The reason for adding functionality to masculine items as told by Ms. Hiromi Ino of BEAMS BOY

Starting in 1998, the BEAMS BOY brand established its unique position by improving its traditional item line, such as American casual wear in a modern style for women who wear masculine items in their own ways.

The company says that SOLOTEX^®, which was selected as one of its new attempts at the time the brand commemorated its 20^th anniversary, is indispensable for the brand’s creation now.

We interviewed brand director Ms. Hiromi Ino.

Our impression is that functional materials like SOLOTEX^® might be relatively popular among men, so it is surprising, to be honest, to hear that it is used as a regular material by BEAMS BOY.

This spring marks the third season after selecting SOLOTEX^®. The initial reason for selecting material was as part of the initiative to try something new in commemoration of the 20^th anniversary of the brand. However, we actually used SOLOTEX^® and found that it was comfortable, retained its shape, and was lighter than we expected. Now it is one of the materials that are indispensable for this brand.

What were the responses from customers?

Many BEAMS BOY customers like to use functional items and expound on such clothing. So, I hear there are considerably more customers who already know about SOLOTEX^® or are considering the purchase of BEAMS BOY items because they are made of SOLOTEX^®.

We see SOLOTEX^® as becoming more and more common among users. We know BEAMS BOY is also active in Instagram postings by the staff; we have seen vests, skirts, and other items made of SOLOTEX^® in the postings.

I basically leave what coordinates should be posted to Instagram to each staff member. I hear that those Instagram postings have produced a great response from customers, who recognize the postings as media for showing coordinates that demonstrate the real fascination different from magazines and catalogs. Since there are also many coordinates incorporating personal items, we make use of those coordinates in reference to the design for the next season.

We would like to ask about newly released items. These coats seem to be designed on the basis of the M-65 and are water repellent using stretch SOLOTEX^®, is that right?

The coats unveiled for the fall–winter season of 2019 was very popular. For this season, we redesigned the coats to enhance the wearer’s figure while taking advantage of the relatively larger size, including the high-waisted drawcord and the adjusted sleeve length.

When picking them up, we found them lighter than we imagined.

In all honesty, military wear M-65 items are very heavy. While these new items look authentically military, they are very light in weight due to single-layer tailoring and are elegantly loose in design with a moderately shiny material, so I think they are cute with a masculine feel, which is very typical of BEAMS BOY. I heard that there was an occasion when a man said to his companion, “You should buy it because it is cool and looks comfortable to wear.”

The redesign of this skirt appears to be based on army pants.

This is made of SOLOTEX^® SYNEX^® Light, a textile woven with very fine natural fibers. This textile has an elegant shine and looks soft. As for the details, while the skirt precisely reproduces army pants, the silhouette is adjustable with the drawcord at the hem.

These cable knit sweaters also use SOLOTEX^® in the material. They really look like cotton sweaters.

These are made by a knitting technique called plating where cotton yarn is used in the front while SOLOTEX^® yarn is used for the back. The sweaters use the natural material to have a thicker feel specific to cable knits, and at the same time, the back is lined with SOLOTEX^® to retain the shape in spite of the baggy silhouette. It was an eye-opening experience to use SOLOTEX^® for knits in this way.

Please let us know about items that you want to produce using SOLOTEX^® in the future.

For example, it would be interesting to produce textiles in a 60/40 cotton/nylon blend using SOLOTEX^®. Since SOLOTEX^® can clear up the issues that women often care about, such as the material is heavy and difficult to care for, while taking advantage of the appeal of the authentic masculine items, the material is a suitable concept for BEAMS BOY. Therefore, we would like to make very functional and comfortable items with the look of a classical mountain parka, too.