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Shinsaku Kakita, who manages Hanamusubi, a kimono shop in Mitsukoshi department store’s main store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. The shop is aiming to invite new customers to the stagnant kimono market, including introducing new kimono styles by reaching out to young designers. (Yomiuri Shimbun)
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We’d like to introduce a new kimono culture while preserving their traditional charms. We recommend customers wear kimono and go out without worrying about formalities.
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6 Comments
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Tessa
Why is the kimono market so stagnant? Have people finally started to realize what a rip-off the whole deal is? I have friends who have bought kimono costing more than $10,000 that they only wore once in public before mothballing them.
_Jack
And its not only the extreme cost, but also the extreme amount of time and knowledge it takes to put one on. People have better things to do these days than soak up their time with the same airy trifles as the rich of the 18th century.
Tessa
@_Jack I agree. Imagine if women still wore crinoline or hoop skirt!
gaijinfo
Kimonos are like Tuxedos. You only wear them once or twice (most people).
And since most people aren't rich, most people aren't buying kimonos.
Maybe if this guy would cut prices instead of trying to "introduce a new culture" sales would pick up.
That's generally what most businesses (at least since the dawn of time) have done when sales are slow. Lower prices.
sillygirl
Kimono are quite lovely but a pain to put on and wear. I cannot see how they could introduce "new culture" to something that is so time consuming. Keep your pricey goods.
philly1
I'm all for Casual Kimono--if there were a way to simplify putting one one quickly by one's self without it resembling a bathrobe. As is, a kimono is not only formal, but it also restricts both breathing and walking and requires various accessories to look good. Cleaning it isn't easy either.
It's very hard to re-brand high-end stuff for ordinary folks. For a while potters in England successfully marketed "The Queen's Plate" to the merchant & middle classes who wanted to emulate aristocrats. For many generations those treasures were handed down to the next. However, millennials and the upcoming generations aren't interested.
The current trend is to purchase stuff made cheaply that can be thrown away. Full sets of grandmother's china sit in thrift stores and second hand shops and can't be sold even for a pittance. In some respects, kimono are like that.