French jewellery brand Charlotte Chesnais expands globally with Tokyo store

French jewellery brand Charlotte Chesnais has announced the opening of its first international boutique, located in the Aoyama district of Tokyo. This space, which took three years to design, marks an important milestone in the company’s global development.

For this new retail space, the brand once again called on Dutch architect Anne Holtrop, with whom it had previously collaborated on the design of its two Parisian locations. Unlike the French boutiques, which featured recyclable acrylic, the Tokyo store favours different materials such as cast glass, made in an art foundry in Shanghai, and silver leaf. These silver leaves have been strategically placed near the windows to oxidise naturally over time.

Conceived as a place of contemplation, the space will function as both a boutique and a gallery, offering a platform to exhibit the work of artists close to the creative director. The creative director, who gained her experience in the 2000s at the Balenciaga studio, describes this retail project as a bridge between French sensibility and Japanese minimalism.

Beyond the geographical expansion of its distribution network, this Japanese opening accompanies an evolution in the commercial offering. The brand is introducing an extensive fine jewellery collection for the occasion. The designer, who had previously repositioned vermeil as a sustainable and luxurious material, sees this foray into fine jewellery as a natural extension of her sculptural approach. “It allows for precision, intimacy and another kind of permanence,” she explained in a statement.

This article was partly written with the support of an artificial intelligence tool before being supplemented and edited by a FashionUnited journalist.