Endless wardrobe: a new subscription fashion box startup in Japan has a surprising twist

It’s no secret that many women love to shop, but for professional females trying to make a name for themselves and new mothers adapting to round-the-clock parenting (or the incredibly talented ladies who manage to juggle both at the same time), finding time to discover new fashion can become a hassle. Getting away from the office can be doubly difficult for Japanese women, who often need to work twice as hard as their male colleagues to get noticed. New mothers often undertake 100 percent of child-rearing responsibilities, so getting away from the nursery or the local pediatrician becomes a rare luxury.

Enter AirCloset, a new service by Tokyo-based startup Neuer-Sieg. For JPY 6,800 (US$57) a month, women can receive a box containing three trendy garments, hand selected by a professional stylist. The subscriber can wear each piece as many times as they like, and return the box whenever they’re ready to try something new. There’s no limit on how often the boxes are exchanged, and if a subscriber happens to find an item that they just can’t live without, it can be purchased at a price point lower than retail.

While straight-to-your-door fashion boxes are nothing new, the wear-and-return model is unique in Japan – and it’s already seeing strong early traction in the domestic fashion and startup communities.

“We sent out a press release introducing the service in October and planned to launch in December,” Satoshi “Ash” Amanuma, Neuer-Sieg’s co-founder and CEO, tells Tech in Asia. “Initially, we planned for about 2,000 pre-registrations. In reality, we ended up with more than 15,000 by the end of December.”

Amanuma and his team of five were overwhelmed by the response. They decided to push the launch back to January in order to prepare more clothing and smooth out logistics, but pre-registrations continued to balloon.

“We had to cut off pre-registrations at the end of January,” he says. “More than 25,000 people signed up.”

From the web to your door

So how exactly does AirCloset work? Women sign up on the site with a credit card and are automatically charged 6,800 yen per month to receive an unlimited number of fashion boxes, with no minimum sign-up period. Users can sign up for one month and cancel if they wish. During the registration process, users select their style preferences based on photos of models wearing example outfits. Based on those selections, stylists attempt to curate items that suit their tastes – users don’t actually select any of the clothing directly.

Each box contains three items, which include a combination of tops and bottoms that can be worn together (i.e. a cardigan, a one-piece, and a pair of jeans). If there’s a cute dress or skirt that they absolutely must add to their wardrobe, a subscriber can visit the AirCloset website to see its discounted price (and comparison full retail price). If they opt to hold on to it, they can simply send the remaining pieces back and their card will be charged. A return shipping label is already inside each box. Users are urged to fill out a survey with the return of each box, which allows stylists to tweak future items based on fit, color palette, and so on.

The founder explains that a large part of the inspiration for AirCloset hits close to home. Amanuma has a three-year-old son and wanted to help his wife stay on top of current fashion trends despite having limited free time to go window shopping downtown. In the planning stages, he even considered launching it as a maternity and children’s clothing service.

“The first thing we did was interview more than 200 women aged 27 to 35,” Amanuma says. “Our specific target groups are career women and young mothers with children between the ages of zero and three. One thing they all seem to have in common is a lack of time to discover new fashion brands because their focus is on work or raising their kids.”