Kazuhiro Watanabe, founder of the popular Harajuku fashion brand “Avantgarde” has announced that the underground store will be closing temporarily at the end of November.

After opening in Harajuku in the fall of 2011, the store instantly made a name for itself with an exclusive line of graphic tights and launched a legwear craze that spread from the streets of Harajuku to become a global trend.

Avantgarde was also brought to the attention of the public with the rise of fashion icon and Harajuku it-girl, Juria Nakagawa, who worked at the flagship store from age 16. Though she has since moved on from her time as a store attendant, the impact that Avantgarde has had on the Harajuku fashion scene is immortalized in the thousands of pictures of Nakagawa that are scattered across the internet and magazines.

People from all over have traveled across the globe to experience Harajuku and Avantgarde, and the storefront stairwell is covered in signatures and messages from visitors.

Founder Kazuhiro Watanabe (who also hold a Guinness record for tallest mohawk) has released a statement regarding the closing of the Harajuku store:

“Greetings, friends

We have decided to temporarily close our Avantgarde Harajuku main store, starting on November 24.

We are quickly seeking a new location and are thinking of interesting plans. We will announced them sometime soon, but as of now they remain completely undecided. In truth we would have liked to tell you where we are moving, but we are sorry that we can’t and we have only this announcement to make.

We will restart from a new place of When? Where? What?

If we have imagination, we believe that we can surely do something and we will continue working as hard as ever before.

For now, we will begin strengthening the mail-order business from the new office.

For the time being, you can purchase products from our mail order shop.

We apologize for the inconvenience to everyone that has always kindly visited the shop and we hope that you will understand.

We are now holding our last sale at the Harajuku main shop, and so please be sure to come see us during the final days of Avantgarde Harajuku. We would be glad to see you enjoying your shopping.

Thank you.”

It is sad to see an iconic store close it’s doors, but it is also very exciting to see what exciting things Kazuhiro Watanabe and Avantgarde have in store for the future!

Check out the brand’s official website!

(via Tokyo Fashion)