One of the best known in the country, Lithuanian handbags’ brand “kARTu” causes joy to many stylish women with its unique, seasonal collections as well as assuredly steps into the worlwide market. This year “kARTu” attained special attention in faraway Japan, in majestic Tokyo city. Here, in one of the biggest in the world interior, design and fashion fairs “Interior Lifestyle Tokyo” that took place just a week ago, creative lead of “kARTu” also presented her collection of handbags.
Talking of it, it wasn’t the first time that “kARTu” team visited Japan actually. “Our paths with Japan crossed earlier in 2017, when we were first invited to participate in a huge international design fair “Design Tokyo”. It seemed like a great challenge, but as many might know, we do like challenges, so the decision was made – we’re going to Tokyo. It was one of the best, full of wonderful emotions only and overall sucessfull journey – we didn’t have any big expectations at all, we just wanted to try our, as a brand, opportunities in such a huge market, but “kARTu” handbags received so much love and good feedback there. Little by little business relations started building, – creative lead of “kARTu” I. Jasinske tells.
Creative lead of “kARTu” also mentions noticing, that Japanese really value unique Lithuanian design, Baltic style, subtlety and picky approach to details and quality that is quite common to us. “In Lithuania, enterpreneurs of local design and fashion tend to underestimate themselves a lot. It came very clear to me after building a strong connection with partners from Japan , – I. Jasinskė tells. “Me, by the way, I am not an exception, sometimes I used to catch myself thinking, and even do now, comparing “kARTu” to other successful handbag brands, getting sad, that we aren’t enough, aren’t this or that. Colleagues in Japan opened my eyes saying that handbag design, which “kARTu” presents, is modern and functional as well as price and quality ratio vise appealing, so we can feel competitive even in such huge city as Tokyo. So I feel trully happy about “kARTu” success, it really made me have a different view into all the effort that was put into this year after year, I feel inspired to only go forward now“, – I. Jasinskė shares backstage of the brand’s development process.
Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world. Life in a capital of Japan just “boils” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Huge amount of people and even more vehicles in the streets. Although such fast, planned to minutes rhythm of life seems very tiring, “kARTu” team that visited the city mentions how surprisingly Japanese are able to create some kind of harmony, even in such tense everyday routine. “In Tokyo we really admired the people, their culture and attitude towards each other. Yes, everybody is in a rush, lost in their own thoughts and “drowning” in a sea of to-dos, but they will always, always think about the other person first. They are all friendly and polite, others – first, and then me. That’s the same way Japanese treat the planet that we all live in, their surroundings. They value and take care of it. That to me seems like a wonderful quality to have for a nation, – I. Jasinske admires.
