Aoyama/Omotesando Shopping Guide

While teens love Harajuku and fashionistas love Daikanyama, urban professionals looking to fill their wardrobes with precisely cut black suits, money no object, beeline to Aoyama and Omotesando. Here, the immaculate streets look like they’re steam-cleaned nightly and every shopper looks American Express Black-card wealthy. Lithe men and women with razor cut, highlighted hair stride confidently past the security guard at the doors of the Prada store, a polygram sheathed with puffy, quilted glass. Next they hit Jil Sander, Gucci, Michael Kors and Costume National. For those with bolder tastes, Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo’s flagships stand across the street from each other in Aoyama. Each offer their version of modern couture, from Miyake’s sculptural crinkle-pleated separates to Kawakubo’s architecturally constructed suits with jagged cutouts and extra-long sleeves. Neither designer’s clothes conform to traditional ideas of human form. Close by, Hanae Mori, the grande dame of Japanese design, offers slightly easier to wear clothes, traditional, elegant and patrician—so much so that Mori is a favorite of the Japanese royal family. For jet-setters in society’s upper strata, Aoyama and Omotesando beckon.

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...Aoyama/Omotesando
...Daikanyama
...Harajuku
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Addition Adelaide
1F Arrow Plaza 4-19-8 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
In the 80s and 90s, the trendiest dressers garbed themselves in head to toe Armani, Versace or Prada. These days, the single-designer matchy-matchy look is about as popular in Tokyo as Betamax. Tokyoites now mix (and match) high and low with individualistic flair.
>Go to Store

boutique W
5-39-3 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Headless mannequins float above the floor, suspended from the double-height ceiling in this industrial loft-like space. Like a posse of architects, the mannequins wear severe Japanese and European designs from the likes of Ann Demeulemeester and Collection Privee.
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Dress Camp
5-5-1 Minamiaoyama,
Minato-ku
Diamond-paned mirrored walls and delicate Swarovski chandeliers with translucent tendrils speak of elegance and restraint. Dress Camp clothes are anything but. Riotous colors and blazing swirls splash across jackets, dresses, pants and bikini tops.
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dual
Omotesando Planet 1F, 5-12-14 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Tucked into the maze of streets behind Harajuku’s main boulevards, Dual’s porthole windows and psychedelic mural signal a funky retail presence. Bear and moose-shaped cutouts cavort under racks of sheer drapey blouses with winged sleeves. .
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Flair Aoyama
Omotesando Planet 1F, 5-12-14 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
If purple is the new black, trust Flair Aoyama to stock green. Like its sophisticated namesake neighborhood, Flair Aoyama has the confident style that creates rather than follows trends. Tweens desperate for the current of-the-moment fad need not enter Flair.
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Loveless
3-17-11 Minamiaoyama,
Minato-ku
A three-story shopping emporium, Loveless carries over 100 different brands and designers varying from the under-the-radar Hermes competitor Goyard to young progressive labels like Mastermind Japan and Libertine.
>Go to Store