The Business of Fashion

Q&A | The lowdown on H&M Comme des Garçons

Back in September, H&M experienced one of the most successful Japanese market entries in recent history, with its first store in Ginza drawing incredible mass media coverage and never-ending lines. Now two months later, H&M will open its next Japanese store on November 8 in the youth fashion district of Harajuku.

Japanese customers lucky enough to make it through the long queue on Saturday morning will be the first worldwide to be able to buy the latest limited-edition guest-collaboration line: H & M COMME des GARÇONS. For the rest of the world, H&M Comme des Garçons will debut on November 13 in more than 200 H&M stores around the world.

To learn more, we sat down first with H&M's Creative Advisor Margareta Van Den Bosch and Brand & New Business Director Jörgen Andersson in Tokyo to talk about the Rei Kawakubo collaboration.

H&M | Swedish fast fashion finally comes to Japan

After two years of intense rumours and breathless anticipation, Swedish fast fashion giant H&M finally opened its first Tokyo store on September 13 in the ritzy neighborhood of Ginza, right down the street from competitors Zara and Uniqlo. When the staff cut the ribbon at 11 a.m., somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 Japanese customers (mostly young women) waited in line for their chance to visit the 1,000 square-metre, four-story retail space. Now, twelve days later, the lines continue to stay long, with around 8,000 people visiting the store daily.

An incredible success? Although these long lines may help pay back the reported ¥2 billion launch expenditures, a little perspective is required to know what it all means.

Japan Fashion Week | Under the radar

Just before the fashion world turned its laser focus on New York, a lesser known semi-annual week of fashion shows in Tokyo failed to garner much attention.

Not surprisingly then, a key activity during Japan Fashion Week is listening to other people grumble about Japan Fashion Week. Although Tokyo is one of the world's most important fashion cities, overflowing with amazing daily dressers, avant-garde masters, and street fashion innovation, the organized collection week has yet to muster up a global impact on par with Paris, Milan, or New York.

And the problem is not just international reception: most of the cooler domestic Japanese brands aren't even on board.

Everybody's Talking About | Comme des Garcons for H&M

Some H&M collaborations of the past (Roberto Cavalli, Viktor & Rolf) were more memorable for the pre-launch buzz and subsequent hysteria around the world than they were for the clothes themselves. So ever since Rei Kawakubo announced her upcoming Comme des Garcons collection for H&M, fashionistas have been wondering whether Kawakubo will bring some of the best of Japanese avant-garde fashion to the masses without diluting her signature style.

Well the wait is almost over. W Magazine wrote about the collaboration in its September issue and on Friday, Fashionista.com posted the first photos of the complete collection. In typical lightening speed, the blogosphere has been passing judgment and at first glance, it seems many CDG fans are underwhelmed by Kawakubo's efforts, while mainstream customers don't quite get it.

No Ametora | Why the Neo-Trad Trend Failed to Catch on in Japan

The crazy kids in Tokyo’s  Harajuku neighborhood often give outsiders an impression that Japanese fashion trends appear organically on the street without any industry prodding.

In truth, Japanese fashion magazines still retain an uncanny ability to set seasonal styles on a near-mechanical schedule. Due to industry, media, and consumer coordination unlike anywhere else in the world, Japanese trends change on a dime at the beginning of a season, exactly in the ways delineated by magazines.

This system can be awe-inspiring when things go as Japan’s fashion machine intends, but once in a while, the top cannot convince consumers to buy into the template. The most recent example is last year's push for "American traditional” menswear (a la Thom Browne and Band of Outsiders), which fell flat.

Japanese Women | From Luxury to Yuru-Nachu

So far, 2008 has been a foreboding year for the European luxury houses in Japan. The sub-prime mortgage crisis has reduced credit lines, rising food prices have decimated discretionary spending, and lower stock prices have convinced the New Rich they aren't so rich after all.

Although the Japanese super rich seem unfettered, aspirational customers are staying home and saving their meager incomes for an uncertain future. With wages weaker than ever, the average female 25 year-old (in a salary hierarchy based on age, with an exclusive "management track" decided at time of entry to the company) makes barely enough to pay rent let alone make credit card payments for a luxury handbag or designer apparel.

Dunhill Ginza | Welcome home

"Welcome home." With those words Jun Morimoto, CEO of Alfred Dunhill in Japan, warmly ushered me into the new Alfred Dunhill flagship in Tokyo's Ginza district, where it rubs shoulders with the impressive architecture of some of the world's most famous luxury brands. But all is not rosy in Tokyo's legendary luxuryland, with reports that sales for some international luxury brands in Japan are down as much as 20% versus last year.

As Morimoto-san showed me around the store, the first of a few Dunhill 'Home' flagships which will be opening around the world, he also demonstrated how brands like Dunhill are leading the way in adapting their stores and product offering to meet the evolving expectations of the Japanese luxury customer.

ICHO | Tailor-made perfection

While younger Japanese customers may be veering towards local brands that are in tune with prevailing fashion trends, others are looking for something altogether different. They don't care about trends. Their closets are already full. They have bought countless branded luxury items over the years. So, if they are going to spend their money on anything, it has to be perfect.

That's where my favourite Japanese tailor comes in. ICHO is a small, family-run business with a spiritual figurehead and designer in the form of Toru Icho, who was born in 1947 in Kyoto, the historical home of some of Japan's best luxury artisans. His son, Mits and daughter-in-law Satoko work full-time to translate Toru's vision into a bonafide business. This is good old-fashioned luxury.

Japanese menswear | Packing a stylish punch

“I wanted to start a movement of new generation, young fashion designers in Japan,” Arashi Yanagawa tells me over coffee in Tokyo’s hip Nakameguro neighbourhood. He is speaking of the genesis of John Lawrence Sullivan, the menswear brand he started almost five years ago.

But Arashi hasn't always been a fashion designer. At first, he followed in his father's footsteps and spent 13 years in professional boxing. Then, with no fashion training whatsoever, he used his fight money and worked with local pattern cutters to perfect his first collection of two blazers, using vintage garments as a starting point. As a nod to his former life, he named his brand after the 1880's American bare-knuckle boxer and today, JLS is Japan’s hottest menswear label, known for its slick tailoring and modern accessories.

Despite his non-fashion background, or perhaps because of it, Arashi is at the vanguard of a group of promising, young menswear brands that are taking Tokyo by storm. They offer high quality clothing at prices lower than Lanvin and Thom Browne, but still packing a design punch.

Tokyo | The decline of big-brand luxury

Once upon a time, for big luxury brands, Japan was the largest and most important market in the world. Japanese customers, young and old, rich and middle-class, would faithfully spend their money on standard Louis Vuitton bags, Hermès scarves and Gucci shoes. These loyal customers could deliver up to 35% of a luxury brand's global revenue, a reliable cash cow, even while the Japanese economy was sputtering in the 1990's and early 2000's.

And so, a formula for luxury brands slowly gelled over the years: build gigantic retail temples of luxury, influence the editorial of powerful magazines that have a grip on the Japanese psyche, and appeal to the innate Japanese desire to fit in and show status.

But, what would the luxury brands do if this tried-and-tested business model stopped working its magic?