Supporting growth of creative talent via crowd-funding service BOOSTER
In fiscal 2014, PARCO launched BOOSTER, a crowd-funding service dedicated to supporting the realization of projects across the full spectrum of creative content domains through a framework that enables individual consumers to come together to put innovative challenges out into the public sphere.
As a company committed to “Incubation” (the discovery and encouragement of new talent), PARCO hopes to use BOOSTER as an avenue for joining forces with many people to realize a society where individuals with ideas and talent can continue to tackle those challenges, and create a world that sparks a steady stream of innovation.
Using BOOSTER, young designers can put on runway shows
Noted fashion designer Mikio Sakabe, known globally for his “mikio sakabe” label, joined with “writtenafterwards” artist Yoshikazu Yamagata as project owner on a support project to sponsor a fashion show for Tokyo New Age, a novel young brand group. Through the support of many members of the public, the project was funded. In spring 2015, during the debut of the Tokyo Collection, the project owners used CLUB QUATTRO to put on their dynamic live fashion show.
This energy-filled live fashion show took place at CLUB QUATTRO with many customers looking on
Message from stakeholders
I think my latest efforts with BOOSTER allowed me to share shows and designs as initiatives and communication between myself, as a fashion designer, and customers in a new ways that are different from customers buying clothes in a store.
I thought to my myself, I hope to use BOOSTER to make new relationships like this in a long-term way.
Profile
Fashion designer. Born in Tokyo in 1976. 2006 graduate of the Master course in the Fashion Department at the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts. The same year, joined with Taiwan-born designer Shueh Jen-Fang to launch “mikio sakabe.
Official site:http://www.mikiosakabe.com/
Shibukaru Festival
17 October to 26 October, 2014
Started from 2010
Centered on Shibuya PARCO, Shibukaru Festival provides talented young female creators with a forum for artistic expression spanning the genres of music, film, artwork, and live performances. The forum provides creators with a place to meet, to interact with peers, to discuss ideas and inspirations.
Performances are unconstrained, powerful, innovative and, judging by the reaction of many in the audience, deeply moving for those in attendance.
This is a community fashion event, extending beyond PARCO to include collaboration with other events and creating a fashion, art and culture buzz in Shibuya.
We host similar cultural events at Fukuoka PARCO and Nagoya PARCO in which young creators active locally take part.
once A month
Started from 2010
PARCO develops this exclusively arranged shop as a space to propose and sell to the market products from highly creative young authors and makers, as well as seasonal goods. While working at the same time to create a space for services that helps new talent to bloom, PARCO is offering a new story in the consumption of services rather than goods.
By leveraging PARCO’s nationwide network, we also develop original merchandise in collaboration with local creators and authors across Japan. In a growing number of cases, brands that started from goods being handled by PARCO that transitioned into a business partnership are now becoming tenant stores.
Currently, the MEETSCUL Store by once A month in Shibuya PARCO is opening in the once A month space at Fukuoka PARCO, with a portion of the original products on hand under wholesale.
In Singapore, PARCO conducted so-called “pop-up shops” (specifically tailored retail spaces), fashion shows and business negotiations to provide sites for pioneers of the next generation in Japanese fashion and manufacturing to compete in growth markets abroad.
Beyond just the exhibition and sale of products from young Japanese designers and creators, these spaces challenged both Japanese and local entities to bring their respective cultures together to create new value, with steps also taken to encourage collaborative works and product development. By promoting understanding of PARCO’s approach to incubation and local collaboration, we achieved collaboration with next-generation talent and organization across a host of fields, which yielded results beyond what we anticipated. (FY2012: Recognized as a business promoting the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Cool Japan Strategy)
