How have Japanese customers’ consumption habits affected marketing in both America and Japan?

Kiya: In Japan, these products are designed and produced based on necessity. They are made because the originals are unobtainable and if they are found, they are extremely pricey. So the marketing behind the products is not unlike what it was for the same products sixty years ago. We do our best to carry over that style of marketing and advertising, but we have to tweak it because the American market doesn’t view the products in the same light the Japanese. In the West, people aren’t buying these brands because they can’t afford the originals, they’re buying these things because the brands and styles are hot. This varies greatly from how it works out in Japan because there the customers would love to own the originals, but they can’t afford them or can’t find them. Take a deadstock, Sir Guy brand, mid-50′s production atomic print rayon shirt, for example. That shirt would cost you about $300 in the US and about $700 in Japan, so why buy it if you can get an exact reproduction of it for $275 in Japan?  It’s less than half the vintage price and the quality and construction are identical. This is the basis as to why the Japanese market for these brands exists.

If an American is buying something newer because the brands are hot, doesn’t that sort of suggest that the American may not be buying into a story of original construction?

Kiya: It’s hard to say because we do have a large selection of clients who do buy what we sell because of the vintage factor, but a majority is buying it all because they like how it’s constructed, the way it looks and feels, and how it ages over time. People’s reasons for buying what we sell here vary greatly. We do our best to educate our customers about how these pieces we have in our stores are similar to the originals produced years ago and also how there isn’t much else on the market today being made like these garments.