boutique W

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.  The glow of 300 year-old chandeliers softens the hard blacks, browns and whites of the precisely constructed clothes, but not so much that the designs lose their super-sharp edge.  This boutique doesn’t cater to trendy young girls who flow through Tokyo’s streets like bright fluttering butterflies; it’s for those who step from their chauffeured Benzes into gleaming office towers, anonymous but powerful.