Bensimon Japan opens its first concept store

Bensimon Japan has opened a concept store in Tokyo, the fourth international outlet for the French label.

Launched with its two local partners, Itochu and Look, the unconventional store in the Daikanyama district covers about 100sqm on several floors and conceived as a little house dedicated to the French art of living and to the label’s love of colour.

Bensimon says the same concept may be replicated in other prime Japanese shopping locations, with a second opening already being planned, reports Fashion Network.

In the longer term, the label is also thinking about China.

Meanwhile, Bensimon has taken on a new designer, Geraldine Dufour, who debut with the label’s latest autumn/winter collection.

“I’ve worked with the same designer for 15 years so we didn’t want a comprehensive overhaul,” says co-founder/creative director Serge Bensimon. “However, we needed a fresh take on our ready-to-wear and accessories collections, to try to appeal to a younger clientele.”

“Currently, our customers are mature, modern women,” says Dufour. “We want to broaden our target market, first with women in their early 40s, then with the next generations. We want to be able to appeal to mothers and their daughters.”

By recalibrating the womenswear range, Bensimon is seeking to bolster its expansion, notably driven by Rudy Achache, the first GM appointed by the two founder brothers, Serge and Yves Bensimon, nearly two years ago.

Bensimon has about 50 stores, most of them in France.