Cariru offers rental services for brand bags and other high-end items.

Amid the drop in spending on luxury fashion symbolized by Louis Vuitton cancelling its plans for another flagship store in Tokyo, the website Cariru.jp (which means “rent” in Japanese) provides an innovative solution for frugal consumers with a rental service for designer bags and other high-end fashion items. Users need to register at the site, and then can select a bag from a wide selection of designer brands. Their item of choice is then shipped to the user’s home. A weekly rental of a Gucci or Louis Vuitton bag starts at 6,000 yen (around $60). After the rental term, users can return the item, rent
it for a longer term, or choose to buy it.

Shoppers browse in Japan

When Swedish fashion retailer H&M opened its first Japanese store in the upscale shopping district of Ginza, more than 5,000 people lined up to be the first in Japan to wear H&M goods. The fashionable, yet reasonably priced clothing has scored a hit with cost-conscious savvy savers admist an economic downturn in Japan. Now that H&M has opened a store in the street fashion center of Harajuku and is planning a third in the nearby youth mecca of Shibuya, many are wondering about the effect it will have on smaller, pricier Japanese brands.

On September 13th, H&M, the popular Swedish fashion chain, opened the doors of its first store in Japan, located in Tokyo’s Ginza district. After having conquered Europe, North America and large areas of Asia and the Middle East, taking on the Japanese market next seemed the logical next step.

Shoppers show their excitement on H&M

Established in 1947, H&M currently has over 1,500 stores in 28 countries, making it the world’s No. 3 clothing retailer, but it has taken the fashion giant over half a century to break into the Japanese market. Most analysts attribute this to the historically exclusive attitude of Japan’s fashion-crazed consumers.

While Louis Vuitton and other big name labels were able to cash in on the obsession with designer brands that came with the bubble era of the late 1980s and early 90s, it is only recently that discount chains have been able to find their niche in Japan.

With jeans priced at 3,290 yen and men’s tailored suits coming in at under the 30,000 yen mark, H&M will be competing with other international chains such as Gap and Zara from Spain, as well as the local favorite UniQlo. With the Japanese and world economies suffering a downturn, consumers are turning to retailers such as these to satisfy their hunger for the latest trends without breaking the bank.

H&M’s CEO Rolf Eriksen was in Tokyo on Thursday for the opening “shopping” party of the new Ginza store, and he confirms that the company has grand expectations for its new market. Two more stores are slotted to open in Harajuku and Shibuya within the next year.

Kelly Wetherille

Avatars from the Poupee Girl Website.

Poupee Girl, a fashion social networking site operated by Tokyo-based web firm CyberAgent, has won a devoted and quickly growing base of users since launching in March 2008.

After registering on the site for free, users can create avatars named poupee (“doll” in French) by mixing and matching hairstyles, facial features and body shapes that resemble themselves. Users can then dress their avatars with thousands of available garments and accessories, and take a snapshot to post on their personal page on the site.

Users create avatars and dress them virtually.

Poupee Girl has a virtual currency, known as “ribbons,” can be purchased by credit card, or earned by posting new snapshots or commenting on other users’ snapshots. Ribbons can be used to buy virtual fashion item for their avatars. Users can also auction off virtual items they no longer want to other users. Many of the virtual items are based on actual garments, so users can coordinate a look on the site and go out and by the actual outfit.

Users post to the message board every few seconds.

However, Poupee Girl is much more than a virtual fitting room. It is also a social networking site with a rapidly growing base of users. In the “Poupee Cafe,” users can post one-line micro blogs on how they are feeling at the moment, which appear with their latest snapshot. New comments are posted every few seconds, attesting to the popularity of the site. Users can post photos of fashion items bought in the real world from their mobile phone cameras and receive comments and advice from other users.

Users can also post photos of items they actually buy.

The site has collaborated with brands to bring popular Louis Vuitton and Hello Kitty items into the virtual space, helping traffic to double every month since the site’s launch.

Learn more:
Poupee Girl site
News on Louis Vuitton
News on Hello Kitty