DIANA Co., Ltd., a women’s shoes and handbags brand, operates under the philosophy of “contributing to the creation of a beautiful leg culture.” In line with this vision, the company is expanding efforts to deliver the joy of fashion not only in physical spaces but also across new digital environments.
As part of this initiative, DIANA made its first exhibition appearance at Vket 2025 Winter.
Under the concept of bringing “beautiful leg culture” into new digital spaces, the company also launched 3D model shoes through its “DIANA Virtual Shinjuku Store.”
In this interview, we spoke with a DIANA's representative about the background behind their participation, key initiatives, outcomes, and future outlook.
\nDIANA Rep. :
We first learned about Vket during the COVID period, when one of our business partners introduced us to HIKKY, which led to initial discussions.
At the time, the apparel industry was seeing growing attention around virtual customer service—such as BEAMS implementing virtual sales experiences.
We considered entering the space ourselves, but the scale of what we wanted to achieve resulted in a very high projected cost, so we decided not to move forward at that time.
Later, I personally started using VRChat around April 2024, and visited Vket again that summer with friends. That experience was incredibly enjoyable, and it inspired us to seriously reconsider participation from DIANA’s perspective.
DIANA Rep. :
The starting point was a decline in our core customer demographic—women aged 25 to 35.
We began exploring new business opportunities from multiple angles to connect with new audiences, and one of those approaches was entering digital spaces.
Our goal is to introduce the DIANA name to entirely new audiences—even if initially as a digital-native brand.
Within that context, we decided to participate in Vket, one of the largest events hosted on VRChat.
\nDIANA Rep. :
Since the corporate exhibition area for Vket 2025 Winter was themed around Shinjuku, our initial concept was to recreate our real-world DIANA Lumine Est Shinjuku store in a virtual environment.
We wanted visitors who experienced the virtual store to later recognize the real store and think, “This is the same place!”
To enhance engagement, we introduced interactive elements such as:
Additionally, through discussions with HIKKY and referencing past event examples, we developed the concept of the “DIANA Virtual Shinjuku Store” as a dedicated experience during Vket.
We also hosted a live customer service event where DIANA ambassadors interacted with visitors in the virtual store. The event attracted a large number of participants and was very well received.
For DIANA, this was an important step toward connecting physical and digital retail experiences.
\nDIANA Rep. :
One clear outcome was seeing reactions on X (formerly Twitter) from users saying they had visited a physical DIANA store after experiencing us online.
The most significant result, however, was sales on BOOTH (a marketplace for digital creations).
While not extremely high in absolute terms, our sales during the event month increased to 10 times the usual average.
Another valuable outcome was the ability to directly receive feedback from customers through real-time interactions in the virtual environment.
DIANA Rep. :
At DIANA, we are continuing to develop initiatives where physical and digital experiences intersect.
For example, in the DIANA Virtual Shinjuku Store, we aim to recreate experiences that closely resemble real-world retail environments.
In our Shinsaibashi PARCO store, we have already introduced an in-store avatar that provides customer service. Currently, this avatar is powered by AI and can respond to customer inquiries.
Looking ahead, we are exploring a hybrid model that combines:
In the future, we also aim to combine virtual environments with AI to create new hiring models, enabling customer service systems that are not limited by location.
We believe these initiatives could contribute to new employment opportunities in a society facing population decline.
At this stage, we would be happy if people come to recognize DIANA as a brand that exists both in digital spaces and in the physical world!
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