From the beauty of form to the beauty that connects with society. The major transformation occurring in the customer experience of fashion.

As online shifts rapidly advance across all industries, bringing major changes to consumers' values and purchasing processes, a new shopping experience seamlessly connecting online and offline is now demanded.

In February 2021, the Dentsu Group in Japan launched "dentsu SX" ( ※1), a project designed to create new "shopping experiences" for the OMO (Online Merges with Offline) era. The name SX embodies both "Shopping Transformation" and "Shopping Experience," offering one-stop support for strategy, implementation, and operation of customer experiences tailored to the coming era.

The theme of the fourth installment in this series is fashion. Consumers' values and purchasing attitudes toward fashion have changed significantly over the past decade. With further shifts occurring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, what new customer experiences will fashion demand?

Dentsu SX project member Keiko Yamaguchi of Dentsu Inc. Creative X welcomed Kunihiko Morinaga, President and CEO of ANREALAGE and a globally renowned fashion designer, as a guest. Together, they discussed the future of fashion that dentsu SX is exploring.

*1 dentsu SX
A project by seven domestic Dentsu Group companies designed to create integrated online-offline purchasing experiences aligned with the OMO era from the customer's perspective, contributing to corporate business growth in the retail sector. It integrates the Dentsu Group's accumulated business expertise with the insights of strategic partner frog design inc. By combining Dentsu Inc.'s proprietary customer behavior data and cutting-edge technologies like AI and cloud computing with creativity that captures customer insights, it creates unique shopping experiences for brands from the customer's perspective. ( See release for details )

【ANREALAGE】

Established in 2003. The brand name is a coined term combining "REAL" (everyday), "UN REAL" (non-everyday), and "AGE" (era). Guided by the principle that "God is in the details," it expresses the boundary between everyday and non-everyday life in each era through themes like dedication to craftsmanship, the pursuit of the "form" of clothing, and the fusion of technology and fashion. Since its shocking debut at its first Paris Collection in 2014, the brand has regularly held fashion shows at Paris Fashion Week. It has gained global recognition, including collaborations with Fendi at Milan Men's Fashion Week.
https://www.anrealage.com

 

An era demanding not just the beauty of form, but "beauty connected to society"

Yamaguchi: While the "S" in SX stands for "Shopping," I believe it's crucial to also consider "Social" when solving client challenges, especially within the fashion domain.

Fashion has long embodied the cutting edge of society, but the pandemic's shift in lifestyles has sparked major transformation within the industry. Morinaga-san, you've consistently used fashion to raise questions and offer insights about human activities in society. How do you perceive these recent changes?

Morinaga: Fashion originally existed as something needed when meeting others, fundamentally rooted in communication with others. With the loss of physical meeting places, I feel we've reached a point where we must rethink the entire existing system and structure. Particularly, the excessive speed and cycle of production are being reconsidered, aren't they?

Yamaguchi: That's precisely what ANREALAGE embodied even before COVID, right? The fashion that involves burying clothes underground to enjoy the material's transformation through biodegradation was truly shocking.

Morinaga: We've long pondered how to make people cherish and wear a single garment for a long time, as opposed to the mass-production, mass-consumption society that deems shortening a garment's lifespan through rapid cycles as the norm. Simultaneously, we wanted to explore how discarding worn-out items could spark new designs.

That's why we made thread from corn starch and crafted it into clothing. When buried in soil, microorganisms consume this garment, returning it to the earth. The concept is that after about a year, half the material returns to the soil, while the other half is reborn into a new design. We're currently advancing this project on Shodoshima Island and have just buried the garments in the soil. Since the environment, including microorganisms, varies by region, I'm excited to see what kind of clothing emerges after a year.

"Biodegradation Garment" decomposes through soil, water, and temperature. Burying the garment underground and storing it in a high-temperature environment while watering daily for one month allows microorganisms to consume the threads, forming patterns like floral prints or tartan checks. (Photo shows the progression of changes from 0 days, 15 days, to 30 days, from left to right)

Yamaguchi: It's a fascinating initiative, isn't it? While ESG investing has become a hot business term in recent years, more people are gradually beginning to realize that humans don't control all of nature—we are merely one existence among the natural world's living beings. Combined with the impact of the pandemic, it feels like the times are catching up to what Morinaga-san pioneered.

Morinaga: That's right. Since our brand's founding, we've championed themes like fashion that coexists with nature and how to engage with sustainability. But experiencing the pandemic—being unable to travel overseas, losing opportunities to meet people, seeing factories and tailors halt operations, and retail spaces disappear—made us realize anew that we'd been creating under miraculously stable conditions until then.

Yamaguchi: We've sustained our economy through mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal. COVID-19 forced us to pause and ask, "Is this really okay?" Of course, fashion inherently presents visions of the future, so many brands were raising these issues even before the pandemic. The significant shift I see is more consumers finding beauty and appeal in these values.

ANREALAGE A/W 2021-22 COLLECTION "GROUND" Proposes a collection that incorporates the extraordinary into the everyday through shifts in perspective, such as the inversion of heaven and earth or gravity.

If we could digitally transfer tactile sensations, it would revolutionize the fashion shopping experience.

Yamaguchi: The loss of physical touchpoints during the pandemic accelerated the digitization of fashion customer experiences. In an era where buying clothes with your fingertips is becoming commonplace, the challenge is bridging the gap with fashion's inherent physical value.

Morinaga: Regarding visual elements, I believe we've achieved a certain level of integration with digital. However, fashion encompasses many elements that data cannot convey, such as the feel of textiles against the skin. I'm interested in technological expressions that digitally transmit tactile elements and provide physical feedback. If we could remotely convey the texture and temperature of clothing, it would revolutionize the fashion customer experience.

Yamaguchi: That's a theme dentsu SX also wants to pursue. On the other hand, what about the potential of physical stores?

Morinaga: I feel online sales tend to favor concepts and graphics that are easy to understand. That's precisely why stores should pursue special experiences not found on screens or in text. It's crucial for customers to feel that coming here was worthwhile—not just as a place to buy and sell, but through sensory information and communication with staff—to build a deeper relationship with the brand.

Yamaguchi: Experience design will become increasingly important going forward. What will be required then is the power of technology, design, and creativity.

Morinaga: Conversely, if you can't offer a special experience in-store, you won't beat online. We need to refine the value of fashion that can't be fully captured by data.

Yamaguchi: The entire experience—falling in love with something in a special place, purchasing it, taking it home, and wearing it—becomes the brand's value itself. The reason I keep buying ANREALAGE clothes is because of the accumulation of special experiences for me: resonating with the brand's philosophy and concepts, being moved by their Paris Fashion Week presentations. Even just wearing ANREALAGE to the local supermarket gives me this sense of being connected to society somehow, of being able to be myself (laughs).

ANREALAGE S/S 2021 COLLECTION ''HOME'' Exploring homewear that envelops the body like a home, from the perspective of "wearing a house as you would wear clothes."

From material fashion to data fashion

Yamaguchi: Within the tech-fashion trend, avatar fashion is gaining attention. More people globally are dressing their avatars in fashion within virtual worlds.

The underlying mindset is that physical complexes or barriers in the real world prevent them from becoming their ideal selves, so they pursue that ideal self in the virtual world. When I first heard about it, I thought, "Wow, what a world..." But it also feels like a topic touching on the essence of fashion, or more fundamentally, the essence of humanity.

Morinaga: If we consider the power of fashion to be "transforming a person into a different image or appearance," then transforming your virtual self is a perfectly valid form of fashion.

With the advent of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens: unique, irreplaceable digital tokens issued on blockchain), the ability to create and purchase data like haute couture will likely accelerate the fashionization of data. After all, fashion is about seeking something different from others and establishing individuality.

Yamaguchi: That's fascinating. Fashion has traditionally been about people wearing things shaped like clothes, but perhaps things not previously recognized as fashion could become fashion.

Morinaga: Fashion's possibilities are expanding beyond just the virtual realm. For example, before COVID, no one would have imagined masks or face shields becoming fashion items. It's exciting to witness the moment when non-fashion items transform into fashion.

Personally, I designed the protagonist's costumes for the recently released animated film " The Dragon and the Freckled Princess" by director Mamoru Hosoda. These are also fashions that don't exist in the real world, but I believe they will become clothing that stays in many people's hearts. In this way, I feel immense potential in fashion that isn't material, fashion that effortlessly crosses all kinds of boundaries.

The Dragon and the Princess with Freckles ©2021 Studio Chizu

Yamaguchi: I have a feeling Japan could lead the fusion of animation, virtual worlds, and fashion. When I talk with people in the American VR scene, they all passionately express their admiration for Japan. From a global perspective, Japan is becoming a truly special country.

While the fashion industry faces hardship during the pandemic, I believe there are many opportunities leveraging Japan's unique characteristics. I look forward to supporting this alongside Mr. Morinaga. Mr. Morinaga, I look forward to our continued collaboration!

dentsu SX welcomes inquiries and questions from companies. Interested parties are encouraged to contact us via our official website.

Next time, we'll explore changes in the shopping experience within the FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) industry and the actions we should take moving forward.