Tokyo trend report

Tokyo Trend Report 2016

Sophie Churchill

Botanic Beauty

Appreciating and getting closer to nature was a noticeable interior trend spotted during the Tokyo visit. The focus was on embracing the earth, letting the outdoors come in and blurring the lines between the interior and exterior space.

The leeway for a high-gloss feminine finish in this trend is minimal, so the focus was predominantly on utilising real, raw and natural materials. Think rustic, grit, metallic undertones, industrial wear and tear, spotlight lighting and mirrored reflections all being merged into one story where the leading lady is the lush green plant.

The emotion was also a little moodier than other foliage and floral trends. Paint colours were muddier and earthier with dark green feature walls as well as layered plant varieties creating a story about a forest, an adventure.

Keeping the trend lush, too, was also a focus. Dark green leaves were used heavily, more so than flowers or floral decoration. Red and pink were the only two colours depicted and used solely to create accents in the space.

Inside Frames From luxury to high street, many retail spaces in Tokyo were incorporating steel and wood structures to frame products and items.

From a marketing point of view, when considering route to consumer and how to engage and persuade them to an eventual product purchase, a garment, book, accessory, for example, that has been highlighted by a frame, means the product instantly becomes a focal point to the consumer. Several stores highlighted products using a shadow or display box. Whatever the scale or material used, all of them served their purpose: emphasising specific products, making them special and significant.

It is interesting to note that the structures and frames built to highlight the products and items were simple, basic and clean cut. They tapped into the ‘make-do-and-mend’ emergent trend, the concept of a D.I.Y project. This was then continued in-store, with simple structures built ‘handyman style’, for example wooden box changing rooms, white sheets making up a tent to display shoes and authentic rowing boats used to showcase clothing.

A Clean Slate

Space and simplicity were the two retail focuses captured in Tokyo. The minimalist in-store design contrasted against the vibrant patterns and colours of garments and items on display, creating impact and drawing the consumer to the product. This was a visual behaviour and trait seen in most retail stores in both Shibuya and Ginza. It is as if every individual store was given a clean slate when designing their retail space, yet they each ended up with the same visual aesthetic: minimal and modest visual merchandising, concentrating on the products.

Each item had a set place. Meticulous placement created a polished and clean-cut finish.

This was seen in both home-ware, where pots and crockery were individually positioned, rather than as a collective set and also in fashion, as seen above, where the mannequins were positioned away from the bags, heightened by a cylindrical pedestal.

Celebrating Diversity

If a click of a mouse is all it takes to order a new item of clothing these days, where’s the need for shopping centres? Yet, even though there is an unavoidable e-commerce rise, Tokyo retail developers have upped their game, celebrating a brand’s individual personality. Engaging, provoking and inspiring, these brands were communicating with their consumer in a way the Internet shopping experience cannot challenge.

Along Omotesando, there were many high end, luxury concept and fashion stores. The brands along Omotesando, for example, Dior, Chanel, Tom Ford and Celine, have the ability to begin a project, as big as designing the architecture to their store from scratch, with a large budget and the knowledge that their target market will appreciate the intricate detail and decisions made to the exterior aesthetic. At the boutique end of the market in Tokyo you find “starchitect” designs, such as Lucien PellatFinet’s new concept store, Kengo Kuma, which has a plywood interior cladding that resembles honeycomb.

Herzog and de Meuron’s Prada store was one of the most innovatively creative and inspiring stores along Omotesando. It reshaped both the concept and function of shopping, pleasure and communication, encouraging the meshing of consumption and culture.

The building was strikingly unconventional. It was a six-story glass crystal building and despite the sharp angles it offered a soft finish - a result of the varying flat, concave and convex glass panes. Within, the structural cores and tubes morphed seamlessly into elevators, stairs, fitting rooms and display shelves, giving a sense of continuous shopping space, very much integrated into the architecture.

The Prada building sat in the corner of it’s own mini site, creating a small entrance plaza – an effective gesture of restraint from an otherwise rather unrestrained building.

“Tokyo is a city where not a single building relates to its neighborhood, and every building fills its whole site. We took a chance in creating a little space outdoors, like in European cities. We also reversed the typical Japanese emphasis on looking inward by giving importance to the view.” - Herzog

Think Wonka

Ever considered having a conversation or even singing a duet with a toilet? Tempted to get lunch from a seafood vending machine? Are you a thrifty shopper who fancies purchasing shoes that come with their very own umbrella? Well take a trip to Tokyo, where anything and everything is possible. A trend spotted whilst in Tokyo was creative innovation and product development. Nothing was judged, scrutinised or dismissed; it seemed all ideas were worthy of acceptance from Japanese consumers.

Therefore, if you want to pick up on emergent product developments and ideas, whether in technology, arts, lifestyle and/or culture then Tokyo is the place to go.

In short: Tokyo is to idea generation, as Willy Wonka is to chocolate.

Pride and Reminisce Forget Pride and Prejudice. Think pride and reminisce.

Tokyo owns a community built on support and they revel over their traditions, rich culture and heritage.

There is far from a solitude feeling, more of a focus on communal help, safety and security.

The people of Tokyo are incredibly proud to explain and present their historical cultural background. This can range from regular temple visits at Ueno Park, to publically conforming to Geisha attire and dress, as captured on the street-style trend page later on. In regards to cuisine, it was seen as a great asset and an admired skill if you could produce beautiful plates of sushi as well as fragrant and delicate ramen dishes. Chefs were highly regarded in the restaurants. They were artists in their own right.

Anime: Blurred Lines

On a global scale, manga is increasing in popularity as more people are reading comics and watching TV programmes based around fictional characters. It was noted in Tokyo, however, that the female characters depicted in these comics often had unnaturally curvaceous figures, delicate noses and mouths with extremely large sparkly eyes.

Anime was a big focus in Japan, being seen in both entertainment and culture, from fashion, lifestyle, e-commerce, marketing and advertising etc.

There were coffee shops and restaurants with anime themes and women dressed in specific anime costumes, like the Maid CafĂŠ where cute young women dressed up as anime milkmaids. Interspersed amongst those coffee shops were stores that sold huge varieties of anime clothing, gadgets etc.

It could be argued that anime had moved from the television screen, a virtual world, into that of reality, a real world. A blurred line was seen between fantasy and reality.

However, a key insight gathered after visiting Tokyo was how anime had crossed another boundary, influencing younger Japanese women in both beauty and fashion. Women had heavily highlighted eyes, thick black eyeliner, layers of fake eyelashes and heavy mascara creating a visual of unusually large eyes. Was it the idealisation of a Caucasian woman? No, it was the idealisation of an anime cartoon character, a virtual fantasy.

Bookstores were offering step-by-step guidelines on how to make your eyes larger with make up tools and techniques. Advertising was being geared towards pushing consumers to buy into the anime-like model look being seen in the campaigns and photo booths, where you had the option to enlarge and edit the colour of your eyes.

Catwalk Community

A summary of key insights from the districts and places visited: Harajuku- The district which shared Kawai Tokyo styles with the world. A very unique fashion taste was seen here. There were many young people who had an excellent sense of selection, creating a free, individual style, which ignored any theories. Their fashion style combined clothing from the likes of mode, casual, traditional and second-hand garments.

Shibuya- The district where changes in trends were the most intense. Culture which overturns common knowledge was born in every generation in Shibuya. The people of Shibuya were reacting to trends sensitively, incorporating statement ontrend pieces with garments that expressed their individuality. The end result was a unique style, created by them, adapted from the catwalk. This district helps a trend forecaster understand what is going on with the youth of Japan.

Omotesando- The refined high-fashion district. The streets were lined with famous brand name shops. The people who gathered here had a refined style. The district featured stylish fashions based on monotone colours.

Daikanyama- The district with particular styles in a relaxed atmosphere. It essentially was high society dulled down, ‘the relaxed modest upper class’’. There was closeness between the people and the designers, where they are not often swayed by trends.

Platform shoes with added features such as pom-poms or buckles as well as Sukajan Japanese satin jackets seemed to be garnering the most attention in Tokyo when analysing street style. The jackets had a strong image embroidered on them such as a tiger, dragon or hawk while the rest of the jacket had a simple design. In street fashion, most people wore plain shirts underneath these jackets.

Ginza- The grown-up district, which incorporated both luxury and fast-fashion.

People with elegance and a relaxed vibe gathered here. Luxury brand name bags and watches were a must-have accessory among shoppers in Ginza. It was a story of rough meeting high class, combined with the desire to shop fast-fashion, saving the pennies.

Sophie Churchill