C-STYLE
Saitama, Japan / 2009

“The world inside the mirror”

C-Style is a hair salon, and a sister corporation of “A-Style”.
The salon concepts are “Clean, Care and Colour” and its hair colouring membership system is one of the unique business point. The salon is located at station high street in Saitama. The main target audience is the local commuter and thus the salon is designed and concentrated on integrating into the local environment.

People recognise their physical existence by seeing themselves in the mirror. However, this figure is different from the real one perceived by others. Mirrors, unlike videos and pictures, show a “reflection” of the world.
From there, the separation of the two worlds, reflected and real, can be interpreted.
Mirrors are needed at all hair salons, and the hair stylist is the only career that holds the skills of freely traveling back and forth between real and reflected world.

I started to think about utilising the characteristics of mirrors to create a space where customers can recognise their transformation towards a more beautiful self in the mirror. Im the actual design, by setting all furniture away from the mirror, angled at 45 degrees, any position can be seen in at least 2 different mirrors. Therefore, I designed the objects using two different materials for the surfaces: the side that can be directly seen, and the side that is reflected. This separates the real and reflected world, as the same object has different tones, colours and atmosphere inside and outside the mirror. 

In addition, characters on the ceiling are recognised as numbers, which turns into English words in the mirror, while the gradationally coloured floor and ceiling can connects the real and reflected world. These blur the line between reality and the illusion in the mirror, which brings the beauty inside the mirror back to the real life.

In our ordinal life, the mirror exists naturally, and we never pay attention to them.
However, there are two worlds in front of us.

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto

< PRESS >
Shoten Kenchiku Aug. 2013 Special Issue Hair Salon Design
Salons (China) Jan. 2011 Issue
Tenpo Design Handbook 2011
MARU (South Korea) Oct. 2010 Issue
Shoten Kenchiku Oct. 2010 Issue
Shoten Kenchiku Aug. 2010 Issue

< AWARDS >
2010 – JCD Design Award 2010 – NEW FACE PRIZE