photography KUNAL LODHIA
By early evening, Broadwick Street was already in full performance mode. It was the first day of London Fashion Week, and Soho was doing what Soho does best: Absorbing energy and amplifying it. Editors cut through traffic. Stylists moved in packs. Show invites flashed like currency. The city felt accelerated. And then, in the middle of it all, something shifted the rhythm.
Behind a glass facade at 35 Broadwick Street, a circular cedar structure glowed softly against the dusk. Goldwin had officially arrived in London, opening its first-ever UK store and launching its Spring 2026 collection in a space that felt less like a shop and more like an architectural statement. Designed by Hiroshi Sugimoto and Tomoyuki Sakakida’s New Material Research Laboratory, the 170-square-meter flagship is built around the Yashiro, a ring-shaped sanctuary positioned to face the street. It operates as both focal point and frame, broadcasting the brand’s philosophy outward while drawing passersby inward.
Around its perimeter, core pieces are arranged with restraint. The effect is confident without being loud. There’s no need for spectacle when the structure itself does the talking. Encircling the Yashiro’s outer edge, twelve LED pillars form a digital canvas visible through the glass facade. At times, moving images of nature ripple across the surface. At others, artist films take over.
Step inside and the atmosphere pivots again. Rows of Akita cedar pillars stand within the ring like a carefully cultivated grove, their warmth and texture grounding the space. The contrast with the outside world is deliberate. Even the fitting rooms reflect that philosophy. Panels made from specially developed fabric dyed using traditional kakishibu techniques line the walls, silk threads slowly treated with persimmon tannin until they take on a subtle sakura glow. The detail feels intimate, almost meditative. Then, just as the calm settled, the tempo shifted.
Nia Archives stepped up to the decks inside the cedar ring, her jungle-infused set sending basslines ricocheting through the timber columns. The collision was electric. Rapid breakbeats inside a space defined by precision and patience. London sound system culture threading through Japanese material intelligence. The Yashiro became a stage in the truest sense, holding both stillness and movement at once.
Guests moved between the digital facade and the cedar interior, drinks in hand, conversations weaving between performance fabrics and runway gossip. The duality felt intentional. Goldwin has long balanced technical performance with lifestyle, mountain heritage with urban relevance.
On the first night of LFW, that balance wasn’t just conceptual. It was experiential. The opening marks a significant step in Goldwin’s global expansion, with London becoming its second directly managed European store and part of a broader push spanning mainland China, Seoul, and New York.
