Abercrombie & Fitch, Ginza | Source: Fashionsnap.com

TOKYO, Japan — After several years of “will they or won’t they” speculation, American casual fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch finally opened its first retail store in Japan this past December. The 11-story shop in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza neighbourhood is just steps away from Uniqlo’s flagship store and Swedish fast fashion brand H&M.

As with every big retail opening in Tokyo, the first day of sales saw long lines of customers and swift business. The rumoured haul: ¥50 million (or about $550,000). Even without the benefit of an opening party or major press event, Abercrombie was able to rely on a small group of Japanese fans who had previously bought the brand’s products as souvenirs on trips to Hawaii or the continental United States.

But the big question is, will Abercrombie be able to win over new fans in Japan and replicate the unbelievably successful Japanese market entries of other mass fashion brands?

So far, the signs do not look good.

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The colours of Uniqlo | Source: Uniqlo

TOKYO, Japan — For the last two years, the inverted black triangle — Japan’s version of the minus sign — has infected monthly earnings reports at most of the nation’s retail chains. The global recession has been almost universally bad for the apparel market. Japanese customers are just not spending on fashion like they used to.

There’s one exception, of course: Uniqlo. 

For the fiscal year ending in August 2009, Uniqlo’s parent company Fast Retailing posted a ¥108.6 billion profit with ¥685 billion sales — outperforming initial projections. The brand’s comparable store sales for September 2009 were up 31.6 percent. In October, they were up 35.7 percent.

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Prada flagship store in Omotesando, Tokyo

LONDON, United Kingdom — The scariest news I have recently read about luxury was in Tuesday’s Financial Times. The Japanese, it seems, have stopped buying luxury goods. Luxury imports in Japan were down 10 percent and sales of LVMH in the country were down 18 percent in the first quarter.

And no, it’s not just the recession. “This is not a blip. This is a long-term shift in the market,” Brian Salsberg, the author of a McKinsey report on the Japanese luxury goods market, the world’s second largest, told the Financial Times. This is concrete evidence of a trend first reported on BoF one year ago.

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Somarta A/W 09, courtesy of Coutorture

TOKYO, Japan — Japan Fashion Week (JFW) is nearing its end, but has anyone really noticed that it started?

While the entire cities of Paris, Milan, and New York seem to get completely swept up in the glamour of their respective fashion weeks, the average Tokyo citizen is most likely unaware that Japan Fashion Week is currently happening. This is very odd, considering that Tokyo is obsessed with designer fashion to an extent seen nowhere else on Earth.

Why the lack of excitement?

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Photo by Sean Wood, courtesy of MEKAS

TOKYO, Japan — 2008 turned out to be an incredibly successful year for Uniqlo — and Uniqlo alone. The Japanese media can no longer mention the mass retailer without using the word hitorigachi — meaning “sole winner” or “to reign supreme.”

In a toxic retail environment, where most major apparel chains experienced 10-15 percent declines in same-store sales for December, Uniqlo finished the year up 10.3 percent. This came on the heels of Uniqlo’s stellar November, with 32.2 percent comparable-store base growth and the largest recorded monthly sales in the brand’s history.

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Comme des Garçons for H&M

TOKYO, Japan - 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.

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TOKYO, 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.

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TOKYO, Japan – 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.

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TOKYO, Japan and STOCKHOLM, Sweden – 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.

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TOKYO, 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.

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