As shop manager Keisuke Imaizumi says, 'This is where Monocle becomes 3D.' It's the perfect way to describe the store, as it's here that lifestyle products and fashion featured in the magazine spill from the page into reality, but it's also an apt description for the overall evolution of the Monocle brand. Since launching in 2007, it has grown into a brand that now encompasses a 24-hour radio station, cafés around the world, and retail stores in London, New York, Toronto, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
This store (there was previously an outlet in Aoyama's Francfranc Village building) opened in Shibuya's Tomigaya neighbourhood in October 2014 and also serves as the new base for the magazine's Tokyo bureau (if you peek through the wooden slats lining the back wall of the store, you'll see the editorial team as well as staff from Monocle's sister design agency, Winkreative, tapping away on laptops).
Fans of the magazine will already know all about Monocle's collaborations with brands such as Comme des Garçons, Porter, Barena and Mackintosh. If you've been itching to get your hands on one of the fragrances – our favourite is the Hinoki scent by Comme des Garçons x Monocle, which will make you feel like you're soaking in a Japanese wooden hot spring bath in the middle of a Scandinavian forest – or one of those understated and versatile Monocle x Mackintosh coats, you'll find them here.
You'll also find the brand's own menswear capsule collection, Monocle Voyage, which brings together the best of Italian and Japanese materials in a range that's aimed at jetsetters in need of a wardrobe that can cross both countries and climates. Of course, there's always the latest issue of the mag to tide you over till pay day.