The New House of Dior Flagship in Osaka is Filled With Art, Flowers

For the new House of Dior in Osaka, architect Peter Marino commissioned American sculptor Alice Aycock to create a 9-foot-tall twister at the foot of his grand staircase, and then he grooved the walls around it in an upward spiral.

“It sort of sucks you right up,” he said during an interview, describing the challenge of getting visitors to ascend and discover the four-story emporium, which culminates with a Monsieur Dior restaurant by Anne-Sophie Pic. “We’re getting more than 75 percent of the people off the ground floor, which is a very, very, very high statistic.

“So I guess my vortex is working,” he added with a chuckle.

Referencing the Founder

An impressive number of artworks and floral motifs pervade the vast store, winks to founder Christian Dior’s early days as a gallery owner and his lifelong love of plants.

“Dior had three houses with gardens, and so we picked up on this garden theme, which I think is legitimate — more than for any other fashion house,” Marino mused.

Four years in development, the new flagship opened quietly on May 21 but its scale, and a dynamic exterior by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, are hard to miss in Osaka’s bustling Shinsaibashi district.

“We really want to give our customers an experience,” Delphine Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of Christian Dior Couture, told WWD in an exclusive interview. “It’s really a mix: a shopping experience, an architectural experience and an artistic experience.

“Today, more than ever, you need to have feelings when you enter a shop, and discover new things,” she said. “It could be the new collection, a new handbag, small leather goods, a shoe, but you can also have emotions and discover artists in an environment that’s very inspiring.

“There’s a lot of surprises, also in the fitting rooms,” she teased. “It’s always great to discover new artists through Peter because he has such an amazing eye.”

Starting From Outside

The experience starts from the street, where pedestrians can gaze up at a facade meant to evoke the fluidity of drapery and the layering of fabrics in dresses created by the founding French couturier. The building is crowned with a star, one of the lucky symbols for the superstitious founder.

“The undulating geometry creates changing reflections and shadows throughout the day. This gives the facade a sense of constant transformation,” Fujimoto said in an emailed interview, describing the building as “monumental yet delicate.”

“Our intention was to create a facade [that] feels soft, fluid and alive — like a fabric moving in the wind,” he said. “We avoided a flat surface and opted for a layered construction. The aluminum fins stack and angle with gentle curved flowing edges to create depth and rhythm. The perforations give it a light feeling and allow it to interact with the light dappling between the layers and forming overlapping shadows. It feels like a gentle fabric wrapping the building with delicate atmosphere in continuous motion.”

The facade “fits into the Shinsaibashi streetscape and character by expressing a sense of dynamism and perpetual movement while staying elegant and welcoming,” he added.

Inside, Marino reprised signature elements from other Dior flagships, including a circular gingko bench by Claude Lalanne that’s accentuated by big bunches of pink flowers; paintings by Christian Bérard, a friend of the founder, and the soaring vegetal walls that make such an impression at other recent Dior flagships. “All live, green, growing plants,” Marino clarified.

But in Osaka, he really went to town commissioning scores of artworks, the majority of them with flower or garden mofits, from a color-saturated mural by Karine Laval and a digital animation by Jennifer Steinkamp to photo-based floral walls by Tim Hailand.

There are also works by Vik Muniz, Wolfgang Tillmans, Nancy Lorenz, Jennifer Steinkamp, Miriam Ellner and Nir Hod.

“In today’s world, you can shop online and get a lot of things,” Marino said. “But I want people to say, ‘I can just go to Dior and see artists represented by at least 20 different galleries.’”

Marino also leaned heavily into floral colors, giving the store a bright, joyous spirit — a shift from the 50 shades of gray he might have employed 20 years ago. White stucco walls and limed oak act as neutral foils, while silvery elements remain, in a painting of flowers by Martin Klein and in furniture by Mattia Benetti and Roland Mellan.

“Essential Frenchness”

The American architect said Dior’s “essential Frenchness” ranks as the third most important theme in the interior, telegraphed with a lot of Louis XVI paneling; oval-back, Louis XVI-style chairs; haute couture toiles, and reinterpretations of toile de Jouy. 

Arnault marveled at Marino’s gift for creating pleasing, invigorating room volumes; devising logical customer journeys, and paying close attention to small details, like matching up marbles in the powder room or making sure doors open in the most unintrusive ways.

“He’s been working on the Dior codes for so many years. It’s always a source of inspiration to see how he evolves the concept further, and in an even more modern way,” she said.

The Osaka House of Dior is the brand’s latest big statement in Japan’s third-largest city. It was among four LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-controlled houses showcased in the French pavilion at the Expo 2025 Osaka, which welcomed some 2 million visitors.

“Japan is a a very important market for us, and one where Dior still can grow a lot of market share,” Arnault said.

Dior operates 29 boutiques and shops-in-shop in the island nation, including two other locations in Osaka — at Takashimaya and at Umeda Hankyu.

Arnault trumpeted that Jonathan Anderson, who came on board as Dior’s creative director of women’s, men’s and haute couture collections in mid-2025, is “very popular in Japan and they really like his creations.”

According to Dior, Anderson’s Bar jackets for men sold out quickly in Japan, and his Saltwind sneakers are proving popular, along with many new handbag styles, including Lady Dior models paved in clover or daisy motifs, new versions of the Book Tote, the Bow clutch and Cigale bag.

Christian Dior’s affiliation with Japan dates back to the early ’50s when the house staged its first fashion show in Tokyo in 1953, and in 1959 Empress Michiko chose a Dior dress for her wedding. Last year, Dior unveiled its pre-fall 2025 collection by then-creative director of women’s collections Maria Grazia Chiuri with a runway show in Kyoto.

Many of Dior’s design successors shared his love of Japan’s creative richness — as does Pic.

“She’s one of the most talented French chefs,” Arnault said, noting she holds more Michelin stars than any other female chef. (Restaurant Pic in Valence, France, boasts three.)

The executive flipped through a document showing how Pic took inspiration from Dior embroideries, draping techniques, prints and even jewelry and beauty packaging to create dishes that beg to be photographed before being devoured.

These include her signature dish, a filled pasta she calls Les Berlingots, here filled with Comte cheese and drizzled with a pea sauce, fresh wasabi and mint. The dish is arranged to suggest the leopard prints favored by the founder’s muse Mitzah Bricard.

Dessert options include Le Millefeuille Blanc, a cube perfumed with vanilla and jasmine, then dressed in a houndstooth pattern, echoing the original packaging of Miss Dior perfume.

A profusion of cakes — these ones made of glass and ceramics by other artisans — can also be found in the window displays alongside Anderson’s fall 2026 collection.

Products exclusive to House of Dior Shinsaibashi include a Lady Dior bag in sky blue; a jacket and trouser ensemble in the house’s Oblique patterned denim; Saltwind men’s sneakers embroidered with bees, and a Dior Normandie bag in which navy blue leather and suede textures are harmoniously married.

Dior has been hosting a series of cocktail events and dinner to introduce its new Osaka flagship to local customers.

Next up for the French brand is a new House of Dior on Milan’s Via Napoleone, slated to open in September during Milan Fashion Week.

The French brand opened two Houses of Dior in the U.S. last year in New York City and Beverly Hills. It also opened to eateries by Pic over the past year: a Monsieur Dior restaurant at the House of Beijing and a Café Dior at the Bamboo Pavilion, a concept store in Tokyo.