{"id":30761,"date":"2014-07-07T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-07-06T23:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/?p=30761"},"modified":"2015-04-23T15:06:09","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T06:06:09","slug":"tege-united-arrows-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/2014\/07\/tege-united-arrows-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Hirofumi Kurino of UNITED ARROWS LTD. on \u201cT\u00c9G\u00ca UNITED ARROWS,\u201d an New \u201cEthical\u201d Label"},"content":{"rendered":"

Founded in 1989 in Tokyo, UNITED ARROWS LTD.<\/a> is a specialty retail company with its own unique fashion sense, providing designer brands and original menswear and womenswear as well as accessories and general goods. With fashion-conscious customers as their main target, there are 19 store brands with varying concepts and a total of over 230 stores across Japan.<\/p>\n

This year, the company\u2019s flagship brand, UNITED ARROWS business (UA) launched a new collection called \u201cT\u00c9G\u00ca UNITED ARROWS.\u201d This is a brand and a project founded upon their partnership with EFI (Ethical Fashion Initiative)<\/a>, a segment of the International Trade Centre<\/a>, offering a new approach not only to fashion but also to poverty reduction in disadvantaged communities.<\/p>\n

EFI\u2019s partners include leading designers Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, and many other notables. Through fair trading with these brands\/designers, EFI empowers women in African countries and many other developing countries by generating work and allowing them to become micro-entrepreneurs. UA was one of the first Tokyo-based retailers to join Ethical Fashion Initiative. Hirofumi Kurino, co-founder and Senior Adviser for Creative Direction in UNITED ARROWS LTD., explains: \u201cColorful beadworks and textiles…I had been fascinated by African handicrafts for so long and I had been wishing that we did it ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Hirofumi Kurino<\/strong>
\nSenior Adviser for Creative Direction, UNITED ARROWS LTD.
\nBorn in 1953. Grown up in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. Strong interests in music and illustration in his Jr. and High school. Being placed himself in the Fashion Business field since 1977. As Senior Adviser for Creative Direction, he creates themes that are used across the whole company based on his global research and knowledge of social, cultural and artistic trends, as well as consumer trends and the latest product information. He is also involved in actual product planning and purchasing of some businesses.
<\/p><\/div>\n

How T\u00c9G\u00ca was Born<\/h3>\n

In 2012, EFI talked with Kurino, who agreed to their concept to create truly fashionable items that satisfy both producers and customers; indeed, \u201cethnic\u201d style is very important to UA. As Kurino states: \u201cEthnic style is a fashion that connotes nations\u2019\/tribes\u2019 cultures, arts, and crafts.\u201d The offer from EFI provided an opportunity for UA to create their own original items in Africa, which was what they had been dreaming about for so long.<\/p>\n

This spring, UA has launched their brand with accessories such as necklaces and bags from Kenya, and menswear using original Burkina Faso textiles sewn and finished in Japan.<\/p>\n

\"TEGE-necklace\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"TEGE_clutchbag\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n


\n\u201cProduction delay\u201d is one of the major problems that many brands suffer when working with the most marginalized countries. As is the usual case, textiles ordered from Burkina Faso are in delay. At first, UA were thinking of putting them out for sale by May; however, they are now expecting the sales date to be in July.<\/p>\n

Such delays in production can cause serious problems for the apparel industry, especially those operating under the \u201c2 seasons system\u201d of spring\/summer and autumn\/winter. Therefore, if production is in delay, a company will miss a great opportunity for sales. This causes companies to hesitate to work with such countries; however, UA appear to think differently. Kurino says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were saying that we should do away with the idea of SS\/AW. When it is delivered it is delivered. Because we were just thinking that we should not stick too much with this season\u2019s idea. The climate is changing and it is still very warm in October and still very cold in March here in Japan. <\/p>\n

However, T\u00c9G\u00ca\u2019s items are just the right items and we can get away with that. For example, these suits can be worn until October even if you bought them in July. I think T\u00c9G\u00ca’s range will be coming out with a lot of season-less items.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kurino underlines that he still thinks that quality control and appropriate delivery dates are very important for T\u00c9G\u00ca\u2019s growth. He adds that they need to maintain thorough communications with the EFI team in Africa.<\/p>\n

Creating Together With Local Artisans<\/h3>\n

The original fabrics ordered in Burkina Faso were created through discussions among the three parties involved; that is, the UA team, EFI staff, and the Burkina Faso artisans. The local craftspeople have a large number of fabric samples, which Kurino speaks very highly of due to their \u201cexcellent taste in color.\u201d While checking the samples, the team requests arrangements from the artisans as necessary by showing them color chips or fabric samples that they have brought. However, they don\u2019t ask for interpreters\u2019 or coordinators\u2019 help as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Kurino goes on to say that as follows.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with poor English skills, talking directly to each other can carry our thoughts better. Even when I talk to local people who only speak Bambara, I believe that I can express my feelings better with gestures rather than talking to them through an interpreter, which is accurate only in terms of words. This is because I believe that the artisans\u2019 goal is the same as ours. I think it\u2019s more important to share the same goal rather than the language issues.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"tege-interview-1\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"tege-interview-2\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

To continually bring out high-quality products with a sense of culture is this company\u2019s usual way of making things. Although T\u00c9G\u00ca attracts attention in means of \u201cethical,\u201d however, it was achieved in such a way as to turn a particular ethnic culture into an item by working with a group of partners who share the same goal of \u201cmaking good products.\u201d They respect one another.<\/p>\n

UA say that they intend to visit these countries at least once a year to plan for the next new item. At the same time, they would like to expand this initiative to other locations such as Haiti and Palestine, where EFI works with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are those who are in need in each region, and the respective region has traditional handcrafts that are passed down from generation to generation. We\u2019ll go and visit anywhere if they match with what we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Next Fashion Stream Which Kurino Reads<\/h3>\n

Kurino is a co-founder and current Senior Adviser for Creative Direction in UNITED ARROWS LTD. He is highly respected both at home and abroad as a marketer who comprehensively captures the trends of the times in areas such as politics, economics, music, movies, and the arts (social stream). He predicts the upcoming value concept in fashion for the future as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is a culture, that is to say, three things: 1) quality, 2) creativity, and 3) ethical. <\/p>\n

Recent fashions have had good sales with marketing; such as \u2018because it\u2019s becoming popular\u2019 or \u2018because high-profile persons are wearing it.\u2019 However, I see the end for this type of marketing. Future criteria for consumers to buy things will be something like \u2018this is nicely made with good materials\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019ve never seen anything like this before!\u2019 Additionally, other factors such as \u2018it\u2019s not linked to pollution\u2019 or \u2018it doesn\u2019t use child labor\u2019 will become part of the criteria. According to movements on the world stage, I\u2019m pretty certain about this.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Kurino

Kurino with local artisans, whom he think are ‘super fashionable’. He says he was very inspired by them, and says ‘Seeing how they dress, I felt I should be enjoying fashion more freely.’ (IMAGE: Courtesy of UNITED ARROWS)<\/p><\/div>\n

Therefore, Kurino feels that \u201cthose who have been diligently facing clothes and their customers for many years will have a much better time in the future.\u201d This is precisely because this company has focused and continued its business on the principle of \u201cproviding high-quality products with good service.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe products we carry at UA are all based on cultures. For instance, the quality of cottons, the quality of sewing…we have continued to sell items with \u2018a fund of knowledge\u2019 although I\u2019m not fond of this phrase very much.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s been 25 years since UA was founded. In the interim, fashion consumptions have been rapidly changing. However, UA has constantly passed along its message of \u201cquality\u201d over that time. This is why it has continued to gain popular acceptance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow we convey our messages to our customers is absolutely our own agenda. The important part is the front of our store, so our sales personnel are our messengers. As long as our sales personnel understand the company\u2019s passion, I\u2019m sure it will be properly passed on to our customers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Founded in 1989 in Tokyo, UNITED ARROWS LTD. is a specialty retail company with its own unique fashion sense, providing designer brands and original menswear and womenswear as well as accessories and general goods. With fashion-conscious customers as their main target, there are 19 store brands with varying concepts and a total of over 230 stores across Japan. This year, the company\u2019s flagship brand, UNITED ARROWS business (UA) launched a new collection called \u201cT\u00c9G\u00ca UNITED ARROWS.\u201d This is a brand and a project founded upon their partnership with EFI (Ethical Fashion Initiative), a segment of the International Trade Centre, offering a new approach not only to fashion but also to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":30762,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[592,710,630,521,553],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/03\/with-artisans_en.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30761"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30906,"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30761\/revisions\/30906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.fragmentsmag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}