbed “California Cool” but is nowhere more at home than in the cafes and malls of Daikanyama. The pink-and-cream color scheme screams Tokyo teen style, and the clientele are appropriately young and sprightly. The store displays apparel on the first floor, while the second acts as a gallery and outlet for art books, CDs and trinkets branded with the pink Milk Fed logo.

All stores open 11am-8pm every day except the third Wednesday of the month.

Get the goods

BEAMS BOY HOME
19-7 Sarugaku-cho. Tel: 03-5428-5955.

B Jirushi YOSHIDA
19-6 Sarugaku-cho. Tel: 03-5428-5951.

BEAMS T Daikanyama.
19-6 Sarugaku-cho. Tel: 03-5428-5952.

Boxfresh
Shibuya-ku, Sarugaku-cho. 19-4. Tel: 03-5728-3302. www.boxfresh.jp

FRAPBOIS 19-5 Sarugaku-cho. Tel: 03-5459-2625.

Heaven 27
19-5 Sarugaku-cho. Tel: 03-3780-6627. www.milkfed.jp

P.O.V. BEAMS
19-7 Sarugaku-cho. Tel: 1F 03-5428-5953, 2F 03-5428-5954.

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