What does the brand mean in today’s market?
How has it evolved over time?
What is the target market(s) for the brand? Has that changed from the past?
How is the competition positioned?
What celebrities endorse your brand? Why are they a good fit? To what target market do they connect?
What other famous characters could be connected to your brand? Explain why.
What about the competition? What kind of endorsers do they use?

Naoto Hirooka, born in 1977, graduated from Bunka Design College and entered S-Inc in 1999. In 2000, he debuted his original brand “h.Naoto”, which featured punk sensibilities and design styles. The brand has since expanded to include a huge ranvge of other subbrands that encompass a variety of styles, including visual kei, natural kei, punk, lolita, gothic aristocrat, men’s fashion and more.

Celebrity Endorsements
As a designer, h.NAOTO is much sought after by celebrities to design clothes and other paraphernalia. Perhaps one of the most famous collaborations he has ever done was in 2004 with Evanescence’s Amy Lee, who wore a dress that they designed together to the 2004 Grammy Awards. He also worked with GACKT in the same year, producing costumes for his concert tours and a unique design for Gackt’s guitar.
Most recently, h.NAOTO has worked with LUNA SEA guitarist SUGIZO, and famed producer (X-JAPAN) YOSHIKI to produce prints and other fashionwear.

Sub-brands
Over the years, h.NAOTO has debuted and discontinued many different brands under his line of clothing. Here’s a list of as many as I could dredge up, but do note that it’s by no means exhaustive. If you know of any other brands that I haven’t listed, please do feel free to let me know! h.Naoto | The main line of the h.Naoto empire. The brands in this line are designed by the man himself. | | * NAOTO SEVENThe SEVEN line is what Naoto himself calls the “Art Mode”. Classified as “GOTHIC”, the clothing in this line is deconstructed and caters largely to men.Photo: ゴシック★SEVEN七つの大罪ムラ染めカットソー茶灰M/h.NAOTO | | * h.NAOTO Blood“The Ancient, Pure, Gothic style”. A brand highly beloved by Elegant Gothic Aristocrats (EGA). The line features elegant, mostly black clothing which suits the EGA aesthetic.Photo: ゴシック★Bloodアシンメトリーロングジャケット黒M/h.NAOTO | | * DARK RED RUMDARK RED RUM is a highly stylised line of clothing which features torn edges and uneven hems. Naoto describes this brand as “occult punk”. Arguably fits into the “goth punk” genre.Photo: ゴスパンク★DRR退廃ゴシックテイスト浴衣黒M/h.NAOTO | | * h.ANARCHYInspired by punk and visual kei,h.ANARCHY is the brand that is most similar to what Naoto originally produced. Originally characterised by a red distressed print on black material, the brand has since evolved with the times, but still maintains its original punk roots.Photo: パンク☆ANARCHYガーゼカットシャツ赤黒M/h.NAOTO | | * HN+noisHN+nois collects accessories from all the brands under the h.NAOTOline (not to be confused with theGRAMM, Sixh., MeLT etc lines). While brand-specific accessories can be placed under this category (eg, punk collars from h.ANARCHYor frilly bags from h.jelly), there are also HN+nois-only accessories.Photo (top): パンク☆nois蜘蛛の巣ボディバッグ黒白F/h.NAOTO
Photo (bottom) : ゴスロリ♪noisリボンチャームミニハット黒F/h.NAOTO |

GRAMM | The GRAMM line, named for a purposeful mispelling of the name Grimm (as in The Brothers Grimm) used to be an offshoot of FRILL but has now turned into an entire line by itself.
Visit GRAMM web | | * GRAMMGRAMM examines the interaction of story, fairytale and fashion. Designed by designer Z8 (ZIAN) and illustrator Z9 (ZIKU), the GRAMM collection has a ethereal, natural-kei feel.Photo: ゴスロリ♪GRAMMお花のラッフルワンピース白M/h.NAOTO | | * GRAMM ダレロキュ
The Dare Lokyu (Who’s Lokyu?) line is based on the main character of the GRAMM illustrated story.Photo: ゴスロリ♪GRAMMおやすみロキュのバッグ黒紫F/h.NAOTO | | * h.NAOTO FRILLFRILL fits most into the lolita aesthetic out of all the brands. WhileFRILL specialises in the Gothic Lolita genre, occasionally the whitexpink pieces may take an unexpected sweet turn, with the signature Naoto twist.Photo: ゴスロリ♪FRILLおリボン刺繍ワンピース黒桃M/h.NAOTO |

Sixh. | Named for being the “sixth sense beyond the five senses”, the Sixh. line was born from Naoto’s “h.ism” project, which examines the interaction between fashion and music. In 2007, the young fashion duo IBI and MINT created the new genre “ghost-kei”, or gothic + host-kei, and Sixh. was born.
Visit Sixh. web | | * Sixh. IBI
Inspired mostly by the Visual scene, IBI’s line embodies the visual-gothic-host look.Photo: V系◆Sixh. IBIグラフィック4点コーデセット黒F/h.NAOTO | | * Sixh. MINT
Based on the theme of ninjas (?!), MINT’s line is a symbol of the cool Japan. I didn’t make the part up about ninjas, by the way, it’s actually part of the brand description. You can see the influences clearly in the clothing though.Photo: Sixh. ストール付きカットソー /h.NAOTO | | * Sixh. MINT NekoMINT Neko is a line of characters created by designer MINT. For a full list of all the Nekos in the collection, visit the MINT Neko website to have a look at their names and personalities.Photo: V系◆Sixh.でかいネコロングカットソー黒M/h.NAOTO | | * Sixh. 617A collaboration line between Sixh.(6), and popular models/hosts 一条誠 (1) and 皐月星七 (7) from Men’s Spider. This line (pronounced Six-Seventeen) seems to be largely for women. I’m not sure if this a special collaboration or a semi-permanent one, at least.Photo: V系◆Sixh. 617ロックプリンセスタンク黒M/h.NAOTO |

MeLT | Strictly speaking, the MeLT range of items now belongs to the Sixh. line (the line was subsumed into Sixh. in 2010), but is characteristic enough to deserve a section of its own. Helmed by Takeuchi Mika, the MeLT items use butterflies and roses as its main theme, and its signature colours are deep purple on black.
Visit MeLT website | | * HoneyThe main clothing line of the MeLTrange, Honey, now absorbed under just “MeLT” in the Sixh. line, takes a mix between koakuma kei- the “devilish cuteness and sexiness” made popular by magazine Ageha, and gothic lolita. It results in a sort of… cute gothic look? It’s quite hard to describe this…Photo: セクシー系★MelTオフショルダーワンピース黒桃M/h.NAOTO | | * h.NAOTO RooMs
Naturally, the RooMs line is about h.Naoto furniture and other interior decoration items.Photo: ROOMS レースフリル付カーテン(大)/h.NAOTO |

Hangry & Angry | The Hangry & Angry line is helmed by designer/illustrator Gashicon. There is a story about the adventures of these two little kittens; one of whom is a punk, the other a lolita.
Visit Hangry and Angry web. | | * HANGRY＆ANGRYHangry and Angry, two little cats on an adventure. These two are the original mascots with their own story and comic. There are plenty of plushies in this line, but the clothing features prints of the two cats. Fun fact: plushies of Hangry&Angry were in Misamisa’s room in the Japanese movie Death Note. (They hang from her mirror and line the walls.)Photo: HANGRY＆ANGRY☆怪物シリーズネコ耳フーディ黒白M/h.NAOTO | | * HANGRY＆ANGRY F
The F stands for “Future”. You may also have heard of the electro-rock artist duo Hangry & Angry, who are embodiments of Hangry & Angry F. (PS, they used to be from Morning Musume!) I’m not sure if they are also characters in the originalHangry & Angry universe.Photo: HANGRY＆ANGRY F☆CD「KillMeKissMe」/h.NAOTO | | * HANGRY＆ANGRY Legend
The characters of the Legend line are essentially the Sixh. designers IBI and MINT in the cat plushie form. These two new cats are Lord IBIgry and Devil MINgry.Photo: HANGRY＆ANGRY☆IBIgryポストカード青F/h.NAOTO |

gouk | While the gouk line is a significant proportion of the s-inc/h.NAOTO empire, I will only touch briefly on it as gouk is a largely contemporary line which does not tie into the lolita/punk aesthetic. | | * goukThe gouk line blends contemporary fashion and the Japanese aesthetic together. The entire line comes in a range of different flavours, with HIME(Japanese print fabric) and sumi (print evoking sumi-e, Japanese brush strokes) embodying the elegance of Japanese tradition; and HANA (a retro feel) and ai (denim line) presenting a warm, nostalgia of heartful Japan. Also included in gouk are bokuu, a men’s line, and kikou, an accessory collection similar to what HN+nois is for h.NAOTO. |

Discontinued Brands | Here are some of the bigger/more interesting brands are now no longer continued. This list is non-exhaustive and certainly goes on and on! | | * Channel H.
Inspired by anime and manga, this brand featured cat ears, animal paws and more in the signature h.NAOTO punk style. I believe this was discontinued only very recently, so you might be able to get some of the items from this brand second-hand rather easily.Photo: Channel H. Parka | | * h.jellyh.jelly features short flirty skirts and bustiers, similar to the koakuma or little devil style. I’m actually a bit confused about the history of h.jelly, Honey and MeLT. While the h.jellyline is quite distinctly different from the Honey line, I remember a period of time when the brand was collectively called h.jelly&Honey. Right now, the MeLT range of items is much more Honey than h.jelly, so I’m going to leave this in here and call it discontinued.Photo: ロリパンク♪jellyコルセットワンピース黒青M/h.NAOTO | | * Rockers H. BabyAs you might guess, this brand features a 50′s American rock look; so riders jackets, etc.
This brand dealt predominantly with menswear; it had a sister brand Bike & Bike Blues under the MeLTrange, which is essentially a female biker fashion brand.I’m also guessing that this is related to brands Rock ‘N’ Roll Baby andRolling West Baby, but I’m not sure if they are actually one and the same. In any case, Rockers H andRock ‘N’ Roll had products in the market at the same time, so at the very least these two are different brands. The rockabilly look was (is?) quite popular in Japan for a period of time, so these might have been brands featuring the rock look for different sections of the market.Top photo: Rockers H. Baby – Fashion Spread from h.NAOTO’s hm3 Special
Bottom photo: Bike & Bike Blues- s-inc blog | | * HN+dieGenerally this is more street fashion done with a Naoto twist. I’ve seen it as recent as 2009, so this is another recently discontinued brand that may have been subsumed into one of the other h.NAOTO lines. HN+die also has a sister brand for ladies’ wear,DIE.PINK.Top photo: HN+DIE h.naoto悪魔的サーマルニットセーター /RAKUTEN
Bottom photo: DIE.PINK – S-inc blog | | * Qupid HChildren’s line! Aren’t the tiny punk mannequins adorable? I would say that this line for kids corresponds most strongly to Channel H and perhaps FRILL.Photo: S-INC blog photo | | * h.NAOTO EASTAn interesting line that is largely influenced by East Asia. So plenty of dragons and kimono inspired pieces.Photo: Hh.NAOTO EAST コルセット付き振袖着物ワンピース /RAKUTEN | | * Blood ModernicaAs the name of the brand kind of suggests- the Blood Modernicarange was a “contemporary gothic” look – so probably more similar to the London Goths. Quite sure that it’s spelt like that, and the image has a typo.Photo: Scan from S-inc blog | | * hb. RooTsAccording to MeLT website, RooTsis still part of the lineup, but I haven’t seen any ads or pieces from RooTsfor a while. So I’ve put it in here. TheRooTs line is similar to GRAMM in that it features long dresses and uses similar materials, but the items come in brighter colours like pink, purple and orange. I see some tribal influences in there, as if these are… mori girls from the tropical rainforest? (No, I don’t know what I’m talking about either.)Photo: Photo from S-inc blog | | * AmbienTProbably a predecessor stylistically to the GRAMM line, or a menswear relative. This line featured browns, distressed looks.Photo: Photo from S-inc blog | | * Gold Gang StarSupposedly this brand is influenced by the streets of Harlem and black culture, but to be honest I don’t see it from this picture I managed to dredge up from the histories of the s-inc blog. Perhaps in the denim, which has gold distressed print on it.Photo: Photo from S-inc blog | | * D.O.A.According to articles on the s-inc blog, D.O.A stands for “Dead or Alive”. D.O.A. draws its influences from military and other work gear, such as mechanics jumpsuits and etc. The brand also had a sister brand Pink Camoflauge under theMeLT range, which dealt with… military wear for girls. (I swear I don’t make this stuff up.)Top photo: Scan from Kera Maniax
Bottom photo: Pink Camoflauge – s-inc blog | | * h.Julietteh.Juliette was h.NAOTO’s way of catering to the “L-sized crowd” (his words, not mine). Yup, this is the plus-sized range! The clothing in this line was very similar to Blood, as far as I can tell.Photo: Photo from S-inc blog | | * SF Science FuckingPlease allow me to say at this time that it was a pain in the behind to even find a mention of this brand online. It was by chance that I found a scan of this brand feature. As you can see, this brand dealt largely with the cyber fashion, similar to FÖTUS.Photo: Photo from S-inc blog | | * XXX RubberHowever, if it was difficult to find pictures of Science F***ing, I would say that XXX Rubber truly takes the cake. As Shu says, XXX Rubber is like the deformed child that ashamed mothers hide in their attics and never let out. It is like its existence was wiped out on the Internet. The only reason why I am sure that this brand exists, is that it is mentioned in h.NAOTO catalogues from 2004/05.The pictures you see on the left are actually of h.Anarchy cutsews, but the PRINT on the tees is a picture of a model wearing clothing from the infamous XXX Rubber line. Yes, even up to now I still have yet to find an actual picture of XXX Rubberclothes items, and I dare say that my Google-fu is very strong. But perhaps it’s been wiped for good reason – XXX Rubber was based on hardcore BDSM and pornography themes.Photo: Photos from S-inc blog |