Japanese chain RINKAN specialises in the purchase and sale of high-end vintage men’s apparel, bags, small leather goods, jewellery pieces. and watches, although the latter segment is taken care of by the affiliated ASKWATCH boutique chain. Only recently, the company inaugurated a second retail space in Nagoya, and this time at the multi-storey HAERA department store downtown. Situated on the third floor, the shop-in-shop features an interior design by Tokyo-based architecture practice and longtime collaborator negu inc. which fully aligns with the understated aesthetic of all other RINKAN retail spaces nationwide. The company has elevated the handling and trading of vintage luxury goods by offering its clients a sleek design-led retail spaces that emphasise transactions a veritable cultural act—preserving the object and passing it on to the next generation. As such, the design intentionally steers clear from conventional store configurations and furnishings, and the store setting of the RINKAN Nagoya HAERA store is concepted as a single work of art within the department store’s highly commercial domain. By reinterpreting resale, a transaction that often carries a negative connotations, as something positive, the sleek store design aims to convey RINKAN‘s brand philosophy and resonates with the rising value and standing of vintage merchandise. © superfuture