Image source: https://www.instagram.com/Herlipto/
Kojima Haruna a.k.a. KojiHaru is known as one of the first generation of the idol group AKB48.
A member since December 8, 2005, Kojima graduated in April 2017 at the age of 29-years-old.
A member of the Kami-7 and her highest rank at #6, she was one of the most well-known faces in the group, as one of the group’s fashion icons who has been featured on the cover of many famous women’s magazines.
After graduating, in June 2018,Kojima would launch her apparel brand “Her lip to” which has gained popularity.
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Business Insider Japan recently interviewed Kojima about her business.
When she first kicked off her business, she only had eight items and a little over a year after the launch of “Her Lip to”, the website was flooded with inquiries of the clothes sold and it would lead to a pop up store which opened at Isetan Shinjuku.
When entertainers typically enter the apparel business, they partner with a major brand. With Kojima, she decided to start her own apparel business, because it’s something that she understands. Utilizing her experience from AKB48, working with media and communicating her message effectively.
Kojima said, “I enjoyed shopping and was knowledgeable of the quality of clothes from work, so I didn’t want to sell products that I wouldn’t wear. I looked for something I could make”, and eventually that is how her business would take form.
What may surprise people is that Her Lip To has a staff. Recently, Kojima hired a full-time staff member but the business is managed by the manager, business staff and Kojima herself. In fact, Kojima checks the shop management every day, may it be the product concept to the selection of clothing materials.
Kojima said, “We check the sales trends and comments that we receive. We know what is good, for example, when choosing fabric, we choose the most expensive one (laughing), which may cause some to worry about the price but I don’t want to compromise, I wanted the challenge without any constraints and have my hands involve in the operation”.
The produce price is about Y20,000 for one piece and at the beginning, there were comments of how it was expensive, but now the clothing has a reputation of high quality, look sgreat and she’s happy of how things have gone with the business so far and she’s happy.
So popular are her clothing, it sells out immediately after the first minute it goes on sale. And part of it is thanks to Kojima’s presence on SNS, as one of Japan’s influencers, she has over three million followers on Twitter and over 2.4 million followers on Instagram.
And if you think that Kojima is set with focusing on one business, she actually wants to develop other products such as cosmetics.
And at the rate that Kojima Haruna is going, she has no doubt done a great job of creating her own success.
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Kojima Haruna delights her fans with a “changing clothes” video on her YouTube channel
Former AKB48 members take part in “Hanarete ite mo”, an AKB48 message song/music video