(Feb. 11, 2011)

Print is so passe: In a world once ruled by magazine mavens, bloggers now reigning rulers of fashion

Lisa Gomi / Yomiuri Shimbun Washington Bureau

Ten years ago, if you were sitting in the front row at New York Fashion Week show, chances are you were an editor who had spent decades earning your cushy seat and unobstructed view. At New York Fashion Week this February, however, editors found themselves sharing the row with bloggers whose claims to fame were their photos, URL and wit. Fashion bloggers even had a whole conference devoted to their craft, with a keynote speech by Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of the luxury label Proenza Schouler.

The grand entrance of bloggers into the fashion world suggests the decline of their print counterparts. Sasha Wilkins, who was Executive Style Editor for The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ before turning full time to her blog LibertyLondonGirl, recounted that magazines “were the gatekeepers” to the industry and that everything “was controlled by print publication.” Now, bloggers are threatening to usurp print’s throne.

But a closer look suggests that fashion blogs and traditional media enjoy a symbiotic relationship. Wilkins credits the success of her luxury brand consulting firm, Liberty Media, to her understanding of both new and old media. She acknowledges that her blog is popular partly because she offers “an insider view,” like her recent coverage of Chanel’s haute couture show in Paris.

Readers flock to her blog because it opens up the infamously exclusive fashion industry, and in some ways the appeal of her approach depends on the industry’s continuing inaccessibility.

The success of Scott Schuman’s wildly popular photo blog The Sartorialist is also dependent on cooperation with the industry. Editors and other industry heavyweights felt confident hiring Schuman after they saw him at shows using his low-tech approach–no assistants, no lights, no hair and makeup–and the resulting photos on his blog. They liked what they saw, and Schuman has since done a weekly page for GQ and major ad campaigns such as Burberry’s Art of the Trench project. Offline, he has published a book, and just exhibited his work at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

But, Schuman says these high profile opportunities are a means to an end.

“I worked with those people to get enough money to be able to go back to my blog,” he explained. Though the blog remains top priority, he still depends on the industry and traditional media for both finances and content.

Japanese fashion bloggers remain noticeably absent from the international scene. According to Signature9 and Stylite, two Web sites that rank popular fashion blogs based on unique visitors, Google searches, and other criteria, top blogs remain concentrated in the West. Wilkins and Schuman both have Japanese readers, but they acknowledge obstacles to further expansion in Japan.

“I’m afraid my kanji is no good, I have no Japanese,” Wilkins confessed. Schuman admitted to fashion culture shock during his first trip to Japan with ganguro girls and their uniform of fake tans, bleached hair, and revealing clothing.

“It’s just so weird. I actually don’t even know how to relate to it,” he said, adding “I’ve got to go back and start peeling away the layers…to understand it better.”

Loic Bizel understands the sentiment. In 2001, Bizel started LeBiz Consulting to educate foreign brands on Japan’s market after working in the Japanese fashion industry for five years.

“Japanese fashion is more diverse as Japanese people are not scared of mixing styles, brands, and trends,” he explained. With such enthusiasm for fashion, it may only be a matter of time before a Japanese name joins the ranks of bloggers such as Wilkins and Schuman.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-19/world/japan.cool.money_1_japan-s-gdp-fashion-japanese-government?_s=PM:WORLD

November 19, 2010|By Mairi Mackay, CNN

Japan’s finances may not be in great shape, but when it comes to fashion, there still aren’t many places more cool.

Consumers from Asia, Europe and the United States might not be buying as many Japanese cars and TVs, but they continue to be influenced by Japan’s culture. That means that when global brands are looking for the hottest new fashions, eyes almost inevitably turn eastward.

“Most of the time, most global trends start in Tokyo,” trendspotter Loic Bizel told CNN. A Tokyo-based fashion expert who consults for labels like Timberland, Lacoste and Sonia Rykiel, Bizel also takes foreign fashionistas on tours of Tokyo to scout for street style trends to replicate in their home markets.

“People really started to look at Japan as a lab about seven or eight years ago,” he added. “Trends are picked up really quickly in the streets.”

That’s why, according to Bizel, brands like Topshop from the UK and Sweden’s H&M come: “They know they have time to produce what they have spotted in Tokyo for next season and it will be a hit.”

“It’s easy for big brands to come to Japan, and compete, and send [designs] to their home market,” according to Bizel, because, crucially, hardly any Japanese fashion labels sell abroad.

But, says the Japanese government, things are set to change. It is proposing to pump just over ¥19 billion ($237 million) into the creative sector in 2011 to see if it can make more money from Japan’s national cool.

Mika Takagi is the Deputy Director of the Creative Industries Promotion Office — aka the “Cool Japan” Office — the government body charged with making Japan’s cultural industries (anime, graphic design, film, fashion and more) start paying.

“Japan has a lot of unique culture … [but] if you compare it with other money-making industries, the creative industries don’t make much money,” Takagi told CNN.

“We want to try to invest more in these cultural issues and try to brand Japanese products with the uniqueness of Japanese culture,” she added.

The aim, by 2020, is to increase profits by $85 billion (¥6.9 trillion) — to $698 billion (¥56.6 trillion). Revenues in 2007 amounted to $613 billion (¥49.7 trillion), according to Cool Japan. Japan’s GDP in 2007 was $4.4 trillion.

Competition with Marui will be tough !

TOKYO (Nikkei)–Lumine Co.’s debut in Tokyo’s posh Ginza-Yurakucho district will accelerate the area’s ongoing makeover from an exclusive commercial neighborhood into a more approachable shopping destination that draws younger crowds.

The mall operator said Friday that it will open a large shopping facility to replace a Seibu department store slated to shut down at the end of December. Lumine reached a basic tenant agreement with the building’s owners, Asahi Shimbun Co. and Shochiku Co. (9601).

“By moving into Yurakucho, we hope to boost Lumine’s overall brand value,” Lumine Chairman Toshio Hanazaki told The Nikkei.

Lumine customers on average spend about 10,000 yen on clothing each visit, substantially less than per-customer sales at department stores. Some tenants are formerly obscure fashion houses that Lumine helped turn into popular brands. Lumine is popular among women in their 20s and 30s in greater Tokyo who are drawn to its reasonable prices and originality.

Lumine hopes to have 90-100 tenants at the new facility when it opens its doors next autumn. Under the deal, Lumine will lease 22,000 sq. meters of floor space. Although the current Seibu department store mainly sells apparel, the new facility will house shops selling cosmetics and household goods, as well as supermarkets and restaurants.

The shops will likely open at 10 a.m. and close at 9 p.m., offering longer hours than those of the existing department store. Lumine aims to generate more than 20 billion yen in annual sales at the new facility, double the amount logged by Sogo & Seibu Co. at the site.

The Ginza-Yurakucho district, home to department stores and designer-brand shops, is going through a change. Department stores continue to suffer as consumers shun high-priced goods, with the five players there logging a roughly 30% drop in combined sales over a decade to 135.1 billion yen in fiscal 2009.

Meanwhile, the area has attracted droves of young people since the arrival of several fast-fashion and low-priced outlets. U.S. discount clothier Forever21 set up shop inside of Matsuzakaya Co.’s department store in Ginza this spring, and volume electronics retailer Laox Co. (8202) is slated to follow next month. Fast Retailing Co. (9983), whose flagship location for its Uniqlo casual apparel business is in Ginza, plans to open an even larger store in the neighborhood next year.

Latest Pictures from 109 Shibuya

This Winter 2009, our team if trendspotters have wrapped up a special report focusing on very popular and fashionable backpacks. Check out our Winter Season Report on : Fashion in Japan.com

If you need any focused special reports from Tokyo, the Fashion Capital, feel free to contact us : loic@fashioninjapan.com

Thank you and best regards,

Loic