"BASE," an online shopping service, will be exhibiting at the art event "Aosando Art Fair" (October 24th to 27th). Eight shops using the site will exhibit and sell their products on a rotating daily basis. The venue is the H.P.FRANCE Planning Office (GB3F, 5-17-24 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo).

FASHION HEADLINE will be conducting email interviews with participating brands and shops. We will introduce them in relay format. The first interview will be with "inink," a playful T-shirt brand by Kaoru Inoue, which will be exhibiting on the 24th (Thursday).


--What is the concept of the brand?
The brand is based on the concept of "playing with T-shirts." We rethought the concept of T-shirt design from scratch, incorporating a playful approach.

--What inspired you to create and sell items?
I first got interested in making T-shirts after entering and winning T-shirt design contests held by various clubs during my university days. Since then, I started posting my designs on T-shirt design sites, and then I wanted to make even more unique T-shirts and sell them myself. I think inink's T-shirts will appeal to people who like creative miscellaneous goods and those looking for cute, unique T-shirts.

--Why did you decide to set up an online shop?
I wanted as many people as possible across Japan to see my brand, so I decided to use e-commerce for sales.

--Why did you choose BASE out of all the marketplace sites?
I use BASE because it's free and allows me to easily create a simple, stylish website. I kept the site design simple, without any unnecessary embellishments, so the products would look beautiful.

--Finally, what do art, design, and fashion mean to you?
To me, art, design, and fashion are all completely different things. I believe art is self-expression, design is problem-solving, and fashion is the flow of the times. I want to find the perfect balance between them.