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Mr Kudo holds up a seamless garment in Takashimaya's Tokyo store
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Established as a clothing retailer in 1831, Takashimaya Company Ltd entered into the department store business in 1922. Since then, the company has grown to become Japan's largest department store operator with sales in financial 2004 just under the ¥1,000 billion mark.
Latest figures reveal that clothing represents 37% of its total sales revenue. Knitwear is an important part of these sales, and it is interesting to note how the company divides its branded knitwear product up by demographic sector. Knitwear manager for the Tokyo store, Mr Kudo, explained: "Each knitwear brand at this branch is separated into product for different age groups. For example, our 'Decoro' clothing brand is all about mid-priced items which are aimed at 55 - 65 year old ladies. Within this brand, knitwear represents around 70% of the product range."
Here, explains Kudo, there is no reason to follow fashion trends. Instead, consumers like to know they can rely on garments that fit, and are comfortable, therefore the style is quite basic. "To be honest, the style doesn't change radically. Colours, motifs and raw materials may change from season to season, but shapes, sizes and style do not. At the moment, intarsia is selling well and jacquard knits are popular with the older generation but they must have subtle patterns or subtle colour contrasts."
Kudo also explained how Takashimaya works with its suppliers to produce garments that flatter the older lady. "For 'Decoro' we specify knitting techniques which create a wider, longer or larger front body than back body. That way you don't have the hem rising up in front like you typically do with a same size front and back body."
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Takashimaya is Japan's biggest department store retailer
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Interestingly, Kudo says this is where WholeGarment knitwear can serve this elderly market. Normally, WholeGarment is associated with fashion knitwear for the younger generation, but Takashimaya believes that seamless can benefit older people through comfort. "We see comfort with no side seams as an important story. Good, flattering silhouettes and nicely draped knitwear are appreciated by the older generation of Japanese consumer. This is where seamless can score well."
These garments generally produce a good return on investment since the buyers also have a large disposable income. For example, the pink 'Decoro' WholeGarment cardigan (pictured, below) is knitted from wool (77%), acrylic (18%), and nylon (5%) and made in Japan. It retails at ¥23,100 ($220).
Meanwhile, the Decoro fully fashioned knitwear at Takashimaya is supplied by Chinese company Viction, which itself is owned by a Japanese holding company. The retail giant also sources knitwear from Sanyo Shokai and Onward Kashiyama. "Basically there are around 3 – 4 factories in Japan and three factories in China which supply knitwear to the Decoro brand," revealed Kudo. "The knitwear we source from China is basically either simple plain fabrics and cashmere hand intarsia products. Whereas we source the more complex designs and WholeGarments domestically."
Takashimaya only started selling seamless Decoro knitwear around 18 months ago. In fact, the Decoro brand itself is just two and a half years old. So as a percentage of knitwear sales right now, WholeGarment is still very small. "In all 15 stores we have sold around 2500 pieces this season. This equates to around 4000 garments per year."
The company has also experimented at it's Tokyo store with Shima's visual fitting system which scans individual customers so they can order custom-made knitwear. "That was a great success. Especially for people who wanted custom-made oversize garments, which they couldn't purchase off the peg. In one week we sold 200 seamless garments worth ¥5 million ($45,000)." However, Takashimaya used this in-store presentation as just a one-off event to raise awareness of seamless garments.
"It might be more glamorous to be involved with the retail of fashion knitwear," said Kudo, "But in some ways in a department store its more difficult to stay within set limits for quality, pricing and style than it is to come up with new and challenging designs." And while WholeGarment knitwear will never be the total solution to Takashimaya's sourcing policy, Kudo says, "we utilise WholeGarment to obtain a certain level of consistency and pricing, affordability and quality as part of our whole knitwear product line."
