A sneak peak inside the new JUICE!

Friday night I stopped by the reopening of the newly renovated Juice store in Causeway Bay. Juice is the retail arm of Hong Kong‘s CLOT crew and the older brother to the ACU shop in Shanghai. Open for several years already, I always recommend Juice to visitors interested in fashion. Though many small shops parallel import Japanese street wear to Hong Kong, Juice was the first to develop a direct connection to some of the most exclusive brands and provide a large selection of unique, limited edition merchandise under one roof.

Part of the charm of the original store was the warm interior made of wood. It was a real stand out from the cold, stark style of other retailers in Hong Kong and matched the under-stated feel of the high-end street wear perfectly.

So just how extensive was the renovation?

Major!

The renovated space includes an increased area for displaying stock and a much brighter interior. Lighting seems to play a big part of the design which includes two bottom-lit tables, several neon logos and sets of dangling light bulbs. An ‘L’ shaped bank of in-laid racks along the wall is a major component of the shop. Above it is a ticker-tape LED display with scrolling text. On opening night the text read: WELCOME TO JUICE – BUSINESS AS USUAL.

Business as usual seems to be the theme. There’s a special t-shirt for sale in the store bearing those words on the front, along with “Can’t stop, won’t stop” on the back. The design is rendered in neon-sign like lettering, which plays well with the interior of the shop and the trend towards more colorful graphics.

The new Juice doesn’t look like any other shop in the city. There’s also attention to detail within the new space. For example, even the air conditioning vents looked cool!

Hanging out on the ground was the new Rolling Stones Be@rbrick.

Just a few feet away was a nearly man-sized Original Fake figure by KAWS.

Pavlos from CLOT pointed out something interesting. The thing weighs around a hundred pounds! It’s solid plastic… it won’t be easy to twist the arm off of this action figure!

In addition to the range of Japanese brands and in-house CLOT pieces on display, Juice also had accessories in cases from Hiroshi Fujiwara’s Head Porter label. CLOT recently collaborated with the brand to create several limited pieces.

Over the last year the CLOT clothing line has continued to grow. Not only have they had success with their signature items, they have collaborated with many of the top brands that they carry in Juice.

I especially like how CLOT pushes the envelope with their packaging. A case in point is their recent collaboration with Perks and Mini. The P.A.M. / CLOT reversible sweatshirt comes packaged inside of a pizza box!

Guests to the reopening party on Friday night were treated to a slice of this ingenuity. Upon exiting, attendees to the invitation-only event received a goodie bag containing what looked like an over-sized hockey puck. The item was actually a compressed CLOT t-shirt! (Also in the bag was a special Diplo “Fuzzy Peach” mix CD.)

JUICE store address:
Flat A, 2/F, 53 Paterson Street
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

ACU shop address:
Shop#15, 139 Changle Road
Shanghai, China