TOKYO — After nearly two years of planning and preparations, Dior has opened its latest concept store — dubbed the Dior Bamboo Pavilion — in the Japanese capital, incorporating the work of around 20 local artists, designers and artisans.
The store follows similar concepts launched previously in Seoul and Bangkok, but with a localized feel that draws on the house’s long history in Japan and its support of Japanese creatives.
“Dior Bamboo Pavilion is much more than just a boutique; it is a place for unique experiences that pays tribute to the unbreakable ties we have forged with Japan since the historic beginnings of our house,” Delphine Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of Christian Dior Couture, said via email.
“Monsieur Dior was, in fact, quick to forge a special bond with Japan, a country with which he shared a sense of excellence and a passion for creativity. In 1953, he became the first Western couturier to offer his collections in the archipelago. From then on, Dior enjoyed the unwavering support of major Japanese clients, loyal friends of the house, who became its fervent ambassadors. So the House of Dior and Japan share many aesthetic and philosophical affinities when it comes to traditional crafts,” she added.
“Dior Bamboo Pavilion highlights this shared creative vision more than ever through inventive collaborations and dialogues with talented, captivating Japanese artists such as Seijun Nishihata, Makoto Azuma, We+, Ayumi Shibata, Takt Project and Hana Mitsui to name a few.”
Some of the artists that Dior collaborated with for the store have ongoing relationships with the brand, having also worked on the exhibition “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams,” which showed in Tokyo for six months in 2022 to 2023. Paper artist Shibata had created a garden-inspired room at the museum, with botanical cutouts of washi paper hanging from the ceiling like thick vines. For the new store, a portion of this work has been repurposed as a chandelier in the café.
Other elements that have been incorporated into the store include curved walls covered in washi paper from Fukui prefecture, which give the illusion that shoppers have stepped inside a massive Japanese lantern; tatami mats placed on the ceiling instead of the floor, and clothing racks crafted from natural bamboo. The space is anchored by a large central foyer that will host displays that change with the house’s collections. Currently it houses giant paper lanterns by the Kyoto-based atelier Kojima Shoten, hand-painted with flowers from the brand’s latest textiles. Off of the central space are four product rooms and a Dior Café.
In the room that houses the men’s items, the contemporary design studio We+, led by the duo of Toshiya Hayashi and Hokuto Ando, has created tables and stools made of recycled styrofoam crates used to keep seafood on ice at Tokyo’s iconic fish market. In the dressing room of the same section, textile artist Hana Mitsui has unpicked tatami mats, dyed them blue and rewoven them into a pixellated version of one of Dior’s iconic patterns.
Creating Experiences
“We want to create experiential concepts around the world in singular, remarkable urban districts where art and design are expressed everywhere and where rare places that exist nowhere else can be found,” Arnault said. “Dior Bamboo Pavilion is, like our exceptional concept stores, devised to offer our customers unique experiences, where they can shop, enjoy French gastronomy and pastries created by the multistarred chef Anne-Sophie Pic, stroll and revitalize themselves in poetic gardens, admire works of art and design alongside ready-to-wear creations from the Dior collections. It is an invitation to marvel at a dreamlike realm where the art of detail, the art of living and the art of entertaining all come together.”
The store, located in Tokyo’s Daikanyama district, marks the second time that the house has collaborated with Pic on a café in Japan. The chef said she has long been fascinated and inspired by Japanese ingredients such as matcha, hojicha and aonori seaweed, and she has incorporated some of these into her recipes for the Dior cafés. However, she said she hasn’t necessarily approached her menus for Japan differently than she would for one of her other restaurants around the world.
“There are some peculiarities of course, according to Japanese culture, but I really believe that universal taste does exist, and that what is good is good for every human being on earth,” Pic said.
Unlike the location at the Dior store in Ginza, the new Dior Café outpost in Daikanyama features a spacious terrace facing an impressive Japanese garden, offering diners a place of respite from the urban jungle.
“Daikanyama is considered by the Japanese to be the ‘Brooklyn of Tokyo,’ a neighborhood known for its relaxed atmosphere, particularly peaceful with gardens, cutting-edge fashion boutiques, elegant cafés and understated luxury — an oasis of urban tranquility away from the hustle and bustle. It is appreciated for strolling, for its creativity, its architecture and design, its iconic T-Site bookshop and its contemporary, out-of-the-box lifestyle,” Arnault said. “It attracts both Tokyo residents and visitors seeking sophistication, with its tree-lined terraces cultivating art de vivre and its cosmopolitan atmosphere. It is a living hub where urban fashion is constantly being reinvented amid independent designer boutiques, making it an ideal place to spot new trends.”
A First Opening
Dior is the first major international luxury brand to open in Daikanyama, which is known more for smaller boutiques and local designers. The store and its garden occupy a 19,375-square-foot site that previously sat vacant for years. When the store opened its doors to the public on Feb. 12, there were people lined up on the quiet residential street to get a first peek inside. The café’s reservation slots filled up almost immediately after bookings opened.
In addition to the store building itself — with its gold-covered aluminum facade that mimics bamboo — a major element of the development is the extensive Japanese garden designed by Seijun Nishihata.
“Seijun Nishihata is Japan’s most celebrated ‘plant hunter’ and landscape designer. He has incredible respect and love for plants. In his workshop located in the mountains of Osaka he has a sort of infirmary that nurtures ancient, rare plants, not only Japanese but from all over the world. His approach to the project is very special, based on research, storytelling and recalling traditions, reinterpreting the concept of Japanese gardens in a very contemporary, very modern way,” Arnault said.
“He is a passionate adventurer who delights in discovering plants from all over the globe. This echoes our own story, as Christian Dior was a great lover of nature, gardens and flowers, which he cultivated himself from childhood in his various homes, from Normandy to Provence,” she continued. “Celebrating these shared affinities, our teams adopted an approach linked to Japanese tradition, reinterpreted with a modern twist. The union of these two worlds has created a unique garden that revisits this culture and these ancestral Japanese customs with the flowers so dear to Monsieur Dior. The resulting effect is magical.”
Nishihata brought plants from all over Japan to the Dior garden, with some trees estimated to be 200 years old or more. One particularly striking pine tree that stands proudly at the start of the path that leads to the store was sourced from the site of a former castle on Awaji Island. Nishihata and his team were working round the clock to complete the garden in time for the opening, only slightly hindered by an unexpected snowfall just days before the deadline.
Nishihata’s modern take on the austere Japanese garden is complimented by colorful florals by another local plant genius, Makoto Azuma.
“Makoto Azuma is a creative, experimental floral artist who collaborates with our house on various projects and whose works are exhibited in Dior’s most emblematic locations, such as 30 Montaigne [the flagship in Paris]. His aim is to enhance and prolong the existential beauty of flowers by transforming them into artistic expressions and unique works of art. With Azuma, we worked on the world of each of the flowers dear to Monsieur Dior: rare, colorful and unique flowers. The idea was to offer our clients a wonderful immersion into the heart of an exceptional herbarium where they could relax and enjoy a truly unparalleled experience,” Arnualt said.
“He has thus dreamed up, especially for Dior Bamboo Pavilion, a work entitled ‘Paludarium,’ based on a structure designed to protect plants from the elements and promote their growth, with tremendous contemporary ingenuity. While traditional paludariums were popular in the 19th century for ornamental and recreational purposes, Azuma’s version transcends these historical origins, blending modern culture and technology with a subtle touch of subversion,” the executive continued. Azuma’s paludarium for Dior marks the entrance to the café, with dedicated buttons to control humidity, knobs to play music for the plants, and magnifying glasses to watch in real time as blooms open.
With the year 2026 marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the house of Dior, Japan remains an important market for the brand, and the Bamboo Pavilion reads like a love letter from the house to the Asian country. Every detail of the store, café and garden is thoughtfully considered, incorporating Japanese aesthetics while remaining true to Dior’s heritage and iconography.
“The house has forged essential cultural and creative ties with Japan and our Japanese customers ever since the house was founded in 1946; these exciting dialogues are constantly being reinvented through our défilés (the most recent taking place in Kyoto in 2025), exhibitions — “Designer of Dreams” in Tokyo and our participation in last year’s World Expo as well as other collaborations and large-scale events,” Arnault said. “We are also very happy to return to Japan this summer with the upcoming opening of a new House of Dior in Osaka: House of Dior Shinsaibashi.”
