Recently, N.HOOLYWOOD launched its online store. What was designer Daisuke Obana's thinking behind this? In today's world, digital advancements are impacting fashion and management. We spoke with Masato Tani, CEO of STUDIOUS, who not only stocks N.HOOLYWOOD but is also a close friend to Obana, about the relationship between the web and fashion. Tani (hereafter T): This year's Tokyo Fashion Week just concluded. While there's been mixed opinions about the fact that Tokyo Fashion Week is now attended by customers from each store, I personally think it's great. Why? Because I think it's the people who buy the brand's clothes because they love them, and are the ones who are most moved by them. Obana (hereafter O): Yes. The purpose of fashion shows is changing, isn't it? From your perspective as someone with experience in fashion collections, what do you think about using the same lighting all the time, regardless of location? Putting that aside, while influencers haven't developed to that extent in Japan, there are more or less popular bloggers, and their support leads to a market, so it's a completely different system.

T: That's right. Speaking of which, I was surprised at the recent Tokyo Fashion Week, there was a girl in her first year of junior high school among the bloggers sitting in the front row. It really made me feel like the times have changed.

O: Overseas, bloggers have sponsors, and there's a system in place where they each receive money, and they're featured in magazines and turn it into money, but in Japan, that hasn't been elevated to the level of a business. I wish those junior high school students would start their own businesses when they entered high school. Offline just stays offline.

T: Speaking of offline and online, I get the impression that the fashion industry has recently been focusing on online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

O: It's important to pay attention to the readability and speed of information, and I think that's something that collection brands like us can do as well. Although Japanese people are starting to have smartphones, so it's not so much of a concern, when you go to rural areas, the percentage of people using flip phones is still very high, so it's important to think about how to bridge the gap with those people.

A while ago, the BAPE (A Bathing Ape) homepage when NIGO(R) was running it was incredible. When you clicked on it, the menu display would all change to BAPE characters, and in an instant the entire screen would be filled with characters. It was a gimmick that even web experts would be amazed by. On the other hand, there was also the Martin Margiela homepage (at the time), where you just clicked on a menu written in a font similar to the Mac's "Performer" era and viewed the content, and that was a style in its own right.

But nowadays, the most important thing is "speed and convenience," and the faster the more raw the information is transmitted, the better, right? I think that in another year or so, the survival of web development companies will be in jeopardy. Even someone like me or Tani-kun will be able to easily create a website by simply copying and pasting this and changing this, and I think we'll see an era where coding knowledge isn't even necessary.

Aggressive overseas brands are already posting their own information on Tumblr, and that's already cool enough.

Continued from N.Hari's Obana Daisuke and STUDIOUS' Tani Masato on Fashion Digital Management -- Part 2 of 2 [Conversation]