Mintdesigns finds a new, bigger home

Until the Parco building in Shibuya closed this month for its three-year renovation plan, Mintdesigns — a mainstay of the Tokyo Fashion Week — had made the mall its home for nine years. Now the brand has taken the closure as an opportunity to upgrade with its own freestanding flagship store in the swanky Omotesando shopping district.

At a whopping three times the size of its previous space, the flagship can now carry Mintdesigns' entire main collection, as well as an ample selection of kids clothes and a small but popular series of home goods, including towels, aprons and dishes. Mintdesigns is famous for quirky textiles and kitschy motifs, such as those seen in the newest fall-winter collection of colorful pixel patterns laid out on fur coats and clutches. The brand's new Aoyama boutique also carries a limited-edition run of denim, bleached with a pattern of their mascot of a paper doll holding sewing shears.