MoMA Design Store's Kyoto shop moves inside Takashimaya, with a craft collaboration to match

Loft will reopen MoMA Design Store Kyoto on September 4 inside Kyoto Takashimaya S.C., moving the shop from a standalone lease that expired at the end of February into the second floor of the department-store complex, directly connected to Takashimaya Kyoto and close to Hankyu Kawaramachi Station, the company said.

The roughly 112-square-metre store is Loft's fourth MoMA Design Store in Japan, after Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka, and carries more than 600 design products. Design studio MOMENT built the interior around wood framework referencing traditional Japanese carpentry and moss-and-bamboo greens, aiming, Loft said, for the sensation of walking through a Kyoto backstreet.

The opening carries a local collaboration: a two-notebook set with Mount Fuji and crane motifs, made with Kyoto paper brand Karasuma-Rokushichido and its handmade washi covers, priced at ¥2,640 and carrying the MoMA logo. Exclusive Champion hoodies (¥14,300) run from the September 4 opening through October 3.

The move says as much about the department store as the retailer. Takashimaya has room in the T8 building to backfill with a design-forward tenant able to draw Kyoto's heavy tourist foot traffic, rather than committing the space to another fashion concession — a trade department stores across Japan have been leaning into as inbound spending in gift-able, design-led goods holds up better than apparel. For MoMA Design Store, trading a street-level lease for a mall anchor swaps rent risk for Takashimaya's built-in footfall, at the cost of the ground-floor visibility a standalone shop had.