Launching a HOT Canadian Fashion Brand in Tokyo - any advice?

[superherox]

HI! So, I am on the pulse of design, marketing and retail strategy for my brand, but I am having trouble articulating the psychographics of the hyper-fashionable Tokyo youth (15-35 Y.O. men and women).

From my point of view they love street culture, but how do they actually spend their time? What are they passionate about? Is this culture truly just one based on fashion, cafes, music, hanging-out, video games, etc? Jeez, I know that sounds so stereotypical, so, please help to expand my knowledge base.

THANKS!! MAX

[ghettocities]

I've been keeping my eyes on just about every big-name clothing boutique and what people are wearing in Tokyo and it's not all that great. People speak highly of Japanese (street) fashion but it's never just one thing. Each person always seems to be wearing different styles and variations of what everyone is wearing, if that makes sense? Also what I've found is that girls and guys in Japan both want to always be better than everyone when it comes to being fashionable and/or stand out more than the person next to them so if you are asking for advice I would say for you to produce/market/sell what in your fashion-sense and heart believe will sell and then, it will sell.

Innovators get paid more, good luck,

Josh
http://www.ghettocitiesclothing.com

[yukio_michael]

It sounds like you are trying to market a clothing brand to the demographic of an entire nation, based on the assumptions picked up from reading some second hand opinions.

You can't think of Tokyo-youth as one single minded entity striving for the same goals. Take a look at this (http://www.jref.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21017) list of various style guide magazines I wrote up in another thread. Get your hands on a few, go from there. That or visit Japan to see for yourself, I don't think you'll be successfull marketing to an "Idea of Japan".

Is this culture truly just one based on fashion, cafes, music, hanging-out, video games, etc?That could be just about any youth culture in any country with a reasonable GDP anywhere, couldn't it?

[nurizeko]

japanese blokes love their jeans.

japanese girls are into denim like shorts, hard to describe but they weat them this time of year so they must be into it.

apart from the hairstyle, most japanese blokes and girls are wearing whatever they like really, i even saw a chick decked out in pink.

just sell something cool and what you think would spread like wildfire in the fad culture of youth anywhere in the developed world.

in japan, i like to get my gear from stussy mostly.

[Mike Cash]

Anything that is going to be hot in Japan is going to be hot because the fashion-conscious read about it in a fashion magazine (which more closely resembles an assemblage of thinly veiled advertisements than a magazine) and followed its dictates.

Sometimes just by watching people on the street in Tokyo I think I could almost pinpoint the day the fashion magazines hit the news stands.

[yukio_michael]

Anything that is going to be hot in Japan is going to be hot because the fashion-conscious read about it in a fashion magazine (which more closely resembles an assemblage of thinly veiled advertisements than a magazine) and followed its dictates.You'll also see the exact same model of whatever is being sold (since there are no criticisms in Japanese magazines, I think that you're right in calling them advertisements).

~
A good way to sell your stuff? Somehow get one of the royal family to mention it.