Hotel & Tours Group

Giorgio Armani opened his own personal tower in Tokyo Tuesday evening, as Cate Blanchett flicked the switch to illuminate the 10-story building in Ginza, arguably the most expense retail real estate in the world.

"It's a lifestyle message from Giorgio Armani, a new image of myself and a symbol of our belief in Japan," Armani told FWD, as he took press on a tour of the brand new building that includes floors for his men’s and women’s signature line as well as Emporio Armani, huge quantities of accessories, the designer’s first spa, an Armani Casa floor and an Armani Ristorante.

Armani’s Ginza Tower also marks the latest competitive play among major global luxury brands to build the biggest footprint in Ginza. Armani’s own mini “department store” is located opposite a slightly smaller structure by Gucci and between two other vertically challenged retail destinations – Christian Dior’s circuit board style boutique and Hermes glass block emporium.

Yet even before the lights lit up the steel and glass structure embroidered with bamboo like strips of steel, Armani was honest enough to admit he’s downbeat about business in the near term in Japan.

“The growth prospects in Japan are not all that great. But the luxury market here is a huge piece of cake and we intend to cut ourselves a larger slice,” Armani insisted.

Armani already has a substantial retail presence in Tokyo, with a Collezioni store located 200 yards away, several Emporio boutiques and Armani Jeans shop in shops in department stores in Shinjuku, Tokyo’s most bustling shopping district.

Armani was mum about the cost of the whole project; two senior executives would only say that it cost in excess of 10 million Euros, or $14 million. However, experienced local architects told FWD that the 6,000 square-meter, or 66,000 square-foot building must have cost in excess of $25 million.

The famed Italian architectural duo, Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas, who worked with Armani on his mega Hong Kong shopping complex, used bamboo as a leitmotif throughout the Ginza Tower, adding a softer mood to the designer’s signature retail style. Walls are finished etched glass suggestive of a tropical forest, while Plexiglas display cases feature bamboo leaf designs.

Local retail estate is absurdly expensive. Tokyo land prices are calculated – we kid you not - according to the size of a pair of tatami mats, or a tsubo, measuring 3.3 meters square, which costs around 180,000 million Yen at current prices. On that basis the 476 square meter site cost Armani would typically cost around $2.3 million. However the designer has rented the site from a local owner, who as part of the deal insisted Giorgio build him a top-floor penthouse. The building is so central it even has direct access to the local subway line.

Armani also revealed that he developed a limited range of clothes and accessories that will retail solely in the Ginza Tower.

The Ginza Tower marks a new stage for the designer in that the space contains the first Armani Spa, whose look was personally overseen by the designer.

“Everyone is making spas these days. They sprout up like mushrooms. If a brand makes two cashmere sweaters they think they have the right to open a spa. This is meant to be something a little more substantial,” said Armani.

Inspired by the Mediterranean volcanic island Pantelleria off the coast of Sicily, where Armani and the Fuksases have summer homes, the spa’s three private treatment rooms are finished creamy and black marbles and Asia brass gongs.

Post opening, guest dined in the 10-th floor restaurant, whose chef Enrico Derflingher once worked as a personal chef to Princess Diana in Kensington Palace, before serving as executive chef to President Bush in the White House.

The 120-seat restaurant finished in golden bamboo leaf perforated partitions, offers distinctly Italian fare, such as octopus salad, veal carpaccio and risotto with funghi porcini.

Neither Armani nor Blanchett attended the dinner. The star headed straight back to Australia, where Giorgio will join her on Thursday to celebrate his sponsorship of her husband Andrew Upton’s Sydney Theatre Company, of which she is co-director.

Above the restaurant, guests can enjoy a 40-seat Armani Prive lounge bar with a terrace offering views over the hyper urban skyline that includes everything from high-tech skyscrapers to several elevated train lines.

Armani has long been a major player in Japan, a market that represents 10% of his annual global sales, which were just shy of $2 billion in 2006.

“I owe a lot of my success to Tokyo, where I first came and was very warmly received 20 years ago. It was one of the first occasions when I realized that I could become an important designer,” Armani noted.

“Japanese designers have long been major influences in the West, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake. They represent a great sense of innovation,” stressed Armani, whose commercial director John Hooks called the country “the biggest luxury market in the world.”

Hooks added that Armani is shooting to open one of his boutique hotels next year in Tokyo; Dubai will be the location of the debut hotel by the designer next year. On the retail front Armani is planning to open 35 new shops worldwide in 2007.

Armani significantly altered the retail mix in the store, presenting a more fashion forward edit of his collections to local consumers.

Asked if he had any advice for Japanese consumers, Armani responded: “Be more critical. Have a look at yourself before you walk out the door. Don’t trust a look because it comes from a major brand. And don’t pay too much attention to what fashion magazines say, they are more interested in what they think is new, than what is best for you!”