From Faux To Fortune

Entering Toyota's (TM ) redesigned flagship store on Paris' Champs Elysées is like boarding a 1960s comic book spacecraft. At the Oct. 27 unveiling of the $5 million showroom, models in white knee-high boots and short gray dresses draped themselves over concept cars, while a deejay played space-age electropop. The 10,000-square-foot space features curved walls of seamless white Corian polymer and a second level that overlooks the ground floor like a Star Trek control deck. The clean lines and airy glass are just what Toyota Motor Corp. (TM ) wanted in order to communicate the company's emphasis on "green" themes. Perhaps most remarkable, Toyota's premier brand-building venue in Europe was designed by a 28-year-old French design school dropout.

The Parisian showplace is only the latest venture for Ora Ito, the new It-boy of European corporate design. In a career spanning just four years he has created ad campaigns, products, and interiors for dozens of companies, including Adidas-Salomon (ADDDY ), Davidoff, and Swatch Group (SWGAF ). Ito dubs his style "simplexity," meaning a mix of simple shapes that are nevertheless complex to design. Thanks to rapturous response, Ito's Paris atelier now employs 12 people and is on track to pull in revenues of $3 million this year.