Limi Yamamoto’s ‘LIMI feu’ opens its first pop-up in London

Words Leelou Reboh

Last month, LIMI feu by Limi Yamamo­to opened the doors to its first-ever Lon­don pop-up, nes­tled on 54 Con­duit Street, in the heart of the glam­orous dis­trict of May­fair. The bou­tique has been evolv­ing over two pro­mo­tion phas­es and will remain open until 9th Jan­u­ary 2025. 

In its ini­tial open­ing phase, the space was com­plete­ly trans­formed into an exten­sion of Limi Yamamoto’s cre­ative vision. Span­ning over a cou­ple of days, the pop-up became the home of a vast array of DJs, cre­atives, and A‑list fash­ion per­son­al­i­ties to ful­ly immerse them into the LIMI feu sto­ry. Not only were guests able to browse through all the LIMI feu col­lec­tions, but the pop-up also show­cased the designer’s archive, offer­ing atten­dees the chance to dis­cov­er her ear­li­er works. Music res­onat­ed through­out the launch of the bou­tique, reflect­ing Yamamoto’s admi­ra­tion for British musi­cians and respect for the country’s cul­ture. “I was con­scious of cre­at­ing a space where the world of my clothes and the world that emerges through music blend togeth­er,” explains Yamamo­to. “I hoped that peo­ple would be able to feel my clothes through the sounds they heard and the sounds through my clothes.”

Limi Yamamoto’s aes­thet­ic refine­ment stems from her exten­sive expe­ri­ence as a pat­tern mak­er for Y’s, which allowed her to devel­op a deep under­stand­ing of tex­tiles and the impor­tance of sil­hou­ettes. When she launched her own label in 1999, her key looks stood out for their sophis­ti­cat­ed min­i­mal­ism, dis­tinc­tive for their mas­ter­ful fusion of com­fort and sig­na­ture volu­mi­nous lines. Yamamoto’s designs are for the mod­ern woman, who is unafraid of evolv­ing with the times. “I can hon­est­ly say that none of the clothes in the store rep­re­sent who I am today,” the design­er says, reflect­ing on the exten­sive archive of her work show­cased in the pop-up. “I con­tin­ue to make clothes day after day toward the com­ple­tion of the project, but it is a strange feel­ing that I myself am mov­ing lit­tle by lit­tle into the past, as if I am mov­ing against the progress of the work. I guess that is why I can con­tin­ue to make clothes every season.”

Direct­ly reflect­ing Yamamoto’s design phi­los­o­phy of intro­spec­tive progress, the boutique—currently in its sec­ond phase of activation—has now wel­comed Yohji Yamamo­to Inc.’s Ground Y with­in its space. This marks the first time the label, pre­vi­ous­ly exclu­sive­ly avail­able in the store of the Parisian Lou­vre, has become acces­si­ble in Lon­don. Togeth­er, LIMI feu and Ground Y bring a revi­tal­is­ing blend of youth­ful defi­ance and fash­ion-for­ward aspi­ra­tion, offer­ing the per­fect touch of edge to Mayfair. 

Though both brands have gained sig­nif­i­cant inter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion over the past few years, this is the first time that such a broad selec­tion from their col­lec­tions has been made avail­able for cus­tomers to pur­chase in Europe, fur­ther assert­ing the grow­ing influ­ence of Japan­ese design­ers on West­ern fashion.

Shop LIMI feu and Ground Y at the pop-up now: 54 Con­duit Street, W1S 2YY, Lon­don. Open until 9th Jan­u­ary 2025.