"The new L'Osier French Restaurant Gastronomique opens its doors Oct. 18th, 1999 on Namiki Dori (Namiki street) in Ginza, Tokyo.
For the Architectural and Interior Design, Shiseido commissioned the French Architect Albert Abut established in Tokyo and Paris since many years. The architectural concept of L'Osier is based on the reflection and the return to Japan of the French Art Deco period; this return is impregnated by a contemporary interpretation of the art and architecture of the beginning of the 20th century which inspired Shiseido itself in the creation of its own brand image.
The architect integrated first the facade of the restaurant to the facade of the building by using materials and colours in harmony with the buildings' own finishes.
The inspiration will then follow the history of the Ginza district. The name of the restaurant: L'Osier, meaning "The Willow", reminds that only a few centuries ago Ginza was nothing but a marshland on the sea with an only landscape of straw and willows; in parallel, millions years ago the Paris region was an inland sea reminded by the fossile marks on the Saint Maximin stone extracted from the Paris region quarries and used on the facade of the restaurant together with a stone from Lens in France.
These two stones have been cut in the purest Japanese traditional techniques in the ateliers of Nagoya area. They were then combined with bronze pannels cast also by Japanese bronze masters of Yamagata region. The colour of these bronze pannels is adapted to the existing aluminium sash of the building.
The whole reproduces a contemporary architecture impregnated by the "beginning of the 20th century" modernism that could be found as well in Tokyo as in Paris at those times, introducing the restaurant L'Osier to the 21st century. This facade is preceded by a garden created by the Architect and realised with the collaboration of the renown Japanese landscape Architect Kiichi Tanaka. A portion of this garden is conceived to house the different seasons of the year, japanese festivals, Shiseido events... it is a welcoming place as well for the fine clientele of L'Osier as the inhabitants of the street and the passers by.
The interior decoration of the restaurant has been realised in collaboration with the French decorator Fadilha Abut and her team of decorators from the Paris office.
The French Neo-impressionist and Art-Deco periods are impregnated by Japonism. Transposed in the interior decoration of the restaurant this creates a very particular atmosphere.
Among different architectural elements contributing to the contemporary character of the interiors we can for example find the thermo-formed glass made by glass masters of the Bretagne region in France, and installed around the spiral staircase surrounding the elevator. The patinas of the walls and the mother of pearl pasted ceiling were executed by a French painter Andre-Luc Gaillard established in Japan. The furniture of the dining rooms and of the lounges are signed Hugues Chevalier, one of the best French establishements, with a line surprising by its subtle mariage of Art-Deco and Modernism. The glass of each door are engraved with willow motifs. Motif that we also find on the thick and comfortable carpet especially conceived, drawn and made for L'Osier by Vorwerk. The lighting has been particularly studied. Lighting fixtures ingenously placed between the glass of the windows and the silk veils lit these veils and cut the visual contact from the outside thus eliminating the need for heavy curtains. The glass fiber lighting of masterpieces of art from France complete the decoration. In the main dining room we can admire sculptures made with Dome glass paste in limited edition of Salvador Dali "V?nus aux Tiroirs" and "La Montre Molle", or a vase signed by Jean Cocteau "Athamas". In the private dining of the 2nd floor and the lobby of the first floor you can admire hand woven Aubusson tapestries from original drawings by Sonia Delaunay. Some of the antique furnitures brought in from France date from the famous Art Deco period 1920~1940.
At the reception of the 2nd floor you can admire a desk and its chair made of chesnut wood and bronze, covered with parchemin, signed Maurice Jallot and a small commode of 1940 covered with parchemin and leather signed Ren? Prou, both furnitures made very much under the "shoji" image of Japan by these two designers very "en vogue" in that time. The reception desk of the 1st floor is made in 1950 with cast and patined iron structure with a Saint Gobain glass top and signed Raymond Subes. The sculptures of the contemporary French artist Dominique Dardek are made with the Daum glass paste and installed in the alcoves of the big dining room. The paintings of the contemporary French artist Marie Marziac and of the very famous Pierre Lemaire complete the dressing of the walls of this Gastronomic journey into a museum...
...without forgetting the bronze sculptures of Axel Cassel harmonising the beauty and the finesse of the volume of the 2nd floor lounge. The kitchen, spacious, well lit and functional deserves also a visit. It is realized with the latest Japanese and European equipments such as Wimbock and Fujimak and offer the highest standards of work. This restaurant, with its cellar of 7000 or more bottles and a "Carte" elaborated by the famous French Chef Jacques Borie, Meilleur Ouvrier de France 1982, and a service guaranteed by centuries old traditional Japanese hospitality is sure to satisfy the amateurs of fine gastronomy and the ones sensitive to a contemporary nostalgia of a certain "Epoque".
L'Osier is a saga, a feast expressing and celebrating the union of cultural, traditional and artisanal Japan and France."