Traveling Through the Tokyo Bubble Era

Chapter 1022 Fashion Jokes, Playthings of Capital

"This bizarre magazine, with its shallow aesthetic accumulated during its short operating period, has presented the fashion world with the most laughable product."

It uses "fashion" as its name and desperately uses the media to promote itself as fashionable, yet it still cannot hide its barren core.

Fashion should not succumb to money and public opinion, nor should it fear the behind-the-scenes manipulations of large corporations.

As trendsetters, we have a noble responsibility to guide public aesthetics and reject vulgarity that leads to blind conformity.

I hope…

The lounge area on the floor dedicated to Hideki Hanyu at the Hehe Center.

Kaoru Chiba was reading an English news report to Hideki Hanyu.

Meanwhile, Hideki Hanyu, who had just finished lunch, was playing billiards with Guan Meiren on the side.

Although Hideki Hanyu's table tennis skills are average, his superior physical abilities make it no problem for him to defeat Guan Meiren.

However, Hideki Hanyu doesn't care about winning or losing, and he will even let Guan Meiren win at crucial moments, after all, he just wants to pass the time before the meeting.

After another deliberate miss, Hideki Hanyu put down his club and stood aside. He turned to look at Kaoru Chiba, who had finished reading the report, and said with a mocking expression.

"That's all Anna Wintour said? Nothing else?"

Kaoru Chiba nodded. "That's all the answers reported."

Anna Wintour is the editor-in-chief of the American edition of the renowned fashion magazine Vogue.

It doesn't matter if you don't know her; she is the real-life inspiration for Miranda, the editor-in-chief in "The Devil Wears Prada," a film starring Anne Hathaway and hailed as the fashion bible of the film industry, which is set in another timeline.

What Chiba Kaoru just read was an interview Anna Wintour gave to a news magazine a few days ago while attending an event.

Hideki Hanyu wouldn't normally pay attention to a magazine editor like Anna Wintour.

But then Anna Wintour launched a scathing attack on Cloud Fashion magazine during that interview.

To be precise, it was a scathing attack on the North American edition of Cloud Fashion.

The editorial department of Cloud Fashion North America immediately notified the group internally about the matter, and Hideki Hanyu also received a copy.

Why did Anna Wintour criticize Cloud Fashion?
To discuss this, we must first talk about the current global development of Cloud Fashion magazine, nearly five years after its founding.

The current version of Cloud Fashion can be roughly divided into four versions based on region.

The Chinese version of the original Cloud Fashion magazine, Cloud Fashion, has evolved from initially copying and learning from European and American fashion magazines to developing its own unique fashion philosophy. Its influence has spread from Hong Kong to the whole of Asia and is even gradually influencing China.

With the addition of the 'Cloud Fashion Charity Gala' creatively designed by Hideki Hanyu, the magazine has firmly secured its position as the top Chinese-language fashion magazine by leveraging the entertainment industry and the name of charity.

The second release was the Japanese version of "Cloud Fashion".

Under the leadership of Kaneda Shichisuke, a maverick editor-in-chief in the Japanese fashion world, the Japanese version of "Cloud Fashion" is full of Japanese characteristics.

Just like the Japanese music scene, although they pay attention to European and American fashion trends, they focus on local fashion and insist on serving the local Japanese industry.

This also makes the Japanese version of Cloud Fashion the most controversial, most talked-about, and best-selling fashion magazine in Japan.

The other two released simultaneously were the European and North American versions.

Let's start with the European version. Since its release in Europe, it can only be described as chaotic.

In five years, the magazine had six editors-in-chief, each with their own distinct style. Some wanted to follow the mainstream, while others wanted to be unconventional, which directly led to a chaotic and disorderly magazine style and extremely poor sales.

If it weren't for the powerful backer of Hideki Hanyu, the investor behind the scenes, and the support of AI International and LVMH Group, the European version of Cloud Fashion would probably have gone bankrupt long ago.

Having discussed the European version, let's now talk about the North American version, which is the target of Ben Anna Wintour's criticism this time.

After its launch, just like the European edition, it struggled to define its own style, had a confused positioning, and found it difficult to attract readers to buy its products.

This situation in the North American version of Cloud Fashion continued until early 1988, when the arrival of a man named Seymour Lister changed things.

Simo Lister majored in design at university, but after graduation he went to work on Wall Street, only to be laid off due to the 1987 stock market crash.

With nowhere else to turn, burdened by huge student loans, and struggling to even afford food, Simon Lister, on a whim, applied to Cloud Fashion, a magazine headquartered not far from Wall Street, using his university major as a starting point.

That was also the period when the North American version of Cloud Fashion was in its most chaotic state, with the atmosphere at its lowest point.

With many employees who saw no hope leaving the company, the magazine was short-staffed. As a result, the human resources department only gave a cursory review of Seymour Lister's resume before hiring him.

After Simon Lister joined Cloud Fashion, he quickly discovered the magazine's internal predicament.

Simo Lister, who had just found a job only to lose it again, was inspired to do something for Cloud Fashion magazine.

Then Simo Lister, a complete novice with no experience in the fashion industry, began to use the data-driven thinking he learned on Wall Street to study the predicament of Cloud Fashion, investigate market demand, and think of solutions.

Ultimately, after a series of chaotic attempts, this novice submitted a reform report to the then editor-in-chief of Cloud Fashion, requesting a price increase.

I won't go into the details of the report's numerous data and analyses, but in short, as Simo Lister summarized, since the traditional fashion route is not working for us, we might as well try something less high-end, try to lower our stance, and try to win over those customers who are considered "unfashionable" in the fashion world.

Such unorthodox remarks naturally met with opposition from everyone.

Because these industry professionals are well aware that what they are doing is the same as what luxury brands do.

That involves artificially creating scarcity, storytelling, and exploiting human vanity and the desire to keep up with the Joneses...

Once the elitist and exclusive nature of the fashion industry disappears, then fashion itself will cease to exist.

The most profitable products for all fashion brands are definitely not the limited editions displayed on the runway, but rather the basic styles prepared for ordinary people who crave vanity.

However, the appeal of the brand's basic models comes precisely from the limited editions that are out of reach for ordinary people.

Moreover, even if they were willing to do so, companies like EI International and LVMH would absolutely not agree to cooperate with them.

Even though Seymour Lister tried his best to explain that following his analysis of the data did not mean completely favoring the location, but rather achieving a delicate balance in the middle.

But the others remained unmoved.

Then, what awaits the North American version of Cloud Fashion is a further decline in performance.

By this time, even A.I. International and the LVMH Group were gradually reducing their support.

After all, they are independent companies, not affiliated with each other. I can support them out of respect for Hideki Hanyu, but if they never prove to be of any value, I will naturally stop supporting them.

Furthermore, Hideki Hanyu himself wasn't particularly concerned about the development of "Cloud Fashion," so the two major corporations acted without restraint after discovering this.

With big names ignoring it and major investors withdrawing their support, the North American version of Cloud Fashion is facing a life-or-death situation.

Seymour Lister, unwilling to lose his job, once again proposed his reform plan.

And he told everyone, "Since they (Aiyi International, LVMH Group) have abandoned us, we don't need to care about them. We should live for ourselves."

Then, facing the life or death of the magazine, the editor-in-chief of the North American edition of Cloud Fashion and other executives, after a painful decision for the sake of everyone's future, decided to take a desperate gamble and implement Simon Lister's plan.

The North American version of Cloud Fashion became the first Cloud Fashion division to break free from Hideki Hanyu's unspoken support, sever its dependence on major financial backers A.I. International and LVMH Group, and decide to become self-reliant.

Then, supported by Simo Lister's data theory, the North American edition of Cloud Fashion, after two months of preparation, launched its fate-changing September 1988 issue.

The theme of this issue is "One Person, One Fashion".

Whether it's translated as "one person, one style" or "one person, one fashion sense".

Or perhaps it was the later Hong Kong translation, "Fashion is unique and varies from person to person." In short, starting from this issue, the North American edition of Cloud Fashion underwent a complete transformation, taking a different path from its sister publications in other regions and becoming an outlier in the eyes of the entire fashion industry.

Everything is guided by data, maintaining a delicate balance between cutting-edge fashion and mainstream trends.

At the same time, Simo Lister also introduced various survey coefficients, such as media influence and public recognition coefficients, to build a data model specifically for the North American version of Cloud Fashion.

Using this model, Simo Lister placed great emphasis on marketing and promotion.

In the words of Seymour Lister, ordinary people don't understand what fashion is; as long as everyone says someone is fashionable, then that person is fashionable.

Therefore, a massive amount of media marketing emerged.

In movies, comics, TV series, and even promotional advertisements, characters will always be holding a copy of the North American edition of Cloud Fashion, claiming it's the most fashionable magazine in the world.

The fashion industry scoffed at this, even mocking it as clownish behavior.

Without industry recognition, how can you become the world's most fashionable magazine just by boasting? Just because your magazine's name contains the word "fashion"?
However, the reality unfolded in a way that exceeded everyone's expectations.

Simo Lister's plan was frighteningly effective.

The North American version of Cloud Fashion has seen its popularity rise at an alarming rate.

The North American edition of Cloud Fashion magazine, considered a clown by the industry, has, through its almost brainwashing marketing campaigns, become the world's most fashionable magazine in the minds of many ordinary people who know nothing about fashion, or those who have started to pay attention to fashion because of its marketing.

Following this, this bottom-up understanding began to exert its influence upwards.

The North American version of Cloud Fashion is gaining popularity, and in order to cater to these consumers, celebrities and brands that previously looked down on the North American version of Cloud Fashion have begun to choose to collaborate with it.

This includes A.I. International and LVMH Group.

Especially after Bernard Arnault established the 'Global Shared Services Center', the North American version of Cloud Fashion was directly elevated to a strategic partner.

In the past, the cooperation between the two parties relied on Hideki Hanyu's relationship.

But the current collaboration was earned by the North American version of Cloud Fashion through its own efforts.

As the North American version of Cloud Fashion's sales and influence grew, so did the criticism from within the industry.

In May 1990, the editor-in-chief of the North American edition of Cloud Fashion went to Europe to take up a job, intending to use his own experience to help the European and North American editions of Cloud Fashion out of their predicament.

After the original editor-in-chief left, Simo Lister officially took over as editor-in-chief of the North American edition of Cloud Fashion.

Thus, a fashion outsider rejected by Wall Street changed the fate of a fashion magazine in just two years and made himself one of the top figures in the fashion industry.

After changing its editor-in-chief, the European edition of Cloud Fashion did not show any improvement in a short period of time, perhaps due to cultural differences.

In contrast, the North American version of Cloud Fashion, under the direction of Seymour Lister, has seen its influence and sales steadily increase.

Just last week, the North American edition of Cloud Fashion topped the North American circulation charts among all magazines of its kind.

Media reporters inquired about this matter with Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of American Vogue, which led to the report that Chiba Kaoru just read aloud.

The report not only criticized the North American edition of Cloud Fashion, but also launched a scathing attack on Seymour Lister.

Hideki Hanyu simply watched it as a spectacle.

After all, no matter how you look at it, what Anna Wintour said seemed like a desperate outburst of frustration.

Hideki Hanyu didn't intend to do anything about it.

In fact, Hideki Hanyu only learned about the changes to the North American version of Cloud Fashion last year, and only realized what the changes would bring when Seymour Lister took office at the beginning of the year.

But from beginning to end, Hideki Hanyu did nothing except agree to Simo Lister's promotion to editor-in-chief.

He wasn't a fashionista in his previous life, so in this timeline, although he controlled the luxury goods groups A&E International and LVMH, and personally promoted the founding of Cloud Fashion magazine, he rarely got involved in anything related to "fashion".

Since the North American edition of Cloud Fashion has developed so well, even its influence has benefited magazines in other regions since its last founding.

Then let it develop on its own; why should an outsider instruct an expert?

Thinking of this, Hideki Yuzuru, who was just watching the show, gave instructions to Kaoru Chiba.

"If Simon Lister responds publicly to Anna Wintour, remember to let me know immediately."

Oh, and by the way, please also tell Ophelia Abel and Bernard Arnault that sometimes you should offer support when it's needed, without overthinking things.

Hideki Hanyu was also giving these two a warning.

In business battles, you have to side with your own people, not with what's right.

Anna Wintour, and all the so-called rules of the fashion world, are just a joke to Hideki Hanyu, who is a time traveler.

Many people have only seen "The Devil Wears Prada," but they haven't seen the documentary "September," which Anna Wintour made for herself after the film's release to promote her true image to the public.

It is filled with fashion concepts and the self-proclaimed authority in the fashion field.

In the documentary, those large corporations and big capital seem like lambs groveling before Anna Wintour.

But what's the most ironic thing?
More than a decade after the documentary was filmed, the media reported that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was going to spend $35.9 billion to acquire Condé Nast, the parent company of Vogue, and give it to his newlywed wife Lauren Sanchez as a wedding gift.

Then what happened?

Within a month of the acquisition rumors breaking, Vogue, the so-called "fashion bible," published more than a dozen articles flattering its new master, filled with excessive praise and empty rhetoric.

Lauren Sanchez, this "beauty" whose face is full of hyaluronic acid, is praised as if she were the descendant of Athena or the rebirth of Venus.

The June issue of Vogue, the month of her wedding, became a grand wedding dress show for Lauren Sanchez, with her dominating the cover and enjoying immense fame.

The power of capital is undeniable.

What about the so-called fashion concept?
What about so-called industry adherence?
Just when everyone thought this was not Anna Wintour's style at all, Anna Wintour officially announced that she had resigned from her position as editor-in-chief of American Vogue.

The fashion icon, who stood the test of time for decades, has sadly come to an end.

It was only then that everyone realized that "The Devil Wears Prada" had become "The Queen Who Gets Hyaluronic Acid Injections".

Lauren Sanchez ripped away the fig leaf from fashion, which was once considered unattainable for ordinary people, proving that the so-called fashion bible is nothing more than a plaything in the hands of capital.

Hideki Hanyu simply laughs off anything that hasn't happened yet.

However, he no longer intends to follow Jeff Bezos's example and acquire Condé Nast, the parent company of Vogue.

Jeff Bezos's acquisitions are probably not really about spending billions on a woman. Although he and Sanchez are both scumbags who cheated on their spouses, Bezos's abilities should not be underestimated because of this.

When Bezos acquired The Washington Post, he implemented a digital transformation strategy, and it's likely that his proposed acquisition of Condé Nast is also based on this plan.

But Hideki Hanyu didn't need to do that. He already knew the future well and had plenty of media resources. The digital transformation of media was just a natural progression for him.

Besides, he was more interested in investing in Amazon, which hadn't even been founded yet, than in following these fashion media outlets.

Just as Hideki Hanyu was reflecting on the news in the fashion media and contemplating investing in the future internet revolution, Peter Fang approached him.

"Boss, everyone's here. It's time to start the meeting."

Upon hearing Peter Fang's notification, Hideki Hanyu put down his golf club.

"Come on, let's go down together."

(End of this chapter)