Marui One Mall with the Visual Kei band Dolly as the promo poster. Photo collage by La Carmina
In the past 3 weeks, we’ve noted that many stories revolving around innovative retail in fashion when it comes to youth culture have been coming out of Japan. While the economic news continues to dominate with gloomy forecasts and horrible retail scenarios, there have been some brands and retailers that are still generating a great profit and in many ways, have become beacons recession-proof strategies. Ranging from American Apparel to Hot Topic to Urban Outfitters, there are various formulas for success. However, it’s also important to see what’s going on in Japanese retail because many new concepts in shopping and retail globally often start in Japan, including the advent of pop-retail, the popularity of fast-fashion “no-brand” stores such as Uniqlo, artist T-shirt boutiques such as Beams, vintage and authentic Americana demands on the backstreets of Shinjuku, and “genderless” boutiques featuring apparel that can cross boundaries, among other concepts. (Hot Topic, some argue, was greatly inspired by the Goth and punk fashion tribes of Tokyo and great demand for such apparel, band merch, and accessories within this subculture.)
Goth Lolita styles in Marui One. Photo by La Carmina
This week, in a corresponding story about Fruits Magazine launching their own retail store, it’s interesting to note that this store is located on the second floor of a new themed mall called Marui One (101). Marui One opened February 20th in Shinjuku, which in our opinion, is becoming one of the best cultural hotspots for finding leading-edge street fashion, from Goth Lolita, to EGL, and even Fairy Kei styles. On opening day, the mall featured Dolly, one of the rising stars of the Visual Kei bands coming out of Japan (see our corresponding stories on Japanese visual kei), second only to Harajuku.
Marui One, similar to La Floret, offers distinctly themed floors that reflect the various fashion tribes of Tokyo, including local brands. For example, on the first floor are mostly new contemporary women’s designs, plus sportswear and stores such as Jesus Diamante in an overall theme called Tokyo Pop City. On the second is Fruits Magazine’s FRUiTS MiX, which includes collaborations with many local stores from which Fruits Magazine garners much inspiration including vintage store Berberjin (where you can find authentic Americana items) and boutiques like Faline and Dog. In addition, the store is featuring a limited-edition masstige collaboration with famed street fashion designers Nozomi Ishiguro in a collection called FRUiTS PUNCH. What’s interesting about this is that in a time when many magazines in fashion especially are folding, Fruits not only is going strong, based on the massive interest in Japanese street fashion culture globally, but they’ve taken the concept into a more accessible direction with direct purchase potential for the very scene from which the magazine derives content and inspiration.
Fruit Magazine launches FRUiTS MiX store in Marui One in Shinjuku
The 3rd floor is Romantic Casual, while the 4th movies into Asian Modern of contemporary Kimonos. On floors 5, the visual kei band Dolly’s outfits are on hand in a display area, giving a nod to just how important fashion is within this music genre, with Gothic inspired labels, Dandy-esque and Victorian jackets, feathers, and other features from the band’s wardrobe. Other brands include h.Naoto with their Goth-inspired dresses, shorts, and shirts, and loads of accessories ranging from Moi-meme-Moitie with crosses, black roses, and other items of Goth, punk allure.
On the 6th you’ll see Goth punk with Baby the Stars Shine Bright (a total favorite among young people in Japan and a growing subculture in North America, as well as Alice and the Pirates which is a mini-sub label of BSSB) with Goth nautical motifs. On the 7th floor are Goth and punk shoes, and the 8th tops off with Lolita and Fairy Kei and Gothic Lolita styles and brands.
Floors 5-7 capture the Goth, punk looks with accessories–the styles that Hot Topic in North America, as well as Emily Strange and others die for and in some ways, fashion themselves after
Marui One is certain to challenge La Floret in the Harajuku area and has already seen a high flow of traffic not only from young fashionistas in Tokyo, but scores of international fans of street trends from Japan. While Harajuku used to be the prime location for seeing the top designs of Harajuku Girl street fashion, an area of Tokyo between Shinjuku and Shibuya (and can be seen the minute you step out onto the train platform at Harajuku Station on your way to Takeshitadori -a narrow street packed with young people buying up various kinds of apparel, footwear, and accessories), Shinjuku now has a push with the Marui One mall.
However there’s always been a competition between La Foret and Shibuya 109 (in Shibuya), the shopping mall located just one train stop away, which continues to attract a greater crossover crowd, particularly girls looking for the American Beyonce style or kawaii (cute) fashion. La Foret, which has always featured the latest Victorian and Goth Lolita couture dresses on the bottom floor, and unique boutiques up higher, re-opened their doors last year in March after a major overhaul, including adding an additional 13 boutiques and updating another 17 in what was called the “La Foret 30 Years into the Future Campaign.” Stores such as unisex T-shirt brand Laundry were among the new boutiques.
Not to be outdown however, Shibuya 109 upgraded as well, adding stores such as Re Dark and Cizare and renovating 8 existing boutiques. But LaForet has one major renovation up its sleeve that the other malls still don’t have, which sounds familiar to what fast-fashion retailer H&M has been doing with Second Life: Last April, La Foret opened their corresponding online store called LFH which allow users/shoppers to create their own interactive avatars to be displayed in a user-generated blog. Basically, you can dress up your own avatar with La Foret fashion brands. Each avatar is also given a number so you can find it later and continue updating your second-life look.
Which brings us to Label Networks’ Japan Youth Culture Study and favorite retail stores among 15-30-year-olds. Last Fall, based on a representative sampling of 15-30-year-olds, when asked “Which store do you like to shop in the most?” La Foret ranked higher among 18-20-year-olds, whereas Shibuya 109 ranked higher among 15-17-year-olds. Top retail locations overall however indicated that Shibuya 109 ranked 6th as the preferred store, but tied for 3rd overall among females, whereas La Foret ranked further down the list, but was within the top 10 among females. Where Marui One ranks will be an interesting aspect to measure in the near future as this mall has clearly tapped into the growing trends of localized street fashion tribes of Tokyo, especially Goth which has a broader crossover with males and females, making it also another international destination for fashion trendsetters.
Photo by La Carmina
With the LFH avatar concept working, it is turning La Foret, the mall, not only into a favorite shopping location in Japan, but a favorite shopping “experience” globally as more people have access to create their own shopping avatars from the 31-year-old Tokyo mall.
While Tokyo youth culture is starting to move online for shopping (using credit cards is still rather new), one thing that cannot be captured with an avatar clearly is the frenzied experience and social gatherings of shopping in La Foret and Shibuya in general. And now Marui One with visual kei band displays like Dolly. However, the connection between fashion and personal blogs, and showing off creations to friends may just be what drives the marketplace online faster, as well as into the stores for actual purchases. This seems to be the case with Marui One which has already captured the attention of top blogs globally for its mix of themed floors, merchandise, and brands that crossover music boundaries.
For more information about Label Networks’ Japan Youth Culture Study, Japan Fashion Reports, including Harajuku Girls, contact info@labelnetworks.com; (323) 630-4000 about the Premium Global Youth Culture Subscription.
