BACKLASH

Physically speaking, when a substance A disappears from a space, a new substance B will be in the space instead. For example, if you bring your bed out of your room when moving out, the fresh air having the same mass as the bed will come into the room.

This is the renovation project of the shop of the brand “BACKLASH”, which the leather product fans over the world aspire for. The shop is on the 1st and 2nd floor of the three stories building located at the corner of a street and an alley in Daikanyama, near Shibuya. The sharp exterior of the building is made with the gray mortar and finished with metal trowel. The same antique sashes are installed on each 1st and 2nd floor window. The ivy on the intentionally moderately aged-looking wall creates the atmosphere as if the shop had been there and aged for a few decades.

If you open the military-like antique door with the small plate stamped “BACKLASH”, you will find the aged and mature space like the well-processed leather products which ISAMU KATAYAMA, the founder of the brand, produces with his spirit. The floor and walls are finished by plastering. The floor is made with mortar mixed with charcoal to produce an unequal tone, and the walls are processed with aging effect. The space like a barn used well for decades expresses the layers of time. The black oxide steels are used as the frame of the building. Those frames, processed with aging effect to create the rusty points, express the brand’s persistence and sensitivity like the floor and walls do.

The store fixtures are made with the parts such as the workbench with the thick wood board with special touch which was used well in a factory for a long time, the rusty expanded metal locker which used to be exposed to the weather, the aged customer counter with a vise, and the plain and tough hanger rail. Each of them was extremely carefully selected and set in the space in a special manner, like Mr. KATAYAMA selects and sets leathers, buttons, and zippers when making clothes. The heavy-toned spiral staircase at the end of the 1st floor will take you to the totally different space on the 2nd floor with the light rhythm. The staircase stays there as the symbol of the pursuit of further improvement from the perfectly complete regular brand “BACKLASH” to the custom-made brand “LINE”.

Ito Masaru Design Project / SEI