MEND: A Comme des Garçons Experiential Activation
MEND is a space where the art of repair becomes a language of healing, inviting people to stitch, mend, and piece together both objects and themselves.
This activation transforms Comme des Garçons’ artistic platform into an intimate, multi-sensory journey that celebrates the beauty of restoration. Hidden behind the façade of PLAY Records, a speakeasy-style entrance leads guests into a series of immersive rooms where Japanese repair traditions meet modern street culture. From kintsugi ceramic mending to sashiko denim stitching, from writing rooms to burning bowls for symbolic release, every touchpoint invites attendees to explore healing through creation.
The activation unfolds in two phases:
Exclusive Influencer Opening: A curated guest list of tastemakers, artists, and cultural storytellers experience the full journey first, with complimentary access to in-depth kintsugi and sashiko workshops.
Public Access: The experience then opens to the community with timed-entry speakeasy slots, shorter workshop formats available for a fee, and access to event-only merchandise including sashiko-mended denim jackets, kintsugi ceramics, limited-run t-shirts, and custom vinyl records.
Revenue streams are driven by merchandise sales, pre-orders for bespoke pieces, and public workshop bookings, while the brand’s deeper “why” is woven into every artifact, press release, and social post.
Pre-event Touchpoint
Each influencer receives a handcrafted kintsugi trinket tray along with their invitation, serving both as a symbolic introduction to the MEND philosophy and as a shareable artifact that previews the aesthetic and emotional tone of the experience.
Influencer Strategy
The influencer phase is designed to seed the MEND narrative before the public launch, ensuring the experience enters the cultural conversation with credibility and emotional resonance.
Curation Over Volume: Hand-select 25–40 influencers whose audiences value craftsmanship, healing narratives, and experimental fashion. This mix should include creators across streetwear, art, music, and wellness spaces to extend the concept beyond traditional fashion circles.
Narrative Briefing: Provide attendees with a pre-visit story kit including the MEND mission, workshop origins, and key visual motifs, ensuring their content communicates both the “what” and the “why.”
Exclusive Content Access: Influencers receive first pick of merch pre-orders, private filming slots within the workshops, and one-on-one time with artisans leading the sessions.
Content Triggers: Encourage documentation of hands-on mending moments, symbolic acts like placing letters on the wall or using the burn bowl, and personal reflections on the emotional impact of the experience.
Drip Campaign: Stagger influencer visits over several days to keep the hashtag and visual content fresh in feeds leading up to the public launch.
A Minimal, Mysterious Invitation to the MEND Experience
A simple invitation, designed with quiet minimalism to create mystery. Each invitation is presented alongside the branded kintsugi trinket tray as a symbolic gift for selected guests. A discreet QR code leads to the MEND website, where guests can register for their workshop and begin the journey.
Select Your Workshop
A minimal, invitation-only microsite designed in the visual language of existing Comme des Garçons websites. Guests access the site via the QR code on their printed invitation to register for kintsugi, sashiko, or both workshops. The clean, stripped-back design preserves the brand’s iconic minimalism while guiding guests quietly into the MEND experience.
Email Confirmation with Workshop Details and Passcode
An email confirmation sent to guests after registration. The message provides workshop details, date and time, guest status, the entry passcode, and location. The design reflects the clean, understated style of Comme des Garçons.
Experience Design
The experience is designed as a journey of discovery:
Hidden Entrance – Guests enter through PLAY Records, a fully functional, minimally branded record shop with subtle hints to those “in the know.”
Kintsugi & Sashiko Workshops – Interactive repair stations where visitors can restore ceramics or textiles, learning the cultural significance of each method.
Letter Writing Room – A quiet, analog sanctuary where guests pause to put pen to paper, crafting a personal note that can be mailed anywhere in the world or placed on the communal Letter Wall. Every message becomes a tangible reminder of human connection, bridging distances and preserving sentiment in a digital age.
Exclusive CDG Merchandise – Items incorporating kintsugi and sashiko motifs, available only in-store during the activation.
The Discreet Front to the MEND Experience
The outside of PLAY Records appears to be an ordinary vinyl record store. This unassuming storefront serves as the discreet entry point to the MEND experience, designed in the spirit of a modern speakeasy. Guests enter through this space before discovering what lies beyond the green door.
The name PLAY Records is an intentional nod to the Comme des Garçons PLAY brand, a subtle, fitting play on words. Beyond the name, I chose a record store as the front for this experience because music and grief are deeply intertwined. Music has a visceral way of drawing out emotion, of unlocking memories both joyful and painful. It moves us, heals us, transforms us. A record store, with its connection to a simpler, analog era, felt like the perfect entry point. It offers a quiet nod to our other senses: hearing, absorbing, feeling. What better threshold to a space of reflection and repair than one grounded in the universal language of sound?
The Unassuming Front for MEND
The interior of PLAY Records looks like an ordinary vinyl shop, designed to feel familiar and approachable. Discreet Comme des Garçons branded posters are placed throughout the space, offering subtle hints at the MEND experience concealed beyond the green door.
The Green Door. Concealing What Comes Next
A simple green door marked “STORAGE,” equipped with a keypad lock. This unassuming entrance conceals the invitation-only experience. Guests enter the passcode received in their confirmation email to unlock what lies beyond.
The green door was inspired by the idea of a modern speakeasy. I was drawn to the sense of mystery and exclusivity it creates for guests. It invites a feeling of wonder and surprise, transforming a simple, hidden entrance into a threshold for something meaningful. This subtle layer of secrecy heightens anticipation, making the experience feel personal, intimate, and rare.
Workshop Space: A Sacred Setting for Kintsugi and Sashiko
A large, open white room designed to feel calm, focused, and intentional. The space hosts both the kintsugi and sashiko workshops, with vibrant red cube seating creating a subtle contrast and energy within the minimalist environment. The design aligns with the aesthetic of the Comme des Garçons brand—minimal, open, and understated—creating a setting that invites guests to engage in the quiet ritual of visible repair.
Kintsugi Kit: Essentials for the Ritual of Repair
Each participant receives a kintsugi repair kit containing a cracked white porcelain dish, gold powder, epoxy resin, bamboo mixing sticks, a wooden mixing palette, fine brushes, and latex gloves. The kit provides everything needed to transform a broken object into something more precious than its original form.
Kintsugi is the centuries-old Japanese practice of mending broken ceramics with lacquer and powdered gold, making fractures visible rather than concealed. In the philosophy of kintsugi, the break becomes the most honest part of the object. A testament to its history and survival. Within MEND, this practice extends beyond pottery: participants learn that what breaks us can also become our most luminous feature. The gold seams don't erase the damage; they illuminate it, proving that repair doesn't mean returning to an original state, it means becoming something altogether new.
Guests work slowly and deliberately, mixing materials, tracing cracks, applying gold with precision. The process demands patience and presence, offering a counterpoint to the speed of daily life. Each participant leaves with a repaired piece that visually embodies resilience, proof that broken things can be made whole without pretending they were never damaged.
Sashiko Kit: Tools for Honoring Wear and Repair
Each participant receives a sashiko repair kit containing a pre-worn indigo denim shirt, indigo thread, precision needles, and fabric scissors. The kit guides guests through the meditative practice of visible mending using traditional Japanese running stitch techniques—transforming damage into deliberate design.
Sashiko originated as a utilitarian reinforcement method in rural Japan, where worn textiles were strengthened through geometric stitching patterns that added both durability and beauty. In the context of MEND, sashiko becomes a metaphor for personal restoration: the act of repairing a garment mirrors the process of tending to our own worn edges. Participants don't hide the damage, they honor it with careful, visible stitches that acknowledge what the fabric has endured while making it whole again.
Each stitch is an act of attention. Each repaired seam tells a story of resilience. Guests leave with both a transformed garment and a practice they can return to whenever something or someone needs mending.
Letter Writing Room: A Space for Reflection and Release
A large, open white space designed to invite quiet reflection. Warm candlelight and gold cylindrical seating create a sense of intimacy and calm. Here, guests are encouraged to write a letter about their grief, what they are ready to mend, or what they are prepared to let go of.
Ritual of Release
An intimate, softly lit space designed for quiet letting go. Guests who wish may choose to burn their letter inside a large gold bowl as a symbolic act of release. The ritual encourages reflection, surrender, and the emotional freedom that comes with letting go.
A Collective Art of Letting Go
Guests who choose not to burn or take their letters may contribute them to the Letter Wall. This installation forms a visual art piece—a suspended collection of sealed letters that symbolizes what we each carry, the process of letting go, our shared vulnerability, and the quiet strength found in release.
Exclusive Pieces Available Only at MEND
A minimal, light-filled space offering exclusive merchandise available only at the MEND experience. Guests can purchase limited edition t-shirts featuring the Comme des Garçons MEND broken heart logo, as well as sashiko-mended denim jackets—each piece designed to reflect the beauty in visible repair.
Exclusive MEND T-Shirt: Comme des Garçons Broken Heart Edition
A limited edition t-shirt created exclusively for this experience. The design features the iconic Comme des Garçons heart, subtly cracked but still whole, with MEND beneath it. A visual symbol of grief, resilience, and the beauty found in repair.
A Soundtrack for Reflection and Healing
A limited edition white vinyl record designed exclusively for the MEND experience. The minimalist sleeve features the Comme des Garçons broken heart MEND logo. The curated playlist offers a meditative soundtrack, inviting guests to continue their journey of reflection, release, and renewal beyond the space.
A Minimal Vessel for What’s Carried Home
Each guest receives their purchases and workshop creations in branded minimalist packaging. White paper bags and boxes, branded with the CDG MEND broken heart logo, reflect the quiet strength and intention of the experience. A simple, thoughtful vessel for what has been chosen, created, or mended.
Outcome & Brand Value
MEND transforms a retail visit into an immersive narrative guests can feel, touch, and share. By blending cultural storytelling with hands-on workshops, the activation forges lasting emotional bonds between guests and the Comme des Garçons brand. Limited-edition merchandise, analog connection points, and shareable, sensory moments naturally drive organic social reach while deepening loyalty. The result is a differentiated retail experience that reinforces CDG’s reputation as an artistic, boundary-pushing brand, one that celebrates both craftsmanship and individuality.
Potential Success Metrics
While this is a conceptual project, the MEND activation is designed with clear, trackable outcomes in mind:
Influencer Seeding: Gauge buzz and awareness through attendee social shares, comments, and engagement with branded hashtags.
Workshop Impact: Monitor participation rates, waitlist signups, and attendee feedback to assess resonance.
Merch Performance: Track sell-through rates of exclusive, event-only items to measure desirability and brand affinity.
Community Engagement: Evaluate user-generated content volume, sentiment, and media coverage to determine cultural relevance.