kapital is known for their indigo dye, which they use for their denim as well as for making bandanas every season. so i thought it was pretty clever of them to make bandana packing tape.
i was so excited too when we bought a few pairs of jeans, because i thought they would use it to tape up our bag. but they didn't. so i wonder what they actually use the tape for?
so here's a quick look at their cluster of three shops just south of ebisu station in tokyo. fun "shop cards" and bikes and merchandising. since we ended up at kapital past sundown, our pictures didn't come out all that great. so i've supplemented with daytime pictures from their site.
first off, each location has a different shop card, printed on thick chipboard, about the size of a poker chip. on the back of each is a little map showing the location of the shop, printed on the raw chipboard. shown here, we visited the legs, ebisu and duffle shops.
ok, so let's go in order of the shop cards. first up, legs. this location focuses on carrying a ton of the styles of denim kapital makes. there are stacks and stacks of jeans all over the store. and every single stack is not just a stack of one style in different sizes, but rather a stack of all different styles. on top of that, there are shirts and jackets and socks and hats and scarves and bandanas hanging all over the place.
next is the ebisu store, with a whitewashed wood exterior studded with horseshoes and a plastic curtain as the front door. there's also a little teddy bear to great you at the door. and again, you'll see a bike outside. this one has two floors, more or less the same feel in terms of merchandising. but then again, there's no way to tell what's what since there doesn't seem to be any order in how stuff is stocked. but i guess they're trying to recreate the feeling of rummaging for vintage goods at a flea market. it's definitely not for everyone.
the third of the kapital trifecta: duffle. this one is set up like a house, in that all customers have to take off their shoes before entering the tiny door. and most of the floors are covered in tatami mats. the entrance is a converted garage made to look like, well i'm not sure what it's supposed to look like, but it kind of reminds me of the prop room i had back in high school. except this one had a cluster of birdcages as lighting fixtures. and the merchandising in this store was a little more organized that the other two shops, with goodies spread out among three floors.
and then i changed my mind and figured i could get the fabrics first and then choose the projects. unfortunately, i never got a chance to go back. ugh, my only major non-buyer's remorse for the whole trip.
nomura tailor has tons of fabrics, from japanese denim to french lace. ugh, i'm still kicking myself for not going back. anyway, here's a quick look at what the ground floor looks like. the 2nd and 3rd floors held the notions and ribbons.
and here are a bunch of additional pictures snagged from their site, a quick virtual shopping list, if you will.
faded political ad?
toei bus stop sign in tokyo
the first time i actually took notice of them was back in 2004. my friends and i were walking back to our hotel after a few drinks, and i let out a loud, long gasp. they jumped and grabbed each other because they thought i'd seen a cockroach or something. but nope. it was just a painted manhole cover. one very much like the one at the bottom right of this little set.
the first one is at a fire engine zone at narita airport. the two cherry blossom ones are just from walking around tokyo. the wavy castle one is of osaka castle, as is the painted one below it. the bottom left is also of osaka found along dotonbori-dori. for a closeup, just click on the picture.
each store welcomed us with rustic little wooden tent signs.
and area 2 even had a coordinating van sitting out in front.
there were at least a few signs around the store asking for no photos, which we heeded. so instead, here are a few fun items from their site. i figure they don't want photos taken since they sell their catalog/book which includes mostly pictures taken inside the store.
you'll notice that they have a rustic and 70s american rec room kind of feel. it doesn't show in the photos, but the store (especially area 2) was very cozy. they decorate seasonally, so they had prickly chestnuts sitting in bowls and framed leaves all over their walls. all the furniture, they make in-house. all the other stuff is just retail for them.
a ... or ... b?
a ... or ... b?
i'm not saying there's a right answer here, but you can probably guess which i'd pick. the b options are from the child box line of iremonya design labo based in kyoto, designed by masaki tokuda who started at iremonya in 2000. in addition to storage, they also design less cutesy furniture, rugs, lighting and tableware. and they also design interiors. my favorite being this one.
definitely check out the iremonya site. there's enough english there to easily navigate it.
since all the packaging was in japanese, we didn't know which flavor packets to choose initially. but fortunately, the newer shinjuku location had vials of each so we could smell them. we went with the curry flavor and citron pepper flavor. both were yummy, but i preferred the curry.
we still have some seasoning left over since we had only one bag of chips to flavor. so we'll use those on popcorn, maybe.
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