With its never-ending embrace of innovation, Louis Vuitton has opened its first café and first restaurant on the top floor of the new store in Japan. The Café V spans a vast terrace, a bar and the exclusive Cocoon Room.
Louis Vuitton celebrates unique ties with Japan with opening of new flagship in Osaka.
Louis Vuitton inaugurated its new Louis Vuitton Maison Osaka Midosuji flagship store on February 1st. Rola, Suzu Hirose, Takanori Iwata, Ebizo Ichikawa and Dan Carter were among the guests who attended the flagship’s opening, which featured a special live performance by the J-Pop group JO1 and DJ Sarasa. Designed in close collaboration with architects Jun Aoki and Peter Marino, the store welcomes Café V, the first-ever Louis Vuitton café, as well as its first restaurant, Sugalabo V, offering cuisine with Franco-Japanese influences.
Louis Vuitton has been present in Japan since the opening of its first store in Tokyo in 1918 and has always shared a close affinity with the Land of the Rising Sun. The new Louis Vuitton Maison Osaka Midosuji is emblematic of this special relationship.
Designed by Japanese architect Jun Aoiki, who has worked with Louis Vuitton on many projects over the years, the store is an invitation to embark on a sea-faring journey. The building evokes the billowing sails of traditional Higaki-Kaisen cargo ships, a tribute to Osaka’s nautical spirit.
Architect Jun Aoki is known for his work on a number of landmark Louis Vuitton stores in Japan and around the world, including New York’s Fifth Avenue Maison.
Vast spaces are worked in subtle contrasts to elegantly marry spectacular halls with intimate spaces.
Over four levels, the style that has made the trunkmaker renowned around the world blends with Japanese materials such as woodwork and origami washi paper.
Twenty contemporary artworks curated by Peter Marino are featured alongside vintage Louis Vuitton trunks. Bursts of color in works by Vik Muniz, Polly Apfelbaum, Kimiko Fujimara and other artists offer a counterpoint to the building’s sleek lines.
There is also a discreetly concealed door to the Sugalabo V restaurant, proposing a unique dining experience. Both the café and restaurant are overseen by Japanese chef Yasuke Suga, a protégé of Joël Robuchon whose Tokyo restaurant Sugalabo topped 2019 world’s best restaurants ranking by “La Liste”. At
the Louis Vuitton Maison Osaka Midosuji, Yasuke Suga proposes a cuisine that melds both French and Japanese inspirations, featuring the vast diversity of Japanese products.
