LA SUITE
Loving clothes, loving vintage — that alone is enough to start talking. The shop looks after everything up to the handover; this is the time after.
Sign in with the email address registered with our online shop.
What kind of place it is
Conversations here start from a piece you already own. Admire each other's eye, and take something from a sensibility unlike your own. That is what this place is for.
The pieces you keep here need not have come from us. Wherever you found them, add a photograph and a few words, and someone who loves the same thing will see them and answer. Being admired is a good feeling.
Our own rail is here too, as a way in. Vintage is one of one; no two pieces are the same. So you can point to a particular piece by name. Pieces that have sold stay here as well.
It is a closed place, open only to those who have registered an email address with our online shop. There is no membership fee, and we do not discuss market prices or resale.
- No membership fee, no registration fee
- Over 1,900 individual pieces, whether or not you have bought from us
- Add it to your home screen and it opens from an icon
What you can do
Every screen below is the working thing itself.
The feed
The first screen you see. Pinned topics, newly opened topics, conversations under way, polls open for answers, and what has just come in, in that order. A quiet week is shown as a quiet week. We do not fill it out. What is coming up is shown alongside, on the same screen.
Topics and replies
We begin with three categories only: Conversations, Handed pieces, and News. A reply can be replied to, one level deep. Up to five pieces from the rail can be attached to a topic.
Anonymous polls
Who chose what is never recorded. Only the count remains. No one sees the running tally, not even the person who opened the poll. Results appear once it closes, and stay readable afterwards. A poll can also take written answers. There too, the writer is not stored.
Finding a piece
Search by maker, decade, country or lot number. Pieces that have sold stay here. This is a place that records the time after a piece is handed over, so nothing is taken off the rail.
The page for one piece
One page per piece. No price, no stock count — only whether it is available or already sold. Purchases are made in the online shop, as before.
Your profile
Add up to twelve pieces to your favourites. They need not be pieces you own; admiration counts. Anything you have bought appears under Handed pieces, and you choose piece by piece whether to show it.
Pieces of your own
Add up to twelve garments of your own, each with a photograph and a few words. They need not have come from us. Available from your first day, whether or not you have bought anything. Other members can comment on them.
Notifications
Replies to your topics, comments on a piece you own, and word from the owner of the shop. We send no notification emails. Everything waits for you until you open the place again.
Three stages
The distinction is not who may enter, but what opens up once you are inside. How much you have bought, and how often, is neither shown nor recorded.
Member
- Who
- Registered with the shop
- What opens up
- Read, reply, answer polls, and add pieces of your own
Owner
- Who
- Has bought from us
- What opens up
- Handed pieces appears on your profile, and you may write about your own piece as the person who has it
Regular
- Who
- Seven days have passed and three replies written. Anyone who has bought from us twice is a regular from the start.
- What opens up
- Open your own topics and polls
What we left out
What is missing here was not beyond us. We decided not to put it in.
- Private messages They create negotiations no one else can see. Conversation belongs where everyone can read it.
- Prices and market talk This is not a marketplace. Once the talk turns to price, nothing else survives it.
- Follower counts Numbers on display create a ranking. Who is watched by how many is of no use here.
- Paid membership We wanted a place that can be left alone through the quiet months.
- Notification emails Mail that keeps arriving stops being read. Instead we built a screen that lets you catch up when you return after a long while.
The replies are written by the owner
Every post and every reply is read and written by the owner of the shop himself. Nothing here is answered automatically by AI.
Which means a reply can take time. It may be a few days. It does not mean it has gone unread.
LA SUITE itself is available in Japanese and English. If you are browsing in another language, the English screens will be shown.
Before you begin — your registration
LA SUITE is open to anyone who has registered an email address with our online shop. Whether you have bought something makes no difference.
If you have not registered yet, please create an account first. It takes about a minute. The address you register becomes your key.
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STEP 01
Enter your email address
When you open LA SUITE you will see a single field. Enter the address registered with the shop and press Send code.
The screen looks the same whether or not the address is registered. This is deliberate: it keeps anyone from working out who our customers are.
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STEP 02
Enter the code you receive
A six-digit code arrives by email. Type it in and you go through. It is valid for five minutes.
If nothing arrives, check your spam folder and the spelling of the address. If it still does not come, wait a little before trying again.
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STEP 03
Choose a handle and a display name
Once only. The handle is three to twenty lowercase letters, numbers or underscores, and cannot be changed later. The display name may be anything. Please read the guidelines and tick to agree.
Your real name and email address are never shown to other members.
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STEP 04
Add it to your home screen
Kept as an icon, it opens like an app. Since we send no notification emails, that icon is what will remind you the place is there.
On iPhone, open it in Safari, then Share (the square with an arrow) and Add to Home Screen. On Android, open Chrome's menu (the three dots) and choose Install app or Add to Home screen. If you arrived from inside LINE, open it in your browser first.
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STEP 05
You are in
For the first seven days you can read, reply, answer polls, and add pieces of your own. After seven days and three replies, you can open topics and polls of your own. Anyone who has bought from us twice can do all of it from the start.
Questions
Is there a fee?
Can I join without having bought anything?
The code has not arrived.
Can others see my real name or email address?
If I want to leave
Do I need to install an app?
Will I have to enter a code every time?
What if a post troubles me?
The screens shown on this page were prepared to demonstrate how the place works. They are not actual posts.