Berluti rebuilds its Nagoya boutique into a 94-square-metre concession, patina bar and all

Berluti, the LVMH-owned leather goods and menswear house, has rebuilt and relocated its boutique at Nagoya's Sakae Mitsukoshi department store into a 94-square-metre space built to a bespoke design concept, according to Berluti Japan, which operates the maison in the country.

The facade uses custom ceramic tiles referencing the silhouette of the house's shoes, each finished by hand with patina, the technique Berluti built its name on. Inside, the store carries a "Focus Wall" displaying signature pieces, a Patina Bar finished in emerald onyx, and a central leather-wrapped fitting station the company calls the "Ring" for its footwear, alongside custom club chairs also finished with hand-applied patina and materials including warm wood, emerald onyx and mother-of-pearl. Leather goods and small leather accessories sit to the right of the entrance, footwear — the category the house was founded on — to the left, and ready-to-wear toward the rear, Berluti said.

Berluti was founded in Paris in 1895 as a bespoke bootmaker passed down through four generations of the same family, later adding leather goods in 2005 and a full ready-to-wear collection in 2011; the house says it now runs more than 60 stores worldwide and still offers made-to-order services from its Paris ateliers. Its Japan operations are headquartered in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.

The rebuild is a Presentation bet more than a location one: Berluti is not opening a new address in Nagoya, it is upgrading an existing concession shell into something closer to a free-standing flagship, complete with a dedicated fitting ritual for its signature shoes. That is an unusually heavy commitment to permanent fixtures for a department-store floor, and it signals that Sakae Mitsukoshi's luxury business remains worth building for at LVMH-maison scale even outside Tokyo.