Boutiques

most of my more obvious interests include photography, drums, music, art, and even reading and writing. yes, it's true - i actually read a lot! another interest of mine that isn't so evident is - architecture. even though i haven't formally studied it - it has been something i can honestly say i appreciate. i believe that if one is interested in art - they can appreciate architecture and design. there is art in everything from music, writing, architecture, acting, and a lot more. i can definitely see the correlation between everything and it is all so awe inspiring. architecture has much to do with this post - so if you are bored and find this uninteresting - bare with me...








the first store i decided to post about is most likely the one that more people are familiar with - the BAPE store in Harajuku, Japan. the multi-level store is huge - especially compared to Japan's standards of size of buildings. the store features wide-open spaces with camo ceilings and floors and conveyor belts with BAPE shoes circulating on them. neon lights display the BAPE logo and registered trademark logos are embossed on top of some rooms ceilings. most of the stores walls are glass letting natural lighting in and tons of florescent lights throughout the store. it will be interesting to see what the LA store is going to look like but will most definitely be a lot smaller.




another cool boutique is the multi-level Ice Cream store in Hong Kong. Ice Cream is very much associated with BAPE so it is only natural that the stores look-alike. the Ice Cream store features more colors than the BAPE store and also has a set of glass-housings made to look like ice cream and pastry display cases in which products are merchandised.





Boston, Massachusetts is home to an ultra-innovative/expensive street-wear store called 'Bodega' which means 'store' in some language. what is so cool about this store is that the front of the store is a functioning liquor store. there is a hidden/sliding door towards the back of the store that you must enter to get to the back where all of the street-wear products are held. i don't believe that the street-wear side of the store is even advertised from the outside of the building. such a cool idea. inside the store features beautiful wood display cases and cabinets.






another store i admire the layout and architecture of is Dave's Quality Meat in New York. the store is meant to look and feel like a deli or meat market. from the outside - you wouldn't think that inside was full of sneakers and tees. i even would bet that people come into the store everyday with the intention of buying steak and filet mignon. again, the use of the glass display cases is such an innovative and clever idea. this time - the cases are used to display tees and DQM even goes through the trouble to shrink wrap the tees onto a styrofoam plate as if the product were meat.