As a highly developed consumer market, Taiwan has its fair share of high-end boutiques where style-savvy dwellers can splurge, even far outside the sprawling capital city Taipei. The ISSEY MIYAKE brand is well-represented in the country, operating a large number of standalone stores for many of its coveted lines. In Kaohsiung, one of the biggest cities on the island nation, the Tokyo-based brand has just unveiled a new outpost. The BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE store, dedicated to the brand’s bag line, joins three existing retail spaces in the port city, and occupies a ground floor unit at E SKY MALL. The interior design is created by MOMENT, an acclaimed architecture practice and longtime collaborator based in Tokyo.

The store layout is organised around a striking monolithic display and shelving unit protruding from the ceiling, creating a highly fluid circulation. Clad in hammered, 3 mm-thick aluminium panels, the volume’s base is embedded in a luminous ceiling plane, making it seem to magically defy gravity. The aluminium is crafted by hand, featuring a delicate, finely textured surface that gives it a distinctive depth and richness. The material can also be found on the wall-mounted tiered shelving surrounding the object, on the sales counter in the corner, and last but not least, on the store’s façade. Large stone tile flooring ties in of the store’s nooks. The new BAO BAO ISSEY MIYAKE store carries all of the line’s bag collections. © superfuture