Generation Z and Tech: The Future of Luxury

Decoded Fashion Tokyo Summit 2016, a global event connecting technology and luxury fashion. This time, Takahashi U spoke with Kaie Murakami, CEO of SHIMONE INC., and Gomi Hayakawa, a Generation Z representative who has run her own brand since her teens, both scheduled to speak at Decoded Fashion.

Things that are easy to understand and look good on social media become popular.

U: Hayakawa-san, you're participating in Decoded Fashion this time representing Generation Z. Do digital natives really have no resistance to exposing themselves on SNS?

Hayakawa: Not at all. For my generation, SNS like Mobage and mixi were familiar from when we started using flip phones in middle school. With Facebook's arrival, everyone started using SNS under their real names, and resistance vanished overnight. It started carrying as much meaning as face-to-face communication.

Murakami: Hayakawa, do you know more people through social media than in real life?

Hayakawa: Overwhelmingly, my connections are through SNS.

U: You also cast people you met through SNS as models for your own brand's shows, right?

Hayakawa: Ten years ago, gathering members to put on a fashion show would have taken forever. You'd be lucky to find a few like-minded people at vocational schools or apparel workplaces. With SNS, you can meet hundreds or thousands of people with the same tastes and then select those you really click with. You can instantly identify people you resonate with. I think I was able to gather people by doing branding that seemed fun.

U: People with high sensitivity like you seem to naturally excel at self-branding. Are there many like that around you?

Hayakawa: Plenty. On social media, the ability to choose your community is huge. It could be anime, or fashion. Because the preferences are more specific than in a vague group like school, it's easier to understand how you should behave.

Murakami: Hayakawa, do you feel like personality formation is the same in both the real world and SNS?

Hayakawa: I think people fall into two groups: those who feel like they're talking to a limited number of people, and those like me who use it for branding. The latter group separates their real life and persona to some extent, but their online reputation does impact their real life. The line between ordinary people and celebrities is blurring.

Kids who are good at branding are like marketers. They know things like posting at this time gets more likes, or that cropping photos here works best. Even with clothes, before you might just care about what a few people around you thought, but now you consciously choose based on being seen by a much larger crowd.

U: So things that look good on social media and are easy to understand become popular. Lately, it's big silhouettes, cat motifs, and red lipstick.

Murakami: Women's makeup has changed dramatically too. Especially how blush is applied—I feel it's shifted toward emphasizing dimensionality for the sake of photos.
While most people still feel their primary life is in the real world, a significant number will likely see their main domain shift to SNS.

U: The tendency to act in real life to get more likes and hashtags seems likely to accelerate.

Enhancing emotional value with technology

U: While SNS has improved self-branding, aren't brands finding it increasingly difficult to lie?

Hayakawa: Staged content that inspires people to dress up on SNS is welcomed, but deception gets thoroughly exposed. If the photo looks great but the real thing is underwhelming, it gets posted online instantly. People who just want to criticize keep appearing, making it a tough time for brands. That's precisely why I think it comes down to the brand's own policy.

Murakami: That's a challenge facing every brand right now. The difficulty luxury businesses face is that transparency becoming the norm creates a structural contradiction: it flattens hierarchies and everything else. Amidst this, the current supply of products to the market is overwhelmingly saturated compared to consumption levels. If left unaddressed, products risk being ignored. Even when attempting to communicate, the very grammar of that communication has changed, making careless statements increasingly risky. Compounding this, manufacturers offering products of comparable quality to luxury brands at lower prices have emerged. This necessitates explaining the rationale and value behind those price points to customers.

Brands now face an era demanding a shift in thinking and significant investment to anticipate these changes in consumer and societal mindsets, develop approaches that resonate widely, and spread that understanding. The days when appealing to a brand's history or craftsmanship guaranteed high prices and social legitimacy are over. We are being forced to break away from 20th-century branding methods.

U: Beyond the product itself, I believe there's value in the communication with the brand—or rather, the purchasing experience.

Hayakawa: For cost-conscious items, people are shifting to e-commerce, but for fashion, I still believe in-person sales hold value.

U: True. Would you really want to be served by a robot when you go shopping? Especially with luxury brands, you expect that sense of wonder in the store space, the meticulous service, and the staff's taste.

Hayakawa: It's a bit of a niche category, but the service at Lolita shops in Harajuku is incredibly intimate. Customers appreciate when staff casually remember things like, "This would look great with that dress you bought last time."

Murakami: Emotional communication transcends generations and brings joy. Technology can complement and expand such actions. I once developed an app to support sales interactions. It registered items tried on, purchased, sizes, etc. Staff could then reference this data during the customer's next visit, allowing salespeople to understand the customer's wardrobe and past purchasing history to tailor their service. It's essentially the solution-based approach to "omotenashi" (hospitality).

Hayakawa: Surprisingly, that kind of information often isn't linked to loyalty cards, is it? I see it in cosmetics sections, though.

Murakami: I think the simple bottleneck is managing personal information. Especially information related to the body tends to be sensitive. However, there's also data showing that companies afraid to hold personal information are less likely to innovate.

U: Technology might just overcome that hurdle.

Fashion × Technology quietly evolves in everyday life

U: Since last year's Decoded Fashion, we've seen diverse examples of fashion × tech.

Murakami: Last year's Decoded Fashion was packed with diverse proposals showing the future awaiting fashion—I found it a really interesting experiment. This time, I expect we'll move beyond last year's "Innovation!" phase toward more realistic, practical ideas.

Hayakawa: I think there are some technologies that are good, but their presentation is off. Like, "Why do clothes or shoes need to glow!?". It feels somehow inauthentic. The other day, I saw news about a scarf made of light-reflecting material, favored by celebrities to ward off paparazzi. It looked like a stylish patterned scarf at first glance, but it had this "Tech!" vibe that surprised me.

Murakami: Hmm, that optical camouflage effect is pretty cool, right? When you take a photo with a strobe, the woven reflector absorbs the light, making everything except the scarf appear dark. But that only works for photos. Several companies are now developing entirely different approaches to achieve the same effect for video. They're exploring which fields might provide the technology needed.

U: Any other approaches in fashion × tech you're keeping an eye on?

Hayakawa: I'm also interested in 3D knitting. There's this open-source hardware overseas called OpenKnit, which is like a 3D printer for knitting. The idea of easily making knitted items at home is exciting—like being able to knit a replacement sock if you lose one, or turning product ideas into samples instantly.

Murakami: Currently, the most advanced field in 3D printing technology within the fashion industry is knitwear. Starting with Wolford's tights, circular knitting forming technology has spread, being adopted from innerwear to, more recently, sneakers.

Also, ultrasonic sewing machines—though not a new technology. Simply put, it's a welding process, so it leaves no stitch holes. Originally used for military applications, UNIQLO applied this technology to their seamless down jackets launched last year. They were truly exceptional pieces, offering both convenience and decorative appeal, and they certainly give us a glimpse of next-generation standard garment manufacturing. Japan is accelerating development in the chemical fiber field, so this kind of technology has high affinity here.

Hayakawa: Before you know it, everything you own incorporates that technology.

U: That might actually be what makes it innovative.

The seeds of innovation lie in solutions for minorities

U: Coco Chanel is considered innovative because she liberated women in her era, right? Hayakawa-san, you've gained support by creating underwear for those with smaller busts. Where did that idea come from?

Hayakawa: I recently saw survey results claiming C-cup women are the most common in Japan. But upon closer inspection, the basis was bra sales figures. If you mass-produce C-cup products, that result is inevitable. Yet in reality, many women have smaller or larger busts. Larger sizes command higher prices, so commercializing them generates sales. Conversely, smaller sizes had few options.

In categories where volume is determined by numbers, new products or things that fit you well won't emerge. That's precisely why I believe there are markets that can flourish by capturing real opinions and demand overlooked by large corporations.

Murakami: What's interesting about Hayakawa's approach is that it's not about overall optimization. They create clear segments and focus intensely on fulfilling the desires of the people within those segments. While it might seem like they're narrowing the market, the potential size of those specific markets is actually quite large. Fundamentally, in an era where values are so divergent and diverse, the idea of one product being good for everyone is nothing but a fantasy.

Hayakawa: Even with mass customization, I believe the demand lies with the minority, not the majority enjoying customization. Think of custom-made bras or shoes using 3D printing.

Murakami: In footwear, custom insoles for leather shoes are incredibly advanced. People in their 50s and 60s spend tens of thousands of yen annually just for that.

U: So there's a physical necessity there.

Murakami: The walking shoe market is growing rapidly worldwide. Demand for custom insoles is particularly high. Products born from medical perspectives and customization become necessities, not just fashion.

Hayakawa: Design aligned with purpose should come before technology as a means.

Murakami: With the emergence of Generation Z and communities of powerful minorities—fragmented yet possessing strong influence and reach—mass consumers are being drawn along, shifting their values regarding purchases. Hayakawa-san's participation in this Decoded Fashion event likely means that by listening to the voices of those driving these new values, we can glimpse a blueprint for the future of the fashion business.

U: How will technology and social media transform the context of the fashion business? I'm looking forward to seeing how this unfolds.