Leading directional retailers from across the world
From a magazine and a trade show to a series of multi brand stores. This is how the story of APLACE could maybe be summarised. Here are the facts. In 2005 a niche magazine, which is still published twice a year, was founded with the aim of showcasing the best of Scandinavian creativity to the world. Then in 2007, +46, an event for progressive Scandinavian fashion during Stockholm Fashion Week, was created. The very same year the first APLACE store also opened. The rest is history. Three fantastic stores in Stockholm and one in Malmö. A brilliant e-commerce website. A great selection of brands and of products for men, women and kids as well as an equally great selection of gadgets, homeware, books.
ADELAIDE & ADELAIDE ADDITION
Tokyo
Adelaide and Adelaide Addition are two exciting boutiques in Tokyo, the first opened in 1990 in Minato-Ku and extensively refurbished in 2007, the second situated since 2002 in Shibuya-Ku. Both stores offer the very best of international avant-garde directional contemporary high end fashion from the likes of Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci, Raf Simons, J.W.Anderson, Balmain Homme, Maison Margiela, Vetements, AMI Alexandre Mattiussi, Liam Hodges, Shaun Samson for the boys. And Saint Laurent Paris, Balenciaga, Adam Lippes, Jacquemus, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Denim x Alexander Wang, Eudon Choi, Proenza Schouler and many more for the girls. A visionary and fashion-forward buying philosophy that is not influenced by seasonal trends and fads but that is strongly based on a carefully engineered “fusion of fashion and art”.
BASKÈTS
Amsterdam & The Hague
“The best from many different contrasting worlds to build one united and unique character”. Here is, in a nutshell, the philosophy of Baskèts, the Dutch multi brand retailer that has been successfully selecting the best from street culture to ready-to-wear fashion. With one store in Amsterdam, which opened its doors in 2002, and another in The Hague, Baskèts stocks a range of apparel, footwear, accessories, beauty labels and brands ranging from Wood Wood, Our Legacy, Futur, CMMN SWDN, ETQ Amsterdam, Filling Pieces, and Daily Paper to Carven, Alexander Wang, Adidas Originals, Converse, The North Face, Champion, and Nike. BTW: the store name derives from a word meaning trainers and sneakers and by extension a person who wear sneakers.
24 KILATES
Barcelona & Bangkok
Launched in 2005 in the heart of El Born Barrio, one of the most interesting neighbourhoods in Barcelona, 24 Kilates is a veritable treasure trove. The store stocks a great selection of streetwear and sportswear brands, which include usual suspects like Nike, Puma, Adidas, Stüssy as well as the likes of Saucony, HUF, Karhu, XLARGE, Patta, Brook and Reigning Champ. There is a strong focus on footwear, perfectly epitomised by the many exclusive collaborations with Reebok, Lacoste L!ve, Diadora, Le Coq Sportif, Asics and Sperry Top-Sider. Recently 24 Kilates landed in Bangkok thanks to a brilliant joint venture with Jazzbah Records, the leading music, art, lifestyle hub in the Thai capital, which combines the best of streetwear with the best of creativity applied to the arts.
PAM PAM
London
Firstly, because of its purpose and aim and secondly because of its location. As a matter of fact, Pam Pam was founded with a very specific ‘raison ‘etre’, i.e. to sell only women’s sneakers to a discerning public. And it opened in Bethnal Green, an up and coming neighbourhood in East London, an unusual and unexpected location for what can be only defined as a perfect example of visionary ‘destination shopping’. On sale Converse, Adidas, Nike, Puma, Vans, New Balance, Reebok, Saucony, Le Coq Sportif, Spring Court but also emerging labels like Jason Markk, Garment Project, Novesta. The store offer comprises also apparel, accessories, beauty products as well as lifestyle items including homeware, design and artisan items, books and magazines.
BANTU WAX
Dakar & Cape Town
Because all is not bad in a world ruled by globalisation. Because Bantu Wax appropriated the exquisitely Western concept of the pop-up store and made it its own by opening inside a shipping container on the shoreline in Virage Beach Break, a surfers’ paradise for locals and tourists near Corniche in Dakar, Senegal. The store also has a café and regularly hosts exhibitions and events focused on international artists. Because since then, the African brand, whose “functional and authentic quality products” are Made in Africa by Africans “for surfers, urban nomads and afro-punks” has opened another store in Cape Town, South Africa. Because this is a wonderful example of how the future of fashion is not just in the hands of the usual suspects.
