BEAMS CEO Yo Shitara Plans to Grow the Japanese Brand's Global Identity

Japanese retailer BEAMS, at the invitation of Vancouver’s two premier developers Westbank and Peterson, recently opened a special pop-up at the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel as part of “Japan Unlayered,” an exhibition showcasing Japanese architecture and design. The BEAMS JAPAN section of the “Japan Unlayered” exhibition curates products and concepts that exemplify the best of what Japan has to offer through careful selection of quality and craftsmanship, spreading more of the brand’s “American Life Shop” aesthetics and mentality. For the entire duration of the pop-up, the interior of the BEAMS Japan space will be decorated similarly to the eight-storey flagship in Tokyo with modern Japanese design and visual aspects. The products thus mimic that of the domestic store as well to include Japanese fashion, accessories, home goods, arts and crafts products, cultural reference pieces, and much more. Further, a presale of the BEAMS: Beyond Tokyo monograph by Rizzoli is available before the book reaches international markets on February 14.

To divulge on the first time the “American-Life”-centric Japanese retail store has ever crossed into North American borders, HYPEBEAST spoke with CEO of BEAMS Yo Shitara for an exclusive interview on the project. Besides revealing the details of the BEAMS JAPAN pop-up, Yo explains the ethos behind his brand, the polarizing craftsmanship and “otaku” sides of his products, the brands and customers of BEAMS and more. Read below.

BEAMS just had its 40th anniversary in 2016. Where does the brand go now in 2017 and beyond?

BEAMS started out with the tagline “American Life Shop.” And we grew into the rest of the world and we introduced to Japan the best things from all around the world. Then we turned around to introduce Japan to the world. We’re really interested on how this is going to develop because these two directions are coming together in a way within one company. We’re really excited to see how that would develop, those two directions that we do.

For the exhibition “Japan Unlayered,” where’s the connection there for BEAMS? How did you get involved with this exhibition that’s happening in Vancouver?

A: The biggest reason would be that the members participating in the project were really outstanding. We have Kengo Kuma who is very Japanese in the way he builds his architecture — the venue being one of his works. He is one of the curators for the project. He absolutely creates beautiful things in Japan as well. We think he very well represents the country. Also MUJI is here with us. They are kind of opposites from what we do but they are very minimalistic and simple, and they also very well represent the values of Japan. We think it’s a very good balance that we have here and it was a wonderful opportunity to participate with them.

What’s the overall message of BEAMS being in the “Japan Unlayered” exhibition?

Japanese culture is a mix of various things — thoughts toward ecology are one of them, also there’s artisan craftsmanship, and then there’s the pop culture that’s more represented by the youthful entertainment sectors. We think all of these come together to create Japanese culture. And in a culture is its spirit, and that’s what we try to show in BEAMS JAPAN. That’s why we try to show so much variety of the culture. That is what we’re trying to communicate and introduce to Canada and the rest of the world.

The tagline reads “Best of Japanese design and crafts.” What can customers expect at the pop-up?

I would like to tell the customers who are coming that they are welcome to see the two extremes of Japanese culture. One being [that of] artisan craftsmanship, and the other being the word “Otaku,” meaning the “geeky” interest in something where it’s a subculture, but a major movement that’s happening. So those would be the two extreme values we show and we embrace at BEAMS JAPAN [in Tokyo] and so we’re very sure that customers who come to the pop-up will see both of that combined into one product or maybe different products. But it will be totally different from the other products they’ve seen.

So is it a mixture of clothing and home goods?

Yes exactly, we have clothing, home goods, art pieces and tableware.

The space where you guys are displaying the products; who designed the space and what do you hope to accomplish visually?

A: The space was existing, so we didn’t really build anything new as for our pop-up. So we’ve seen photos, floor plans, and measurements for the place and we imagined that as clearly as possible and we had certain plans. But we ended up bringing people who can make them line up attractively. What we wanted to do with the visual impact was to recreate a portion of the BEAMS JAPAN flagship in Shinjuku. It’s only about a 1/100th of the total of what we have in Shinjuku, probably even less, but we tried to recreate the liveliness and the vibrant colors and culture of that as much as possible.

The Japanese have always been good at creating spaces and communicating messages through various small spaces, as you can see in the culture of bonsai and tea ceremonies and things like that. So that’s what we did with this space as well. We tried to create a miniature world of BEAMS JAPAN itself.

When we bring this project outside of Japan, it’s kind of like a meeting of two very different cultures and we are looking forward to the chemistry there.

This is considered your first shop in North America, even if it’s just a pop-up. What does that mean for the brand?

A: The fact that we started out as an “American Life Shop” — that was our tagline in our very first tiny shop, we continue to introduce things from around the world to Japan. This project is the opposite, we’re introducing Japan to the world. When we bring this project outside of Japan, it’s kind of like a meeting of two very different cultures and we are looking forward to the chemistry there. We’re very sure that this featured edit of Japanese culture will somehow interact and develop a chemistry with the local culture and the market here. We’ve done this once in Paris and this is only our second time for BEAMS JAPAN to be outside of Tokyo. We do consider this as a test and want an experiment of how BEAMS JAPAN will be received in a totally different market. We look forward to the chemistry there.

If this turns out great, can fans expect a BEAMS flagship outside of Japan?

Yes. It’s in my thoughts.

In your eyes, how does the Japanese customer differ from the American customer or even the Parisian customer, since you guys had a pop-up there also?

The customers in Paris reacted very well to the pop culture aspects of the product. For the North American market, we feel that there are not yet very many people who are interested in the small details of the story a product has to tell. Of course, there are people in the industry who are very keen on this, but it’s only a fraction of people. We would like to introduce all the stories behind our products and perhaps get more fans of such products and Japan.

Do you feel the pop-ups are a good introduction to the brand? Do people need to know the history of BEAMS before they step in?

They would probably have a little more understanding and maybe even a little more appreciation towards the items that are actually there, because they’re quite special, if they knew about the background of the company. But it would be just as fun for people who know nothing about BEAMS. The products themselves pop and they will attract interest on their own.

It’s also really good timing that we have the Rizzoli book out. Westbank went to great lengths to do a presale of the book during this exhibition. So while the book isn’t available yet in the other markets, the book will be available to buy. Customers can actually start buying today actually. We have the books lined up at the pop-up shop, so if people could maybe take a look at that, it would easily tell the story of what BEAMS is all about.

Do you see other locations where a pop-up might happen? Will these pop-ups be alongside exhibitions like this one with the “Unlayered” showcase?

As a matter of fact, we already have a number of pop-ups already lined up in our schedule this year. We aren’t able to announce dates or places yet, but there’s many that we are considering. Some of them are in the form of cultural events like these, where as other will be more independent locations that we’ve found through speaking with local people.

In terms of the culture of collaborations, we’ve seen BEAMS work together with an array of brands such as Nike, adidas, Arc’teryx and Champion to name a few. How does BEAMS distinguish itself in the world of collaborations today?

A lot of companies and brands now do collaborations, but when we started we didn’t really call them collaborations. They were always just a special detail that we asked them to do because it would be more interesting or more comfortable that way. We know that everyone now does the same industry collaborations and we’ve done a couple of multiple brand collaborations as well. So from now on, we will probably do more of that, maybe even bring three or four companies together to make something really special across totally different industries. Also we are keen on products that crossover from items to a cultural scene — not only the product itself but also a community or a culture that comes along with it, something that doesn’t really stay along the realms of an item.

Are there any particular brands you look forward to working with in the future?

It’s a challenge to name particular companies, but we’ve joined MUJI at this exhibition here. Like I said, they’ve always been a company I’d like to collaborate with one day. I can’t name any particular company yet, but maybe in the food industry and the schools — the places that produce culture and communities.

BEAMS is involved in a lot of things – men’s fashion, women’s fashion, interiors, music and more. Is there another industry or culture that BEAMS wants to get involved with that may be unexpected by those who follow the brand?

Not sure if it’s an industry in particular. But one thing on my mind is sort of fashion education, meaning trying to develop an understanding and appreciation for fashion. We see the younger generation not being so interested in fashion as the earlier generations were. We think that as long as they have an opportunity to know and be in touch with it then they can appreciate what fashion is, especially because our concept has always been basic and exciting. It’s that very concept that we try to communicate to the generation that hasn’t really been in touch with such a time. Right now just isn’t a time for the youth to be so engaged with fashion, so we want to create opportunities for them to enjoy and be happy through it.

Also not particular to fashion, but I would like to produce a community and a place where people with different interests in all types of sectors — whether it be sports, fashion and music — can come together and connect with each other. We’d like them to develop a community of their own. We want to be at the center of such movements and we want to embrace such community cultures.

Check out the pop-up now until February 28 at the address below.

BEAMS JAPAN Pop-Up Shop — “Japan Unlayered” Exhibition
Fairmont Pacific Rim
1038 Canada Pl
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6C 0B9
Canada