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O.Z.O.C
From Virtual Japan
O.Z.O.C is a Japanese clothing store founded by Atsuro Tayama. Targeting customers between the ages of 15 and 30, O.Z.O.C has hundreds of stores in Japan and surrounding Asian countries and has long been a source of trendy new fashion in the Eastern hemisphere. Currently, OZOC stands as one of the largest sources of trendy, affordable fashion in Japan.
History
The O.Z.O.C clothing line was founded in 1983 by Atsuro Tayama and quickly grew into a major force in Japana’s burgeoning fashion scene. The company has since gone on to open more than 100 stores in Japan, 50 in South Korea, 8 in Taiwan, 3 in Hong Kong, and 1 in Singapore. New clothing and styles are often rotated into the stores as often as twice a week to keep all options fresh and to target as young a demographic as possible.
O.Z.O.C has gone on to win a wide array of awards for its stores and its clothing lines, from newspapers, department stores, and buyers alike. Adhering to higher standards of quality than most department stores or mass production clothing companies, OZOC has been able to straddle the line between low costs (often between 2000 and 20,000 Yen on average for most clothing items) while still providing clothes in recent fashions.
O.Z.O.C Design
The O.Z.O.C line has long focused heavily on women’s clothing, but also carries a popular men’s line that is well represented in their sales. While women’s clothing from OZOC is often best represented by the various styles that are currently featured throughout the slightly more mature fashion magazines in the country, men’s clothing is usually noted for its almost European, sleek design style with fitted slacks and a combination of Italian style knit shirts. This basic ideal remains fairly consistent while certain influences will appear in turn from various street fashions and styles.
Color has always been a large part of Tayama’s designs, introducing a wide array of vintage style into his lines, often bright reds, blues and golds in the 1960s tradition. Prints are another popular medium for Tayama’s designs, introducing a wide array of colors and stripes among other patterns, often using cutouts and appliqués to capture the Harajuku style that many of the company’s young patrons read about so often in fashion magazines.