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French luxury brand Eres has opened its first boutique store in Asia – at the Four Seasons Hotel Singapore.
It is the 43rd boutique worldwide for the brand, founded in 1968 and known for its graphic swimsuits in bold colours, and form-enhancing lingerie.
In Orchard Boulevard, the 484 sqft (44.96 sqm) store is featuring the latest spring/summer swim and lingerie collection, with prices ranging from S$125 (US$90.48) to S$700.
Eres has until now focused on markets in Europe and the US.
South Korea’s fourth-largest cosmetic maker, It’s Skin, has made a move to extend its international reach through a partnership with retail giant Dabur India.
It’s Skin has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dabur to sell 120 kinds of cosmetics in itsNew U beauty retail chain, stepping up its overseas bid beyond China, Japan and Southeast Asian markets.
Starting with 10 shops in New Delhi, the company plans to open 20 in the capital and the surrounding area this year.
It’s Skin is best known for its snail cream, Prestige Cream d’escargot, which went on the market in 2009. The company posted won 309.6 billion (US$255 million) in sales last year, up 28 per cent from the previous year. It started listing on the Seoul bourse in December.
Founded in 1884, Dabur India is India’s fourth-largest retailer, logging 78.1 billion rupees (US$1.2 billion) in sales last year. Its beauty chain New U has 70 outlets in 28 cities.
Luxury French brand Longchamp sees Asia as a major contributor to the brand’s global growth in coming years.
CEO Jean Cassegrain says 25 per cent of the brand’s business now comes from Asia – and 50 per cent of its customer base is Asian.
In an exclusive interview with The Straits Times in Singapore last week, Cassegrain, grandson of the brand’s founder of the same name, described its Southeast Asian customer base as a “mature luxury shopper” and confirmed an expansion of the brand’s activity as it boosts its presence across the region.
Part of the Longchamp Asia expansion plan will include a doubling in the size of the Singapore store at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands late next month, to better showcase its ready-to-wear collections.
“Customers [in Singapore] are well educated on luxury, perhaps more so than in China and Taiwan, where luxury consumers are more in discovery mode,” he told The Straits Times.
“It just shows the enormous opportunity Southeast Asia still holds for us to grow our business. We are far from reaching our potential in Asia.”
Longchamp remains family-owned in an era when most high-profile luxury brands have been swallowed up by corporate giants in Europe, or private equity investors.
Since its foundation 68 years ago, Longchamp has grown to a network of some 300 directly-operated retail stores in 24 countries, with franchise partners expanding that reach to 80 markets. Sales topped 566 million euro last year, (US$621 million).
Chinese sportswear maker 361 Degrees Group published its financial report for 2015 in Hong Kong, stating that its turnover reached CNY4.459 billion in 2015, a year-on-year increase of 14.1%; its gross profit was CNY1.823 billion; its gross margin was 40.9%; and its net profit attributable to shareholders was CNY518 million, a year-on-year increase of 30.2%.
Meanwhile, by December 31, 2015, the company had distribution in 7,208 stores.
The company said their children’s wear business showed strong performance. Since its launch in 2009, 361 Degrees’ children’s wear business achieved profit in six consecutive years. In 2015, its performance saw a year-on-year increase of 16% to nearly CNY600 million, accounting for 13.2% of the total operating revenue of the group. The number of children’s wear stores increased to 2,350.
361 Degrees will continue to cooperate with the Finnish top outdoor brand One Way and promote three product series, which are for cycling, skiing, and outdoor adventure. At present, One Way has 47 owned stores in 23 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
In the e-commerce sector, 361 Degrees is gradually improving the diversity and uniqueness of its e-commerce products. The e-commerce platform has also become an important channel for the company to launch smart products like smart shoes. So far, 361 Degrees’ online products and traditional store products each account for half of the business.
In addition, 361 Degrees is actively developing new businesses and expanding overseas markets. By December 11, 2015, the company had 116 sales sites in America, 415 sales sites in Brazil, and 30 sales sites in Europe. Ding Wuhao, president of 61 Degrees, revealed that as an official partner of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the company will fully expand the overseas markets with this opportunity.
She is a loyal Asos customer who has ordered from the UK website not once, not twice, but a total of 19 times so far. But the latest experience for Ms Bernie Low, a local blogger, has been nothing short of frustrating.
Ms Low, 22, is just one of many customers who have taken to Facebook to voice their unhappiness over missing goods ordered from the retail giant in January.
Many of these customers had placed their orders as early as the beginning of January as they were hoping to wear their new clothes for Chinese New Year. However, Chinese New Year has come and gone but there was still no sign of their clothes.
What has been more agonising for these customers is that they have been told time and again to wait for their deliveries by different members of the Asos social media team.
Ms Low, who likes Asos for its free worldwide shipping, affordable prices and plus-sized offerings, had ordered five items from the store on Jan 10 this year. However, her items did not arrive on the Jan 28 delivery date that is usually stated on the email tax invoice.
Instead, she was told that delivery would be pushed back by almost one month to Feb 24. Despite this, she told AsiaOne that she had not received any of the five items on Feb 24.
In a blog post on Feb 18, Ms Low expressed frustration at the way the Asos team was handling its customer queries.
“Look, there has to be something that is wrong since so many orders to Singapore have all gone missing, most likely all from the same batch and shipped together. They keep asking us to send in more details to verify the order and everyone gets told to wait even longer,” she wrote.
“Plus many, many, many other Singaporeans have faced this problem yet no one is getting a proper response. We see the exact same responses copy pasted for every single dispute. It is very frustrating.”
Another Asos customer, Laysie Lim, 35, told AsiaOne that she had also raised her concerns with the company after her Jan 14 order failed to arrive on Feb 3. According to Ms Lim, the retailer was holding a Chinese New Year promotion at the time and offered an 18 per cent discount on purchases.
When she contacted Asos, the designer was told that her shipment would arrive on Feb 21 instead.
Later, she heard from two of her colleagues that they too had not received orders made on Asos. That was when she realised that many other Singaporeans had been complaining of missing parcels on the Asos Facebook page.
Ms Lim was then told to give her order details to Asos again, but the representative who replied told her that delivery would be further delayed till Feb 26.
“Real sorry for this delay, I hope it doesn’t cause you too much troubles – keep an eye out for the postman Laysie,” the message from a representative identified as Danielle read.
When asked about the cause of the delay, another representative named Holly said: “We need to allow some extra time due to postal delays in your area. We’re really sorry about this Laysie”.
In an email response to AsiaOne, the London-based e-commerce retailer did not mention that there were any obstacles for delivery to Singapore.
Instead, a spokesperson from Asos said that the delay was caused by incorrect address labels printed by its delivery partner.
“One of our delivery partners recently made a change to their technology that updated the way address labels were printed. As a result many of our customers’ addresses were not printed correctly and packages were unable to be delivered,” the spokesperson said.
According to Asos, the problem was identified and fixed on the same day.
When asked about the feedback received so far, Asos said in an email: “We apologise to any customers who are impacted”.
For many customers, however, an answer – not an apology – is what they are looking for.
Both Ms Lim and Ms Low said that they would continue to order from Asos despite the disappointing experience – but only if their purchases are accounted for.
“I’m very disappointed because I really like Asos,” Ms Low said in a phone interview with AsiaOne in February, adding that she could still forgive the store if her purchases arrive by March, or if she is given a refund. In a second interview, Ms Low said that Asos had offered to give her a refund after the clothes she ordered did not arrive on Feb 24 as promised.
But even getting a refund might not prove to be any easier.
Although Ms Lim told AsiaOne that she had received her refund, not all Asos customers were given a satisfactory reply to their requests.
Facebook user Jo Koh was one of many customers who left a frustrated message on the Asos page asking for a proper response. “I have been in contact with Asos since Feb 16 for an order which (was) due to arrive on Feb 4 but never arrived,” the user wrote on Feb 24.
As her order had not arrived by Feb 23, she decided to request for a refund instead. To her disappointment, she did not receive a reply from Asos. “I am completely disappointed! Can someone please get back to me!” she wrote.
Another Facebook user, Daryl Aw Yeong, wrote on Feb 23 that he had gotten a refund from Asos, but not without “a heck load of trouble and it wasn’t a good experience”.
His tactic for finally getting a response? “Spamming” the Asos Facebook page, he said.
Going by the number of complaints posted on the Asos Facebook page thus far, it seems that “spamming” is what many of its customers have resorted to doing in the hopes of getting a response from the e-retailer on their delayed parcels.
In response to AsiaOne’s queries on Asos’ refund process, a spokesperson said:”‘Our customer care team has a full list of all those affected by this issue. Should any customer on this list advise our team that their delivery has not yet arrived, they will be entitled to a full refund.”
Despite a strong set of annual numbers, shares in fashion retailer Ted Baker didn’t react well to news that softer economic conditions in Asia had hindered the group’s growth there. But Ted’s Asian business is still pretty small – accounting for roughly 3.4 per cent of group sales – and finance director Charles Anderson insists the brand is well received there. The long-term opportunity, he says, remains intact.
Asia aside, Ted’s retail sales are growing fast across other geographies. These include North America, where sales rose by more than a quarter last year and the UK and Europe, where sales rose 8.9 per cent, or 10.7 per cent at constant currencies. Overall, this made for a solid retail performance, with total sales for the division up 13.5 per cent to £348m based on an average increase in square footage of 7.5 per cent. More retail space is on the way: a new store is slated to open in Paris along with further concessions in Germany and Spain. Shop openings are also scheduled in Asia, with further concessions across mainland China and Japan to follow a new store in Beijing. Meanwhile, good domestic performance pushed wholesale sales up a third to £108m.
Another area of growth is online. Last year web-based sales grew by a massive 46 per cent to £53.5m and now represent around 15 per cent of total revenue (from 12 per cent in FY2015). Investments in the web platform are set to continue this year.
But that won’t be the only reasons for higher running costs this year. Ted just entered a new lease agreement for a ‘state-of-the-art’ distribution facility in the UK which will serve as the main European distribution centre for the group’s general retail stock. Therefore, it’s Mr Anderson’s belief that costs will increase marginally this year while the company migrates to the new system. Costs should revert to normal levels thereafter.
Analysts at Peel Hunt expect pre-tax profit of £68.9m for the year ending January 2017, giving EPS of 117p, compared with £58.7m and 101p in FY2016.
| TED BAKER (TED) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 2,926p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.29bn | |
| TOUCH: | 2,926-2,930p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 3,650p | LOW: 2,463p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.6% | PE RATIO: | 29 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 392p | NET DEBT: | 49% | |
| Year to 30 Jan | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 216 | 24.3 | 42.2 | 23.4 |
| 2013 | 254 | 28.9 | 51.5 | 26.6 |
| 2014 | 322 | 38.9 | 67.2 | 33.7 |
| 2015 | 388 | 48.8 | 82.0 | 40.3 |
| 2016 | 456 | 58.7 | 101 | 47.8 |
| % change | +18 | +20 | +23 | +19 |
| Ex-div: 19 May
Payment: 17 Jun |
||||
Today, fashion designer Victoria Beckham launched her first shop outside Britain in Hong Kong as she seeks to tap the Asia market despite a downturn in luxury spending.
Beckham’s store in Hong Kong’s Landmark building lies at the heart of Central.
The British designer did a final check of the store this morning as crowds of fans waited outside, before sweeping out in a fitted black turtleneck dress and oversized sunglasses, surrounded by security.
Beckham’s designs are already available in the region, which is the brand’s fastest-growing market.
Hong Kong is Beckham’s first bricks-and-mortar store outside the UK, designed by London-based architect Farshid Moussavi.
“The process wasn’t easy… opening a store is a huge project. Together with my team, I’ve worked really hard to get to this point,” she told the South China Morning Post.
“I know Asian women really understand luxury, good quality and appreciate when garments are made well – and my clothes are,” Beckham added.
A photo posted on Beckham’s Instagram feed ahead of the launch showed her posing on a plinth next to a mannequin.
Beckham will also attend Saturday’s amfAR AIDS research fundraiser in Hong Kong, where stars including Uma Thurman will take to the red carpet.
The new store has been developed in collaboration with Asian fashion retail brand Joyce, which already carries her collections.
The brand aims at wearable luxury, from jeans and tailored shirts to dresses and accessories. Shirts sell online for around $400 with dresses selling upwards from a few hundred US dollars.
“I think she’s going to be very popular here,” said hedge fund manager Sally Zhang, 30, after browsing in the store Friday.
“Compared to other shops, which are too fancy, not fit for the office, this one is quite different,” said Echo Xu, also a hedge fund manager.
Beckham, 41, opened her first shop in London’s Mayfair in September 2014.
But despite Hong Kong shoppers’ warm welcome, Beckham faces challenges after the city posted its worst retail sales decline in 13 years in 2015.
The slump was fuelled by a drop in tourists from mainland China, which has particularly hit sales of luxury goods.
The Hong Kong dollar has strengthened against the yuan, making it more expensive for mainland visitors to shop. Growing anti-China sentiment in the semi-autonomous city is also keeping some away.
Hong Kong billionaire tycoon Li Ka-shing said yesterday that the business environment in the city was at its worst for 20 years, with property and retail “doing worse than during SARS,” referring to the 2003 disease outbreak.
Speculation of a Burberry takeover bid have seen the London-headquartered luxury fashion company’s share price rise 6 per cent in recent days.
An unidentified party has built a 5 per cent stake in the business. Under London Stock Exchange rules any shareholder holding more than 3 per cent equity must disclose their identity, but an exemption allows investment managers to represent a client with up to 5 per cent. When that threshold was breached briefly in February by HSBC, acting on behalf of the mystery Burberry bidder, the excess was quickly resold.
UK media is reporting that Burberry is “keeping a close watch on the stake”, but has yet to receive any takeover approach.
According to a report in The Financial Times, Burberry has asked HSBC to reveal its client’s identity.
While Burberry maintains strong brand strength, it has suffered from a decline in sales in China and Hong Kong, its key markets, due to the Chinese government’s clampdown on gift-giving and graft, and changing travel patterns of wealthy Mainland Chinese. As a result, its market capitalisation has slipped to about £6 billion.
The Financial Times nominated LVMH Group and private equity investors as possible buyers of the 5 per cent cornerstone stake.
In a first for the market, a TimeVallee Watch Boutique has opened inside Japan Duty Free Ginza on the eighth floor of Mitsukoshi Ginza Store in Tokyo.
It is based on the concept of offering multiple international luxury-watch brands, and is the first such boutique within a Japanese duty-free shop.
With its gold-toned interior, the store features a hands-on area where the latest technology enables shoppers to learn more about the history, traditions and technologies of the brands on display.
Japan Duty Free Ginza opened in January as Japan’s first airport-style duty-free shop in a city center outside Okinawa. It offers all products exempt from consumption tax, customs duties, and alcohol and tobacco duties.
TimeVallee Watch Boutique features seven brands – Cartier, IWC, Jaeger-Lecoultre, Piaget, Roger Dubuis, Vacheron Constantin and Zenith.
Japan Duty Free Ginza is run by Japan Duty Free Fa-So-La Isetan Mitsukoshi, established in 2014 and financed by Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, Japan Airport Terminal and NAA Retailing Corporation.
Japan’s Kose cosmetics has unveiled a global marketing plan that aims to give it a strong international presence – including department store outlets in China, Malaysia and Singapore.
The plan was revealed as it celebrated its 70th birthday, with a media event at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, attended by actress Yui Aragaki.
In response to the success of its flagship Sekkisei skincare line, Kose is giving it more prominence on retail floors, and has introduced a “Stand by You” concept.
Sekkisei products feature Chinese and Japanese herbal ingredients. The brand has been growing for 30 years and is continually updated, says Kose Corporation president/CEO Kazutoshi Kobayashi. Its latest addition is Sekkisei Herbal Gel.
A dedicated counter section has been designed by architect Kengo Kuma, in keeping with the store’s Japanese-motif interior design.
“The counter uses a special material, high-density polyethylene non-woven fabric, and is lit from inside to represent the divine whiteness of Sekkisei,” says Kengo Kuma.
The dedicated sections will launch inside department stores in Fukuoka, Osaka and Tokyo next month, and be added to a duty-free store location in Hawaii by the end of the year.
Other locations are being established in department stores in China, Malaysia and Singapore, which will help Kose expand the Sekkisei network to seven countries within three years.
According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Kose earns about 30 billion yen (US$266 million) in annual Sekkisei sales, and is looking to build this figure to as much as 60 billion yen by 2020.
Japanese lifestyle brand Muji is planning a new flagship store in Singapore.
Masaaki Kanai, chairman of Muji’s parent company Ryohin Keikaku, said on Tuesday (Mar 15) that the new flagship store is estimated to be around 3,300 square metres and will feature more lifestyle concepts.
“Apart from the usual Muji products, the store will have an ‘Open Muji’ concept where community creators are invited to interact with us. This is in line with our objective to create an interactive society,” said Mr Kanai, who was speaking to the media at a roundtable interview following his keynote presentation at The Innovation by Design Conference in Singapore.
Muji, whose full name Mujirushi Ryohin translates to “no brand, good quality”, declined to reveal the specific timeline for the opening of the new store.
The Japanese retailer currently has 10 outlets in Singapore, including a travel-concept store Muji To Go located at Changi Airport Terminal 2 and Cafe & Meal Muji, which opened at Paragon last year.
GLOBAL EXPANSION
The plan to add to its stores in Singapore comes as the lifestyle brand, known for its unorthodox no-brand philosophy and focus on well-designed and practical household items, is carrying out a global expansion.
According to Mr Kanai, by 2017 Muji will likely have more overseas stores than the 284 it has in Japan, as it seeks for growth outside its mature domestic market.
Among the top two key growth markets are China and the United States.
“China is leading the growth due to its big population, while we had a good start in the USA where we are seeing 300 billion yen in annual turnover,” said Mr Kanai, who has worked at Muji since its founding.
Even as concerns continue about slowing growth in China and the spending power of its consumers, Muji remains upbeat about the world’s second-biggest economy, where it intends to increase its pace of store openings to 50 per year from 2017.
Ryohin Keikaku had 128 stores in China as of end-May 2015, its biggest market outside Japan.
“I’m not so worried because the generation born after the 1980s are relatively well-off and they emphasize on a good lifestyle, and that’s in line with our philosophy.”
Despite the rapid worldwide expansion, Mr Kanai emphasized that the Japanese retailer does not intend to “grow too big” and prefers to stay as a “small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)” so as to stay true to its design philosophy.
“When a company grows too big, it’s not a good thing because the management will tend to emphasize more on ensuring a profit. That’s not our objective,” the chairman said.
“Our objective is still to offer something useful to our consumers.”
BRACING FOR SALES TAX HIKE
Back in its home market, Muji is keeping an eye on the planned increase in the consumption tax, from 8 per cent to 10 per cent, in April 2017.
Aimed at reining in Japan’s massive public debt, the sales tax was first raised from 5 per cent to 8 per cent last April. The move, however, took a toll on consumer spending and the country’s retail sales.
To combat the negative impact, Muji lowered the retail prices of its products following the tax hike, and opted for cost-cutting measures.
When asked whether Muji is worried about the impact of a second increase in the sales tax, Mr Kanai said: “There was certainly an impact on profit and sales during the last sales tax hike in 2014. If there’s a raise again next April, retail sales will likely come down.”
Italian fashion conglomerate Teddy Group has opened two stores in Asia, with another to follow by the end of this month.
A Terranova outlet has just opened at Vivacity Megamall in Kuching, which is the administrative centre of the state of Sarawak and the fourth most-populated city of the Malaysian federation. The 850 sqm store displays the entire brand collection, including menswear, womenswear, childrenswear, underwear and accessories.
Four Terranova stores are planned for Malaysia, with the brand launching in Kuala Lumpur in 2013.
Meanwhile, in the same shopping centre in Kuching, the first Calliope store will open by the end of this month. The 500 sqm outlet will sell menswear and womenswear collections and accessories.
A second Terranova outlet in Mongolia opened in the Nomin Allmart shopping centre in the capital city of Ulan Bator, last month. The 700 sqm store offers the entire brand collection.
South Korea’s original development manufacturing (ODM) cosmetics company Cosmax Inc. said its Indonesian subsidiary PT Cosmax Indonesia was granted halal certification, a move that is expected to help pave the way for the company to make forays into the global halal beauty product market.
The company said on Tuesday that PT Cosmax Indonesia received the halal certification from Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) to sell its cosmetics. MUI is one of the top three halal certification authorities in the world along with Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) and Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS), and it is acknowledged across about 40 different countries.
The Korean beauty products maker PT Cosmax Indonesia succeeded in meeting the strict guides of halal certification by producing cosmetics in hygienic conditions and containing zero harmful ingredients, and it became the first halal certified ODM cosmetics company among all Korean ODM beauty brands. The company expects to secure Islamic female consumers who have difficulties using general beauty products as its stable customer base.
“PT Cosmax Indonesia, with its international halal certification, will do its best as an export base for the company making inroads into global halal market to meet consumer demands on halal products in the world including South East Asia and Middle East,” said Lee Kun-il, head of PT Cosmax Indonesia.
Halal, an Arabic word meaning “lawful or permissible” in Islam, refers to products that Muslims are allowed to eat and use, and it is applied to various sectors ranging from food, medications and household goods to cosmetics. The halal cosmetics market is estimated at 100 trillion won ($84.2 billion), and it is expected to grow even bigger as more consumers are looking for products conforming to Islamic laws regardless of cost, said an unnamed official at Cosmax.
Upmarket Australian lingerie retailer Honey Birdette is preparing to open its first retail store in Hong Kong.
Honey Birdette was founded in 2006 by Eloise Monaghan offering premium lingerie and sex toys and entered a strategic partnership with multi-brand Australian retailer BB Retail Capital in 2011. It now has 45 stores in Australia.
In what will be the brand’s first international foray, two stores will open in central London within the next six months, the first in Covent Garden.
Following that, Honey Birdette will open in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris and Rome, the company has revealed, before entering the US.
Separately, BBRC has announced an international expansion of its more mass market chain Bras N Things, with the first two stores opening in South Africa. That brand has 170 stores in Australia and New Zealand and BBRC is planning on expanding into other international markets as well, but has not specifically referred to any Asian ambitions.
“Bras N Things has an established and enviable reputation in Australia and the time is now right to expand beyond our shores, taking our expert fit service to new markets and empowering women globally,” said Bras N Things CEO, George Wahby.
BBRC is best known in Asia as the owner of the Lovisa chain of accessories stores.
Honey Birdette, meanwhile, is clearly targeting a high income demographic. In the UK retail prices are expected to start at £60 (US$85) for a bra and £30 ($43) for a pair of briefs.
As the theme for the mall’s anniversary celebration suggests, the fashion week will reflect the so-called “now generation” by putting emerging local designers under the spotlight.
On Tuesday evening, young designer Yosep Sinudarsono will present his space-inspired spring-summer 2016 collection, continued with Rama Dauhan, whose streetwear designs will be infused by Morrocan and Spanish influences.
Nikicio, a label whose name has reached cult-like status among the local fashion set, will represent the multi-label store The Goods Dept in its show on Wednesday night. Other show highlights include Opi Bachtiar and Ardistia New York on Thursday as well as Hunting Fields on Sunday.
A slew of traditional textile-oriented designers will also participate in the fashion week, such as Didiet Maulana of Ikat Indonesia as well as batik brands like Iwan Tirta Private Collection.
Meanwhile, some notable international labels that will show its collections during the event include Carven and Karen Millen.
“I’m very excited to be part of Plaza Indonesia Fashion Week,” said Patrick Owen, one of Indonesia’s rising fashion stars whose show on Saturday night will mark the end of the fashion week.
Patrick will present his latest spring collection, entitled “Jalanan” (“Streets”), which represents “my wildest imagination of how Indonesian streets could be,” he said.
Known for his exacting tailored pieces and bold artistic prints, the designer will also collaborate with acclaimed illustrator Emte in the show.
“We’re going to be working together on something backstage during the show, and we will give the audience a surprise by the end,” Patrick hinted.
But that is not Emte’s only job at the fashion week — he just recently finished a 150-meter-long mural artwork that adorns the hall in which the shows will be held.
“It is the first time I’ve ever created a work that big,” he said with a laugh.