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Bode, the all-American label, has landed in Japan. Founder Emily Adams Bode Aujla, whose brand is known for its wholesome, grandpa chic aesthetic and repurposing of vintage textiles, is expanding her business with an embassy-inspired store in Tokyo — the brand’s first independent retail space in Asia.
“It’s quite a perfect time,” says Bode Aujla, speaking from her home in New York just a couple of days before catching her flight to the store opening. Her intonation implies humility, but she’s right: the timing for a brand of Bode’s stature to open a store in Tokyo is ideal for many reasons. The Japanese yen, which is trading at multi-decade lows, is dissuading local consumers from traveling abroad, while bringing in record numbers of foreign shoppers and giving foreign businesses more spending power for real estate.
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US tariffs have also accelerated the brand’s focus on expanding its retail footprint. “I think our international clients might be more concerned or conservative with shopping right now,” she says. “I can’t speak on their behalf, but I can imagine that it’ll be really exciting to be able to see the clothes in-person and not have to ship them halfway across the world.” Bode’s collections span both womenswear and men’s, and are priced from $280 for an embroidered T-shirt to over $2,000 for suiting. The brand also offers one-of-a-kind pieces made from antique fabrics, along with corduroy or suede jackets featuring hand-drawn details — most recently sported by Jacob Elordi — that are currently waitlist-only.
Bode has a sizable following in Asia, the designer says, with hopes that the Tokyo opening will allow consumers in neighboring regions to shop the brand. But why Tokyo over, say, Shanghai or Seoul? “When I first launched the brand [in 2016] I had a write-up in The New York Times, and immediately had a lot of interest from Japanese wholesale accounts,” Bode Aujla says. “They really connected with the product and understood it off the bat, whereas it took a minute to gain my footing in American wholesale.” The brand quickly picked up a handful of Japanese stockists in its first two years, and maintains eight wholesale accounts in the country.
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