How was “PITTI IMMAGINE UOMO” at Florence and exhibition at the Paris showroom, “showroom.tokyo”, in January?

It was the first time we participated in PITTI IMMAGINE UOMO, but it has a strong aspect of being a place of social exchange for fashion industry people, with a festival-like mood. We have experience exhibiting at Paris many times, but this time it was as an award-winning brand, and we received the best reaction ever. Because presenting a show is a part of the award program, we increased the number of styles than usual, and were more conscious of showing the whole as a collection. I think this worked as a positive factor also. On the other hand, because of the increase in business talks with shops and retailers we never had contact with before, we were able to gain much insight on how our clothes could be made better, including bettering quality.

Due to the spread of COVID—19, the second “showroom.tokyo” scheduled to be held in July was changed to establishing an online showroom in “JOOR PASSPORT”. How do you feel about that?

We had been receiving orders from overseas shops through online business in the past, so we didn’t feel any discomfort. Of course, I think it lacks in how much we can convey to the buyers compared to face-to-face meetings, but there was no large difference due to the change in the system. However, we needed to prepare more information material in advance, and whether it’s stills or movies, I felt, the more we think the more there is we could do.

The triumphant return event in Tokyo Fashion Week scheduled for March was cancelled and carried out afresh in October. With what kind of mindset did you face it?

When the show got cancelled in March, we didn’t want to let all our hard work and preparations go to waste, so we created a concept movie. With that, I sort of put an end to it inside my mind, so I felt a slight hesitation when I first heard it would be held afresh in October. But most of the other award-winning brands had a strong will to challenge themselves, which became a booster for me to challenge myself too. We received grave reactions to the show, and received all sorts of opinions from people, including those who never had a chance to see our show before. This time in doing this show, I was made acutely aware of the difficulties of presenting a show, but at the same time, I think, challenging this difficult task as a team has been a great experience for us, and I have a real feel that our level has risen.

What kind of experience has participating in the programs of the TOKYO FASHION AWARD been for the brand?

There was just so much unknown to us, we were going about it the whole time through trial and error, but exchanging information, getting advice from other award-winners was an extremely good experience. The Tokyo Olympics was supposed to be held this year per se, so I thought I had won the award in good timing, and never in my wildest dream did I imagine it would end up this way. To be honest, there were many difficulties, but at the same time, I think it is because we braved doing a runway show under such difficult situations that we were able to receive such grave reactions, and looking back now, I feel it wasn’t all bad.

Please tell us your plans for the future.

At this moment, I don’t have any specific goals such as want to present a show at Paris in the future or want to increase sales up to so much. To begin with, I’ve never placed much importance on such things. What I wish to realize is to influence the mentality of our customers through the philosophy and principle of the brand. At this point we have not yet been able to leave behind satisfactory results, so I intend to continue activities steadily and earnestly, while contemplating what it is, we need to do.