Designer brands are now building eye-catching "shrines" to replace what we traditionally knew as retail stores. Here are some you HAVE to check out.

Chanel Concept Store Los Angeles
Chanel opens a brand spanking new concept store in a 5,395 sq-ft space on Robertson Boulevard, looking to capture the trendy hip crowd, with a more product-driven focus to its offerings, meaning more bags, accessories, eyewear, jewelry!
125 N Robertson Blvd | Los Angeles, CA 90048 | Phone: (310) 278-5505

Prada Flagship Store NY $40 million was spent to bring you 23,000 square feet of pure Prada. Rem Koolhaas' design for the store, which opened in December 2001, had an opening event that featured celebrity guests and even the then New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Architect: Rem Koolhaas (2001)
Store hours are M-F 11-7, Sundays 12-6.
Travel directions: The Prada flagship store is in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood on the northwestern corner of Broadway and Prince. The easiest way to get to the store is by subway. You can take the N or R train to Prince St. or the For V train to Broadway-Lafayette.
575 Broadway, at Prince St. (SoHo) | New York City, NY | Phone: (212) 334-8888

Prada Store (Epicenter) Tokyo
Prada's Tokyo “epicenter", in the fashionable Aoyama district, is the company's second radical approach to fashion-store architecture, following Rem Koolhaas' flagship store in New York. The intent is "to reshape both the concept and function of shopping, pleasure and communication, to encourage the meshing of consumption and culture."
Architect: Herzog & de Meuron (2003)
Constructor: Takenaka Corporation
Store hours are M-Su 11-8
Travel directions: The Prada store is two minutes' walk from Omotesando subway station, in Minami-Aoyama (southwest of central Tokyo). Take exit A5 from the subway station, and follow Omotesando Avenue towards the southeast. You will immediately see the Prada store on your right.
5-2-6 Minami-Aoyama | Minato-ku | Tokyo | Phone: +81 3 6418 0400

Louis Vuitton Flagship Store NY
Louis Vuitton's 20,000 square foot store in Manhattan is built in the New York Trust Company building, most recently occupied by Warner Brothers. The transformation of the building's exterior from 1930 art deco into contemporary luxury was designed by Jun Aoki, the Japanese architect responsible for Louis Vuitton’s retail appearance in Japan.
Architect: Jun Aoki
Store hours are M-Su
Travel directions: The store is on the north-east corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street.
1 East 57th Street (corner with Fifth Avenue) | New York, NY | USA | Phone: (212) 758-887

Louis Vuitton Omotesando Tokyo
Louis Vuitton Omotesando was completed in 2002, LV's biggest store - the seventh global store in Japan - on Omotesando Avenue, the most vibrant avenue in the Japanese capital. Designed by the Japanese architect Jun Aoki* and created by Eric Carlson and David Mac Nulty, directors of Louis Vuitton's Department of Architecture, the building is the highpoint of a remarkable aesthetic process.

A novel architecture inspired by the famous LV trunk
Its 3,340 sq metre surface area is split into five volumes, designed like trunks with different dimensions, and positioned one against the other but also overlapping through a subtle and complex use of space. Their facades echo the various historic canvas which have covered the famous LV trunks throughout the years.
Twenty-five masterpieces from the Louis Vuitton museum in Asnires have travelled to Japan. They will be permanently displayed in the exhibition room on the fifth floor. The walls of this part of the building are covered with a coating resembling the first striped canvas of the LV trunks, to mid-height. Considered as the icon brand and symbol of French savoir-faire in Japan -the world's leading luxury market- Louis Vuitton has doubled its presence in the country in 10 years, to reach 44 stores today, 7 of which are global stores.
5-7-5 Jingumae | Shibuya-ku | Tokyo

*The architect Jun Aoki
Born in 1956 in Yokohama, Japan, Jun Aoki was chosen from a competition to build the Louis Vuitton "global store" in Nagoya in 1999. The following year, he designed the exterior of a Louis Vuitton shop in Ginza, Tokyo. Having graduated from Tokyo University, he worked for seven years with the great-post-modern architect Arata Isozaki. Since then, he has created numerous buildings, most importantly the Mamihara Bridge (1995), the Museum of the Fukushima lagoon and the swimming pool close to it (1997).

Armani/Ginza Tower
This 65,000 square-foot (1025 square meter), 12-story building was developed in collaboration between Giorgio Armani himself and leading Italian architect Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas. Destined to become one of the most prominent architectural landmarks in Ginza, the Armani/Ginza Tower will showcase the world of Giorgio Armani with a Giorgio Armani Boutique, an Emporio Armani store, an Armani/Casa store, a restaurant, a bar and for the first time, anywhere in the world, an Armani Spa.

Christian Dior Omotesando Tokyo
The Dior building is a showcase for Dior's designs, a fairly straightforward trapezoid box in Tokyo's center of fashion, Omotesando Avenue.
Architect: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA 2004
Travel directions: The Dior building is on the southwest side of Omotesando Avenue, between Omotesando and Meijijingumae subway stations (near Meijijingumae).
5-9-11 Jingumae | Shibuya-ku | Tokyo

Maison Hermes
The building is owned by the French luxury empire of Jean Louis Dumas and is the corporate headquarters and retail store of Hermes Japan, a company famous for its upscale hand bags and apparel. The 6,000 square meter (65,000 square feet) building contains shopping space, workshops, offices, exhibition spaces and multimedia areas all topped by a roof garden. A recess that divides the long facade in two forms a courtyard which provides access to the subway two levels below.
Travel directions: The building is located at Ginza Station subway on the Hibiya, Marunouchi or Ginza Line in central Tokyo.
Store hours are 11-7, closed Wednesday.
Architect: Renzo Piano (1998-2001)
5-4-19 Ginza | Chuo-ku | Tokyo | Phone: +81 3 3289 6811