Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Pop-up store: Laforet HARAJUKU in Paris


Last Saturday was the opening of the Laforet HARAJUKU pop-up shop in Paris! From September 23rd to October 3rd, several brands are featured at L'Exception, a French select shop: Angelic Pretty, Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Jane Marple, E Hypen, Nile Perch, Ciara and more. A large selection of brands that would please any Harajuku and Japanese fashion lover~

Many girls, including myself, have been waiting for this day with excitement. Early birds gathered around 9AM, one hour before the official opening time of the store in order to be the first ones in line and make sure to grab the best items! By 10AM, around thirty girls were queuing and before anyone else I was lucky enough to take some pictures of the store to share with you. 






The selection of items was quite recent and large : there was a total of four racks, four mannequins and some shelves holding the accessories that were all from 2017 autumn-winter collection! Since the staff of L'Exception knew about the Harajuku fashion fans coming on the very first day, they did put the most iconic brands on display for the occasion: Angelic Pretty, Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Jane Marple, ... And this was definitely a good move! First half of the pop-up store was popular brands among Harajuku lovers and the other half was more designer/higher end brands such as FURFUR or Honey Salon. 

L'Exception is quite big and Laforet HARAJUKU pop-up store took about one quarter of the room. Which was already amazing: I think the pop-up store itself had a nice size, one of the only things I would regret is that not all of the featured brands were displayed at the opening: some brands as E Hypen weren't for seen until the beginning of the afternoon, which mean several girls, myself included, left before being able to see all of the stock. I could easily go back to L'Exception since I'm living in Paris but some other girls can't or won't and therefore maybe missed one or several amazing items they would have wished for. But at least, the Harajuku fashion fans that couldn't be there on the very first day will also be able to find some really great items!





The second thing I would find regrettable is selection of items itself: I'm not exactly sure what were the conditions under each brands were presented. Was it a matter of number of items? Total worth of the stock? I really don't know, but the thing I do know is that the pop-up store was definitely lacking of accessories. Not counting the brands that only do accessories or smaller items such as Ciara (phone cases and covers) or feast (underwears), only Baby, the Stars Shine Bright and Alice and the Pirates brought accessories to match their stock : few legwears and headwears as long as an endless count of Usakumya and Kumakumya bags. 

This lead to many girls leaving the store empty handed: since the brands featured in the pop-up are on the more expensive side, it was incredibly hard to find something under 50€ or even 100€. However, regarding the prices, on a happier note, all the items are priced quite closed to current the euro-yen exchange. There was no taxes or hidden fees which means it was basically like shopping directly in Japan! What a great surprise! 


In my opinion, the overall experience was really nice: Laforet and L'Exception staff were lovely and professional, many amazing brands were featured, the prices were really nice compared to the original ones in yen. Apart from the lack of accessories and the fact that not all brands were presented at the same time, I would say this definitely was a really good first time pop-up store for Laforet! I hope it will encounters the success it deserves and that they will soon come back with even more brands (and more accessories) ♡ 

Thank you for reading! See you soon for more endless writings about Japanese fashion

I'll leave you here with some street snaps (I wish I could have taken more!!)
and pictures of my own purchase ♡









Pop-up store Laforet HARAJUKU
Forum des Halles,
24 rue Berger, 75001, Paris
Du 23 septembre au 3 octobre 2017
Ouvert du lundi au  samedi de 10h à 20h
et le dimanche de 11h à 19h

Friday, September 1, 2017

LAFORET HARAJUKU WORLD TOUR / PARIS 2017


«【Laforet HARAJUKU】a ouvert ses portes en 1978. Leader de la mode à Tokyo, Laforet HARAJUKU propose plus de 140 marques de mode femme, mode homme, accessoires, chaussures, sacs, CDs et même cafés. Vous pouvez y profiter de toutes les nouveautés en matière de mode, de culture et de gastronomie. Laforet fait ainsi le pont entre la mode et la culture et n'a cesse d'attirer tous ceux qui sont sensibles aux dernières tendances. Le centre commercial est à présent un point de repère dans le paysage de Harajuku, ville de la mode. Laforet HARAJUKU fêtera en octobre 2017 ses 39 ans d'ouverture et, à cette occasion, débute le Laforet HARAJUKU World Tour afin de présenter la culture et la mode de Harajuku au monde entier. Deux événements seront tenus à cette occasion : un stand au salon Who's Next/Premiere Class et un pop-up store au magasin L'EXCEPTION. »

«【Laforet HARAJUKU】Opened in 1978. Tokyo's leading dedicated fashion building, with 140 tenants dealing in ladies' and men's wear, accessories, shoes, bags, CDs and cafés. Here you can enjoy the latest fashion, culture and food. It exists as a base communicating information about fashion and culture and consistently attracts those who are sensitive to prevailing trends. It plays a role as a landmark for Harajuku, the fashion city. Laforet HARAJUKU, which will mark the 39th anniversary of its opening in October 2017, has launched the Laforet HARAJUKU World Tour to strengthen its ability to bring Harajuku fashion culture to the world. It is scheduled to run a booth at Who's Next/Premiere Classe, an international fashion trade fair and to open a pop-up shop at a select shop called L'EXCEPTION. »


La rumeur court depuis quelques semaines déjà, mais l'événement a été confirmé ! Laforet HARAJUKU, le célèbre centre commercial, sera présent à Paris pour deux événements uniques : une présentation en salon professionnel et un pop-up store. 

Le select shop L'EXCEPTION proposera du samedi 23 septembre au mardi 3 octobre 2017 une sélection d'articles venant tout droit de Laforet HARAJUKU! Vous pourrez y retrouver de nombreuses marques telles que : Angelic Pretty, Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Alice and the Pirates, Jane Marple, Nile Perch, E Hyphen world gallery bonbon, Ciara et d'autres...

Rumor has it... Laforet HARAJUKU is coming to Paris for two special events! The first one, Who's next/Premier Classe, is a professional only event where Laforet will display several of its brands, and the second one is a pop-up store for the general public.

L'EXCEPTION select shop will hold from Saturday, September 23rd to Tuesday, October 3rd 2017 a pop-up store with popular Laforet HARAJUKU brands : Angelic Pretty Paris, Baby the Star Shine Bright, Alice and the Pirates, Jane Marple, Nile Perch, E Hyphen world gallery bonbon, Ciara and many others...



Cette nouvelle est plus qu'excitante pour tous les fans de la mode lolita et japonaise en Europe - moi y compris - non seulement pour le court mais également sur le long terme. L'arrivée de Laforet HARAJUKU au salon Who's Next/Premiere Classe pourrait permettre à nombreuses des marques représentées par Laforet de trouver de nouveaux acheteurs et revendeur sur le sol européen. Peut-être bientôt du Nile Perch ou du Jane Marple pas loin de chez nous ? Je serai en tout cas à la première heure devant le pop-up shop en espérant trouver quelques merveilles ! En espérant vous y voir également ♡

What an amazing announcement for every lolita and harajuku fashion lover in Europe for both short and long term! Laforet HARAJUKU coming to Who's Next/Premier Classe could help many Japanese brand to find some reseller or stockist all around Europe. Maybe we could soon find some Nile Perch or Jane Marple near to us? But whatever comes out of Who's Next/Premiere Classe, I'll be patiently waiting for the pop-up store to open! I definitely hope to find some good deal! I hope we will meet there ♡

Pop-up store Laforet HARAJUKU
L'EXCEPTION
Forum des Halles,
24 rue Berger, 75001, Paris.
Ouvert du lundi au  samedi de 10h à 20h
et le dimanche de 11h à 19h

Images et source © Laforet HARAJUKU