The LVMH-owned French beauty brand Officine Universelle Buly added a new retail concept to its free-standing and department store shop-in-shops fleet, selecting Kobe, Japan, to unveil the store and café concept. The brand opened its first Japanese outpost in the chic Daikanyama neighborhood of central Tokyo in 2018, but always had an affinity for the quality of life and culture of Kobe. The brand selected the popular Kobe BAL Annex shopping complex in the bustling Motomachi neighborhood. 

Ramdane Touhami and his art direction agency, Art Recherche Industrie transformed the inconspicuous green building, inspired by chocolate and Kobe beef. The execution of his eclectic vision seamlessly blends heritage, modernity, tradition, and innovation in a site-specific concept that differentiates the brand in today's beauty landscape.

"Another stupid idea that goes through my head," Touhami said of the design concept. "Imagine half a store in lacquered wood that would have melted like chocolate overnight (and even the lamps are melting). Another oddity, as the store is in Kobe, I had to find a marble that looks like Kobe beef!"

This new store and café retail concept occupies adjacent ground-floor units in the Annex. A modern shimmering imperial green patina unified the facade of the two units with a contrasting marbled frieze.

The space is relatively small, with 330 square feet dedicated to the beauty concept and 344 square feet to the café. The boutique is an architectural folly, combining antique marbles, precious woods, period lighting, and two disconcertingly unique spaces that echo the Rue de Saintonge Officine in Paris.

The concept of “aesthetic deglobalization” is the grounding force of design breaking away from the trend toward standardizing international aesthetics. Touhami draws on imagination and local architecture to root the Officine there while maintaining the heritage of its birthplace.

Behind the misleadingly strict and rigorous lines, the imagination of Touhami is at play with the aid of a few architectural curiosities scattered to distend and break the lines, giving shelves a sagging look worthy of Dali’s surrealist melting clocks, with speckled marble chips giving the nod to a patiently cut slice of Kobe beef. The meticulously merchandised curiosities provide a visual escape for the eye and trigger the suspension of time the moment you step inside.

The shelves are dotted with burl walnut, oak, and elm wood, while richly crafted lacquered wooden cabinets were built by Officine's master cabinetmaker in Burgundy. The brand sent its ornamental painter to Japan to execute all the paintings, shellac, and rechampis in the space. All these disparate elements combine to create a cheerful and mischievous atmosphere reflecting the dynamic, confidential, and effervescent atmosphere of the Officine.

Every element was carefully considered and exquisitely executed, from floor to ceiling down to the coffee machine. Coffee is known to reset olfactory perception, so the brand incorporated Italian machines that mask the smell of freshly roasted coffee.The eyes and the senses are left to wander the ointments and beauty protocols to the joys of sweet delights whose signature is quintessentially French.

The Officine is fond of the cult of paradoxes and their improbable mechanisms mixing the incongruous, sprinkling the absurd, and adding it to the serious, daring to be bold and preserve the traditions of beauty. A universal concept.

The brand was originally founded by Jean-Vincent Bully in 1803 on Rue Saint-Honore in Paris and later resurrected in 2014 by Ramdane Touhami and his wife, Victoire de Taillac. In October 2021, LVMH acquired the iconic French brand after investing in 2017 through LVMH Luxury Ventures.

Currently, the business has a footprint of 18 stand-alone shops, and will continue considering new locations and shop-in-shop opportunities with commercial partners. The retail concepts are not only places that sell carefully selected beauty items from all over the world, but also a medium that invites customers to explore the heritage of beauty and intelligence of the brand's predecessors guided by the sales staff, products, catalog, website, and social channels.

"We believe the time-consuming communication between the customer and our sales staff in front of the products on such a stage is what helps the customer to take care of themselves and become increasingly confident and beautiful," Touhami shared regarding the role of retail. "We believe that this is the most important aspect of our business strategy, as it creates an unforgettable experience for each and every customer, making them a fan of the brand and building a community of trust around the shop."