Namie Amuro gets that H&M coin, but when is she hitting Spotify tho'?

Namie Amuro x H&M - Fall / Winter 2018 | Random J Pop

Namie Amuro retires in a month, but she's gonna make sure she hits up everybody she can and squeeze them dry for yen to stack that retirement money and Haruto's trust fund. Namie has been facing companies left, right, centre, back, diagonally, 72 degrees out, across the whole y axis, x axis and at every co-ordinate over the past year. Getting money from Docomo, Kosé, H&M, Asahi and now H&M...again.

Namie was the face of H&M for a Spring / Summer collection and now she will be cashing her cheque for Fall / Winter. Namie will not only be the face of the brand, but will launch her own curated collection with the brand. There is not a knee high boot or a ruffled skirt in sight and I'm high key disappointed.

Unfortunately for fans in the West, this collection will not be available outside of Asia. So Namie's face will not be appearing behind cash desks and in store windows in the Americas or across Europe - which is a shame. Understandable. But a shame.


Namie looks so done with this shoot. It's probably because she was shocked by Perfume's Future pop album cover, which was shot by the same guy who was shooting her here. She IS smiling in two of the final shots, but she probably charged for those smiles. Namie aint try'na do more than she has to unless there's a price on it. And even then...

Namie Amuro x H&M - Fall / Winter 2018 | Random J Pop

Namie pairing with H&M is an ingenious way to have her face up and down the whole of Japan without having to release new music right before her retirement. Which begs another question: Will Namie's discography ever be available on streaming services? In an ideal world, the last big announcement to come from Namie would be that her music will be made available on all major streaming platforms. But given the drama around her having to re-record so many of her songs for her Greatest hits compilation / Best release, I have this horrible feeling that the same shit that prevented her from using her original recordings for Finally is also going to prevent them from being made available for streaming. Which would just leave us with "Christmas wish", "Mint", _genic and Finally. This isn't to say that it's impossible. Just...tricky.

I hope I'm wrong. Because Namie on streaming services so long overdue. Avex cannot be cool with having Ayu and Kumi Koda's up on platforms worldwide and not the one chick on their roster that's been paying for the whole of the Avex headcount since 2008. Because I know Ayu and Kumi's album sales over the past 8 years ain't been making those Avex stocks pop how they used to.

If Vision factory are indeed an obstacle and they know what's good for them, they will just co-operate and allow her shit to hit streaming. Namie done threw the gauntlet down by re-recording 38 of her own songs just to get a Best album out. If they think a bitch won't live in a studio for 2 whole weeks and re-record 11 albums, then they are playing themselves.

Namie Amuro x H&M - Fall / Winter 2018 | Random J Pop

Namie's H&M collection launches on August 21st in over 600 stores across Japan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, South Korea, Macau and Taiwan.

Comments