6 月 23 日,尾花大辅(Daisuke Obana)在 Instagram上宣布将离开 MUJI,不再担任 MUJI Labo 的创意总监。 加上堀内太郎(Taro Horiuchi)之前也已经离开了 MUJI,MUJI Labo 的两位创意总监都已离任,MUJI Labo 的未来可以预计地将会有很大的变化。
©The Devil's Desire to Kill
Daisuke Ohana also singled out that the MUJI Labo series that is now on sale is the last MUJI Labo series under his own helm (the current MUJI Labo Spring and Summer 2024 collections are on sale), followed by the "new MUJI Labo". So if you want to own Daisuke Obana's design at MUJI Labo, now is your last chance.
The MUJI Labo Spring 2024 collection, which is currently on sale, is now unisex and comes in 5 sizes
MUJI Labo Summer 2024 Collection, the last MUJI Labo series helmed by Daisuke Obana
For MUJI fans, MUJI Labo has always been a special existence, as the so-called "high-end line" of MUJI, whether it is design, craftsmanship or attitude expression, MUJI Labo is like a more extreme MUJI, even if MUJI Labo is priced higher (itself MUJI's domestic pricing has always been controversial), but whether it is in Japan or around the world, MUJI Labo also has its own loyal fans.
MUJI Labo reached a peak a few years ago when in November 2016 MUJI Labo appointed Daisuke Obana as creative director of N.HOOLYWOOD (who also worked on various collaborations and pushed Converse ADDICT's top-of-the-line CONVERSE ADDICT collection to the highest level in Converse's Japanese branch) and Taro Horiuchi, who founded his eponymous label, TARO HORIUCHI.
©Yuichi Ihara
The industry has described this wave of appointments as "spending a lot of money", and it did pay off quickly, with MUJI Labo sales almost taking off in place, growing several times over the next few years (the first collection by the two designers was Spring/Summer 2017, and by the time the Fall/Winter collections had grown by 180% year-on-year, and menswear had grown by 360%).
MUJI Labo's 2017 product, designed by the two designers in their first year at MUJI Labo, still bears clear traces of the main MUJI brand at the time
Both designers are known for their tailoring (Taro Horiuchi graduated from the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where he was clearly influenced by the early Maison Martin Margiela's style), and his attention to fabrics, details, and functionality is also very much in line with MUJI Labo, which has become a "knowledgeable" choice for a small circle of "hidden treasures".
Of course, this is also related to the appeal of the two designers. Although MUJI Labo has re-stabilized after high growth, in any case, it has gone beyond MUJI's own positioning and the audience it has always been, and has stood on a whole new level.
But this can also be a double-edged sword, and the departure of Daisuke Obana (including Taro Horiuchi) is believed to be related to MUJI Labo's current development, positioning and market position.
One voice said that the company still wants MUJI Labo to return to the lifestyle defined by MUJI itself, and that the current MUJI Labo is a bit "too much like a designer brand", and after the departure of the two creative directors, the future of MUJI Labo "will be more focused on basics".
There is a contradiction between the designer and the brand in the direction of development, this problem may have been buried earlier, a clear manifestation is that the MUJI Labo product design that can be seen in the past two years Although the product design is still online, the application of fabrics is very strange (some feel is difficult to describe, and even affects the quality), which will always give people the feeling of mismatch between design and fabric, with a certain taste of compromise and trade-off.
But from another point of view, Daisuke Obana has been working for MUJI for 9 years, and there are not many collaborations that can last so long in this industry, and it is normal to end the cooperation, which is also an opportunity for both parties - Daisuke Ohana, who was born in 1974 and is 50 years old this year, has many projects in his own hands, and for MUJI Labo or MUJI, a period of brand exploration has ended.