CULTURE Convention

Prada Mode's itinerant private club has landed in Tokyo and it is an exceptional visual treat by Kazuyo Sejima.

- AMELIA CHIA

There are few encounters in life more sensorial than our first day at Prada Mode in Tokyo. It is a cool, temperate day in May, when the sun dapples across the grassy lawns of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. A light breeze flits through, gently caressing the leaves on the trees above where we sit on clover-shaped wooden benches. Live music plays in the distance as guests chatter merrily all around. Small groups are starting to gather around the Prada bar—cutely adorned with the famed triangle—where bartenders are in charge of a selection of champagne, beer, sake and other nonalcoholic beverages. Hidden behind the bar is a food stand serving delicately packed bento boxes and fresh, piping-hot pizza by Pizza Tamaki Studio. Both bento and pizza boxes sport chic Prada Mode stickers, which the stylish crowd quickly becomes riveted by.