PROFILE
After working as a buyer at the select store "EDIFICE", he became independent. After working on his own, he launched "Reshop" in 2015. 2019 He started "WEEKEND" with Mr. Nishino of NEAT and Mr. Oshima of HERILL.
PROFILE
Representative of Unthings, Inc. Produces and sells domestic and sports brands such as HERILL, WEEKEND, and DAIWA PIER39.
PROFILE
Director of muroffice, a PR and branding agency for domestic and international fashion and sports brands. He also directs and produces brands and select stores.
PROFILE
After working for the design office "Nakamura Graph", he became independent as "White Solid" in 2016. His main activities include magazine and book design and art direction for exhibition visuals. In addition, as an artist, he has created and exhibited many collage works using paper and books as his main materials and themes.
I'd like to ask you about the International Association of Creators (IAC). I hear that they have a great group of members and that they are working very closely together. The document at hand says
IAC is an association whose members are up-and-coming creators of various items around us, such as clothes, furniture, and household goods. For all "someone" who wants to consume something of real value, IAC creates truly good products together with creators based on their own aesthetic sense, and works to raise the standard of "valuable things" for people in the world. We will continue to raise the standard of "valuable things" for the people of the world.
What kind of project is this in the first place?
Nakamuro：The initiator, or rather the trigger, was Mr. Kaneko, wasn't it?
Kaneko:Yes, I know. But there was a preliminary step before "IAC" was created. Recently, I have been getting more and more opportunities to meet young people through my "reshop" business. When I do pop-ups in the countryside, I meet mostly young people around 20 years old. In talking with them about various things, I heard about their financial situation.
As a student, you don't have a lot of money to spend.
Kaneko:Yes, I have. But many of them are very passionate about fashion. They are also very interested in what I am doing.
Nakamuro：I heard that they are looking at Kaneko-san's Instagram and other stuff very carefully.
Kaneko:Yes, that's right. Around that time, we started (our original label) "LE," which lowered the threshold of the store a little. That brought more and more young people into the store. I thought I was selling clothes for adults, but I discovered that young people were interested in the same things. However, there were some clothes that I couldn't buy because of the price. So I thought there might be a need that was not yet apparent.
Shigematsu:And then there are the student circles.
Kaneko:Ah, yes. I heard from a student client of mine that there is a fashion club that brings together students from various universities.
Is it like an intercollegiate club (a club made up of students from several universities)?
Kaneko:I think so. I heard there are hundreds of them. They are making professional-looking proposals. They put on fashion shows, go to the US to buy things, and hold flea markets afterwards.
That's pretty serious.
Kaneko:Yes. I started thinking about what I could do to help them.
Shigematsu:At first you tried to do a student discount.
Kaneko:Yes, I thought it was important to lower the price hurdle first, so I wondered if we could offer a student discount. I thought that the most effective way to do this would be to offer a discount. But in reality, it would be difficult to do so, so I thought it would be possible to plan products for students and sell them.
Nakamuro：Then we thought about the idea of a co-op, or "THE CO-OP".
I see. So there was "THE CO-OP" before "IAC.
Shigematsu:That's right. I thought that design and art direction would be absolutely necessary for this kind of activity, so I asked Yoshida-kun to join us.
Shigematsu-san and Yoshida-san have been working together for some time, for example on the brand "scair", haven't they?
Shigematsu:That's right. Mr. Kaneko told me that he wanted someone with clear intentions, so I thought Yoshida would be a perfect fit.
Yoshida:So that's what you were talking about (laughs).
Shigematsu:There are many people who just go with the flow, but I thought the quality would be better if there was someone who could stop them in their creations.
You mean you don't take it easy in a good way?
Shigematsu:Yes. And they really didn't go ahead with it easily (laughs).
Kaneko:That's true (laughs). (Laughs.) I definitely have to ask them to wait for a moment.
Yoshida:There were times when I was not able to attend meetings, so I wanted to make sure I listened carefully before I started.
Shigematsu:We exchanged a lot of messages, but they were all going off the rails. It's like we are getting sidetracked. And then we couldn't get back to where we started. I was grateful that Yoshida-kun was able to see this calmly.
