About MTRL and Ayupan
 

A few unrelated questions:

(1) MTRL....did / does Ayu design the clothing? This forum always used to refer to MTRL as "Ayu's clothing line", but she's not mentioned anywhere on the website. I realize MTRL clothing was her big thing a couple of years ago, so maybe she doesn't design for them anymore (if she ever did). Also, I think the clothes are HIDEOUS, so I have hard time believing the fashionable Ayu had any hand in producing them.

(2) When did the Memorial Address set of Ayupan come out? Obviously it was around the time the album was released, but were they sold at a concert? At the Ayupan shop only? I had never even seen them before until I went to the Ayupan page at eneabba.net

(3) When did the Ayupan shop close and why? Poor sales? Or was it a limited time kind of thing?

Thanks:cool

The Memorial address Ayupan Keychains were sold @ Arena Tour 2003~2004 ;)

She doesn't have the time needed to make new designs every two months and the clothes are not at all Ayu-like which suggests to me she has no input at all in the design. I agree they're mostly horrible.
My guess is that, at most, she just looks at proposed new products and might veto those she doesn't like.

^ Agreed. There's no way that she has the time to design for MTRL. As with most celebrity brands, she probably made a deal with them to attach her name to the line and promotes the clothing when she has to. I actually doubt that she even has the time to greenlight the clothes anymore. I would think that in the beginning, she played more of a role (small as it may be) and that now it's on the backburner.

I didn't even remember about the Ayupan stores! Anyways, I don't think she's that involved with MTRL.

I thought the Ayupan shop was a sort of 'exclusive' shop that wasn't to be open for a long time~

:/ Oh well.

Ayu is love. :]

Are you talking about the Rainbow House? If so, that was definitely a limited time thing, just for the summer. It was tied into the ayu ready? show but I don't think anything there was spectacular.

I remember it was a select amount of dishes for extremely expensive prices.

But I guess it was worth it to eat where Ayu chose the meny herself / stepped in and performed at frequently in its short existence. :p

I had never heard about that resturant, always cool to hear about new things. Sounds awesome, I wish she'd make something like it again so that I could go :D.

Yeah I think it was the Rainbow House...it didn't seem too special, though...I think they were serving regular food there right?

Thanks for the help everybody! But with MTRL, WHERE is Ayu's name attached? Like I said, I didn't see her name on the website, and it sure isn't on the clothes. Maybe it's on the tags of the clothing...?

I think it was more of a:

Ayu endorsed MTRLG/B and wore it at her concerts and magazines. But I don't think she'd have her name and stuff on the website/the clothes if she just did that~

Yeah, I guess it was more of a promotional type of thing for her :shrug I was reading on another forum that MTRLG is her clothing label, but that she's probably just part of the designers, and she most likely just green lights the designs she likes. I honestly can't say.

The brand was opened in her name by what I understand, for marketing purposes, but she has de-attached herself from it more and more. Who, knows, maybe she'll start wearing MTRL clothes again. I like the logo, that's why I bought a MTRLB shirt in Tokyo. Their design clothes range from cool to so-so, I think.

The first day the Shibuya 109 store opened they sold some limited edition Ayu items, most of it go for insane prices at ebay nowdays.

The merchandise at store itself is outrageously expensive :laugh

^Yep >_<

Don't things cost a LOT anyway? :p

I think of DVDs when I think of expensive japanese goods.. just look at how much some boxsets are.. my god O_O!

Oh,, those things are too expensive,,
Oh,, poor Ayu,,,,

Wait, no she's not poor,,,
She's rich,,,

But,,
Oh, poor Ayuu
:(

When the brand was launched it was presented in the geinou papers as Ayu's clothing line. That's all I know. I've never seen anything since then that explained what exactly her relationship with MTRL is.

After reconsidering what I said, there's a chance that she only lent her name and image to the line and she in fact has very little to do with the actual company. The best comparable example I can think of right now is the "Britney Spears restaurant" Nyla (which eventually closed). Even though everyone said it was her restaurant, she had in fact no legal ties to the restaurant and didn't own it; her name was sold to the restaurant owners to get publicity for the place. There's a possibility that the same arrangement could be in effect for MTRL and Ayumi but Ayumi has a contractual obligation to wear the clothes at certain times.

Ahhh, now the whole MTRL thing makes more sense to me. She should have selected a more fashionable clothing company to represent, though. MTRL might as well call themselves Abercrombie & Fitch.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/89/mtrlg3ou.jpg

Picture was taken by me 1 month ago.

::slaps Immel on the wrist:: You're not supposed to take pictures of store products! -_~

^Not that anyone dared to tell me not to :D

Thanks for the MTRLG information cause I was wondering that too. Oh and was Rainbow House sponsured by the same person that opened the NANA cafe in Tokyo? I remembered that that was also a limited edition cafe.

I like the orange knit top...

How expensive are the clothes?

I never really looked at the prices of the design girl clothes, I only looked at their MTRLB stuff, which was expensive but "plain" clothes. Like 50$ for a t-shirt that said MTRLB.

I belive the price range would be between 8-25,000 yen, 80-250$.