An Era of Growth and Stability on Cards in Japanese Retail Sector

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According to Japan Consuming reports, the apparel market of Japan is all set to witness an era of growth and steadiness after two years of decline.

Although the apparel sales recorded an incremental growth of 0.4 percent in the fiscal year 2012, a strong growth rate of 5.2 percent was averaged by the top 100 retailers in the market. With such impressive growth rate, market leaders have acquired above 60 percent share of the apparel market. Most of the growth was delivered by the specialty chains but the e-commerce businesses also delivered handsome sales growth in the market.

The fiscal year 2012 was a good year for apparel retail stores in Japan. In spite of recording less than 2.3 percent sales growth of the year before, the market was on path of recovery only for the second time since 2003. The highlights of overall Japanese apparel retailing are as follows:

• Year on year average sales growth among the top 100 was 5.2 percent, increase of a significant 2.0 points on FY 2011.

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• The real growth came basically from two channels. While e-commerce rose nearly 7.2 percent, specialty retailing recorded 10 percent growth. The general merchandise stores or supermarkets and department stores went down 1 percent on average, indicating greater stability in these channels.

• Specialty chains dominated the top 10 retailer list of the highest growth. Direct marketers Jupiter Shop Channel and Start Today were also in the list.

• The top 100 retailers in combine shared more than 63 percent of the apparel market and 48 percent of apparel, accessories and footwear market.

Specialty Chains Dominate but E-Commerce Growing Fast Too

In the last 15 years, the specialty chains have been successfully increasing their market share as an apparel vendor. All the new entrants have infused the sector with new growth, innovation and ideas. There are several new entrants, such as Mash Style Lab, Trinity Arts and F.O. International, in the top 100 rankings.

All the new developments in Japanese retail market say volumes about the presence and influence of Japanese fashion trends on the global platform.

Post by Beautiful Places to visit in Japan.

With Autumn Passed, Hope for a Remarkable Summer Fashion Trends in Japan

Long locks of hair, tanned skin and the long nails are keen to make a statement on the global platform. If this kind of fashion sense appeals to you, well you are one of the Black Diamond women.

This fashion trend is very much there to see on the streets of Japan. This fashion trend has been dubbed as “gal” and is ready to fly in the face of conventional ideas of feminine beauty. The pale skin and black hair trend has its root in the Japan of 1990s. This was the time, when Japanese fashion trends started to evolve. Dying hair brown and going to tanning salons was a hit thing amongst the teen girls in Japan.

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The rebel fashion trend can be very much seen in the fashion district of Harajaku and other areas.

With the onset of summer season, airy and floral patterned clothes are very much in demand. But, when it comes about the ongoing fashion trends, you will like to take note of the previous trend that made its presence felt in between the youths and teenage population of Japan.

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 The autumn season in Japan is all about vibrant colours and furs. Last season was also very much patterned on the same fashion trends. Tailored jackets and trousers with blocked hats were something outrageously preferred by the Japanese women. The fashionable wears were supplemented with old men’s slipper like shoes and cardigans. British fabrication had a large influence on this fashion trend.

The Stunning Lure is one brand that most of the Japanese people are in love with. The edgy and individual collection available at the brand’s showroom is incredibly wearable. With a vast range of sportswear, Stunning Lure was one of the most popular brands in the previous autumn season.

The topshop had a great range of biker’s jacket. Irrespective of the high price range, these jackets were quite popular amongst the bikers. Most of them preferred to couple the jacket with black boots.

And, who says patterned clothes no more look classy and fashionable? If you look at the previous season’s Japanese fashion trends, you will realise that these are still in fashion. The key motive behind this fashion trend was to lift up the mood.

Fur items are always in demand in Japan. A large number of Japanese women had adorned fur clothes with lots of vigour and enthusiasm.

Last but not the least; accessories have always been very popular in Japan. Supplementing the dresses with designer and colourful accessories has always been a stylish thing in the Japan.

With so much of choices available in the last autumn season, hope for a remarkable summer fashion trends is very high amongst the Japanese fashionistas.

New Trends Engulf Japan this Spring-Summer by Pretzel William

Japan Explicitly Welcoming the Stylishness of the West for Autumn-Winter collection

Last year’s autumn had witnessed how Japan had welcomed style statements that were chic and wonderful. The autumn winter collection had brought with it one-of-a-kind clothing inspired by the glitz of the west and the simplicity of the east. I had witnessed the eye-catching collection stocked by some of the major fashion stores across Tokyo. They were so tempting that I had effortlessly bagged quite a number of autumn outfits.

While wandering about these shops, I had noticed that a majority of fashion outlets were solely selling autumn winter collection. I was completely floored by the wide range of winter wear sold across Tokyo and other parts of Japan; previously I had noticed trousers and tailored jackets dominantly rule men’s winter wardrobe collection; but last year I was quite surprised to find the same jackets and trousers capture women’s attention. Additionally there were the elderly sporting simple cardigans and pairing their woolens with slipper type shoes.

Being a shopaholic I can’t resist myself from visiting shops; I was completely head over heels for the edgy and wonderful collection offered by Stunning Lure. Most of all the wardrobe collection included everything that looked wearable and beautiful to me. Again!! I could not hold back my temptations as my eye balls started exploring the vivid colours used for the trendy looking sportswear.

As I did a quick go through, I found the autumn collection bear resemblance with previous year’s UK fashion trends. Top shop was selling one of the finest rider jackets for winter; the cool full sleeved upper outfits outwardly spoke of stylishness; though after seeing the price tags I had to quit the idea of bagging a few of those winter wrap-ups. The problem arose when I was trying to find biker wears for a reasonable price. There weren’t any and I was quite heart-broken at it. 

While studying last year’s Japanese fashion trend during the winter months, I had chanced upon women wearing patterned clothes that were stylish. The solid colours added to beauty of the patterns. I even found some people sporting clashing patterns; wow!! They all looked incredibly smart in the contrasting designs. Clash patterns are nowadays making quite news in the fashion industry. Fur-wears were also amongst the top choices for japans’ Autumn Winter collection. While some were donning dyed fur, others kept it simple with natural tones. I personally feel that the natural tones add a little more stylishness to the furry attires. Last year’s Autumn-Winter wardrobe collection wooed me quite a lot and I am expecting that this year’s winter season will arrive with even more interesting fashion collections.

A Look at Evolving Fashion Trends in Japan

On my last visit to Japan, when I went to photograph some street fashion, I saw that the streets were already filling up with various new fashion trends that were fresh in the year 2013. Whoever still thinks that Japanese fashion is only about kimonos is highly mistaken. Japanese fashion trends are influenced by the ‘west’ but very well moulded to fit the Japanese climate. Some fashion trends are extremely funky while others are a little outlandish.

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W all know Japan to be the epitome of culture and heritage but in recent times, Japan has picked up pace and is now moving toe to toe with rest of the fashion world, if not ahead. Japan is a mixture of the old and the new; it is a country where antiquity meets modernity. However, Japanese people are extremely fashion conscious and are always dressed for the occasion.

As summer has almost set in, I saw many women wearing beautiful floral prints. Therefore, this season, if you take a look at the streets of any metropolis in Japan you will find women sporting a lot of floral prints. It could be dresses, shirts or blouses but fancy floral prints are definitely the talk of the town. These summery prints are highly in demand.

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Japanese fashion trends change every season much like fashion trends in any other country. The Japanese follow trends prevalent in all the fashion capitals of the world. So, don’t be stunned to see the trends of New York, Paris and Milan being sported by the people of Japan. If we talk about fashion trends, we can’t really leave out hairstyles, now can we? I saw a lot of women especially teenagers and girls in their early twenties, sport pretty hairstyles with wonderful accessories. I even saw some with simple plaits but gorgeous accessories. Some even sported OTT (Over the Top) accessories and yet carried them off beautifully.

Another very interesting and eye-catching theme I saw parading the streets of Japan was the cat-woman theme. Everything from headgear to footwear has a very cute cat style look. I saw girls sport caps with cat ears on them, skirts with ‘whiskers’ printed, et al. This trend is definitely growing in Japan and might be a huge hit this season. To study more about fashion trends in Japan you can check out some magazines and blogs on the net. Summer fashion in Japan has loads to offer.

An insight into new fashion trends in japan from Pretzel William