Boasting 12 floors of fashion, Uniqlo’s concept store in Tokyo’s Ginza district is the brand’s largest. (Photo courtesy of Uniqlo Indonesia)
The Uniqlo store in the Ginza district’s main street Chuo Dori in Tokyo is bursting with colors. It was a rainy Thursday afternoon in December, but the store was jam-packed with locals and tourists.
Thanks to the glass facade, people could not pass the street without noticing the pop of colors from the installation in the store’s atrium. Countless floating balloons in orange, yellow, red, purple and blue instantly caught the eye, bringing one’s attention down to where 10 mannequins were displayed, dressed in the latest autumn and winter pieces in khaki, gray and lime.
For the upcoming season, Uniqlo is about to go bolder.
“We are a bit more colorful and feminine than we have ever been [in the spring/summer collection],” said LeAnn Nealz, Uniqlo’s chief creative officer for global design, adding that colors and patterns have always been the brand’s forte.
Browsing around Uniqlo stores in Tokyo, or any large city, for that matter, is a unique experience. The Ginza store, standing at 12 stories tall, is the fashion retailer’s biggest in the world. Popular features include the UTme! station on the fifth floor, which allows visitors to create a customized Uniqlo T-shirt.
It is also the only store that provides a concierge service, as well as 15 native speakers ready to cater to shoppers in Japanese, English, French, Chinese, Spanish and Korean.
“We have certain global campaigns, but we still operate very local,” said Uniqlo’s co-global chief marketing officer, Jorgen Andersson. “You have to respect the local element, and I think our store opening in Le Marais [Paris], Kichijoji and L.A. show how we try to treat that.”
The store in Kichijoji, one of the most popular residential areas in Tokyo, boasts a lifesize virtual interactive display for children to help their fashion coordination. And instead of using models, the faces you see in their promotional material, including billboards and flyers, are those of local residents, including manga artist Kazuo Umezu.
In April this year, Uniqlo opened another concept store in the highly fashionable district of Le Marais in Paris. Located in a former 19th-century foundry, it also includes an exclusive collection of objects and books curated especially for the store. Meanwhile, the L.A. store was designed with the southern California market in mind.
Andersson has a specific idea of what a Uniqlo store should look like in the future: “I think a store should be like an exhibition where you can feel and touch, but then you can buy by using your phone. If I shop, maybe I don’t want to carry the bags, but I know what I want.”
In his vision, future stores would allow guests to use their smartphone to view the different sizes or colors of an item. Sales transactions should be a few clicks away and purchases can be sent straight to your doorstep.
“Everything has to be seamless. That would be a great service, simple and offers quality,” Andersson said.
The Jakarta Globe was a guest of a media tour to Tokyo sponsored by Uniqlo Indonesia.
The post At Its International Concept Stores, Uniqlo Embraces Local Elements appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.