Chanel opens Ginza boutique, 200 line up

Asian Economic News, Dec 13, 2004

TOKYO, Dec. 4 Kyodo

Chanel launched its boutique on Chuo Avenue in Tokyo's Ginza, Japan's ritziest shopping street, on Saturday with 200 fans of Chanel products lining up before the doors opened at 11 a.m.

They were apparently intent on snapping up designer items sold nowhere else and called ''Ephemere de Ginza,'' connoting transitoriness, to commemorate the opening.

The morning surge in the number of customers prompted Chanel Ginza to open the entrance of the 10-story building earlier than scheduled. It has one of the global boutique chain's largest shopping areas, consisting of three floors of designer goods.

Chanel is internationally acclaimed for its fashion and fragrance items such as Chanel suits featuring boxy lines and Chanel No. 5 perfume.

Chanel fans are known as ''Chanelers'' in Japan, where the creations of the fashion empire's founder and designer Gabrielle ''Coco'' Chanel are famous.

The Ginza building features a gigantic front wall covered by hundreds of thousands of light-emitting diodes, which depict such images as the patterns of Chanel's famous tweeds.

Chanel Ginza provides a full lineup of the latest clothing products designed by its chief designer Karl Lagerfeld, who took over the Chanel design house in the early 1980s.

The 10th floor of the building has a restaurant co-planned by Chanel and celebrated French chef Alain Ducasse.

The opening of Chanel Ginza followed that of the Christian Dior boutique earlier this year.

Last year, globally acclaimed brand shops such as Cartier and Salvatore Ferragamo stormed into the posh Ginza shopping district following the launches of the Hermes and Prada boutiques in Ginza.