Tomoyo Shibuya's coat is more than six years old, but she has no plans to ditch it. Instead of buying a new coat, she went to a handicraft shop, bought new navy-blue buttons, the same color as the coat, to replace the old silver buttons.
"I didn't want to throw away my coat . . . and I wanted to add my own flavor," said Shibuya, a company employee in Tokyo, adding that she also embroidered her initial on a T-shirt and sweater, as she had seen in a magazine.
Due to the ongoing recession, handicraft shops, once a place for the elderly or housewives, are increasingly attracting young customers like Shibuya who opt for maintaining their clothes by changing buttons or attaching studs instead of buying new ones.