Hasta La Gadget!

Rainy season in Japan is all but over but doubtless there will still be some precipitation on the horizon. With weather and a change in seasons always providing a good excuse for ladies to get a spot of shopping in (if there ever was an excuse needed!) here in Tokyo, umbrellas have joined designer rain boots to become the latest fashion statements and a major part of whole outfits. The umbrella, as any other fashion accessory item, has come to represent female’s (and many new metrosexual men’s) personal style and status. Typically a cheap vinyl tool, bought for little and in haste at a convenience store — and then forgotten on a train or at a bar, or merely abandoned at the first sign of wear and tear. The new brand status symbol and easily recognizable accessory, joining the ranks of the infamous Louis Vuitton bag, is the brand name umbrella, something that every fashionista in Tokyo is likely to possess.

In the spirit of mottainai (”what a waste”) an eco trend that gripped Japan throughout 2008-2009 (and basically still going), a project called shibukasa sprung up to loan out umbrellas around central Tokyo to save people purchasing (and then discarding) a convenience store plastic umbrella. There is even a new Android app to locate your newest umbrella source across the Shibuya, Aoyama, Omotesando and Harajuku areas.

Going further in promoting longer and more ecological usage of this product, and turning it into a fashionable item, fashionwalker is coming up with new initiative starting from July 2011. “Dream Collaboration” between three popular Shibuya 109 female fashion brands-LIZ LISA, LDS and MAISON GILFY–  and two local convenient stores – Family Mart and AM PM. The brands will offer stylish, costume-made design vinyl umbrellas for less than 1,000YEN(~12 US$) each.  Retro-romantic LIZ LISA will offer a lovely lace motif umbrella. LDS (which stands for Love Drug Store) has more of hip, trendy style, and will offer a Pop hearts design for their umbrellas, and GILFY– an urban, cool style brand will launch cool paisley look umbrellas.

While there are various styles, colors and prices, which can range up to 26,000YEN(~320US$), what has always sold the most is the simple, transparent vinyl umbrella, priced for about 500YEN(~6US$), and found in the thousands of ubiquitous convenience stores around town. According to FashionSnap, Japan consumes the most umbrellas in the world, around 130 million in a year (or, basically one per person). For example in Shibuya ward alone in Tokyo, on a rainy day, more than 1,000 umbrellas are sold. One problem with vinyl umbrellas is that they are easily forgotten and unrecognizable in public places, and therefore considered disposable and not particularly “Eco-Friendly”. The so-called “Brand Vinyl Umbrellas” are one way to combat a culture of wastefulness towards rain protectors.

Jumping on the trend Circle K is also stocking original “brand umbrellas”, including models by Jill Stuart, though priced at a much higher 2,625 yen (or almost $37).