Shinoda Mariko’s fashion brand “ricori” goes bust, stores have ceased operations

17 Jul

Ex-AKB48 member Shinoda Mariko’s self produced fashion brand “ricori” has shut down its retail stores in Japan with effect from 15th July, according to their official blog.

Shinoda Mariko has been working as the designer and producer for this brand since 2013. The brand is also named after her. Reacting to this piece of news, she tweeted “I was very shocked to hear that ricori had ceased operations. I was the advisor for this brand up till last year so it’s a pity. Thank you for the support so far.”

Despite leaving “ricori” after 2013, Mariko had continued to endorse the brand in 2014, as seen from various pictures on her twitter from Feb to May. Therefore, fans are actually surprised to know she had stopped producing for the brand.

Ricori started operations in Feb 2013, with a retail store in Lumine East Shinjuku. Shortly after, the brand expanded to two other branches in Shinsaibashi and Umeda HEP Five in Osaka. Another branch in Hakata Hankyu Department Store was opened in Aug 2013. However, the Shinsaibashi branch closed down within half a year. The brand is expected to file for bankruptcy later. The amount of debts accumulated is unknown.

Source

Kinda shocked this didn’t work out…she was such an inspiration back then, sleeping 3hrs each day to juggle her activities and business. I don’t know if this is simply the impact of leaving AKB48, but i think her business expanded too fast …and the prices of her clothes are too expensive.

5 Responses to “Shinoda Mariko’s fashion brand “ricori” goes bust, stores have ceased operations”

lulu July 17, 2014 at 6:02 am #

I think the same they opened too many stores in a short time, usually you just open 1 or 2 and wait if the things work out. I know another ex AKB has stores too and she has made a lot of money with that, I thought it was going to be the same with Mariko……

Reply
Denny Sinnoh July 17, 2014 at 6:07 am #

Sorry to hear the store was not successful. From what I saw, the clothes looked great. I hope she did not lose too much on the deal. I greatly admire Mariko. She was one of my favorite AKB members. So much grace and beauty.

Reply
anon July 17, 2014 at 6:28 am #

I have always thought Ricori was Mariko’s store, I didn’t know she was just the designer/advisor. I think she knew the stores weren’t doing well, and that’s why she left last year and was just the advisor this year.

I guess that is the reason she was traveling a lot this year, she was no longer too involve with Ricori, if she was even surprised they were closing.

Reply
guest July 17, 2014 at 6:51 pm #

(Another) confirmation that those girls are nothing without AKB. I know it’s not a very nice way to say it but so far seems to be the reality. Will they prove me wrong? I doubt it very much

Reply
guest July 17, 2014 at 6:52 pm #

And don’t get me wrong. Mariko-sama was one of my favourites

Reply