POWERING STYLE WITH AI

Building Our Own Body of Research

Hydra Forest begins from a simple conviction: that human appearance is not only a matter of taste, but something that can be understood logically and developed into a structured body of research. And that understanding it can make a person's life better.

That conviction was built through long-term accumulation, and it began with a company called XYI. The name carries an idea. In a vast universe stretched across an X and Y axis, every person holds an “I,” a self, that moves between them. It is never fixed. As we grow and change, it continues searching for where it belongs. XYI was founded in 2015 to make that search less lonely, to help people find their own coordinates without losing their way, so that a confident and fulfilling life comes not by chance, but as the natural result of truly understanding who you are. That philosophy grew into its own body of research, Human Appearance Science, and from it came the 3-Axis Diagnosis™ that sits at the heart of everything we build today.

The work itself reflects what we have built over time. More than 1,000 stylists have learned and now practice the method. More than 50 fashion brands in Japan use it to understand and advise their customers. A practicing community of more than 3,000 people continues to expand and refine the data every month. All of it came from working with real people, one person at a time. That knowledge has reached beyond the field as well. Over several years from 2018, our team wrote on styling for Tokyo Weekender and contributed to the fashion magazine Domani, and in June 2023 we lectured at Tokyo Fashion Technology School on appearance design and branding for digital 3D models. This is the foundation built from years of work in real environments: a genuine, accumulated understanding of people.

That foundation is what makes the technology possible. Hydra Forest's AI completes a full appearance analysis in seconds, with high accuracy, built on the imaging experience of a team trained within Sony's Digital Imaging division. The model is proprietary and always improving, continuously refined by the Human Appearance Science Research Center as it learns from new data. Its AR and spatial technology was developed from the same technical foundation, refined in environments that demand high standards of quality.

Hydra Forest brings this body of research to the world, widening its reach across industries. From luxury to clinics, from hair salons to retail, every field that shapes how people see themselves can work with greater precision, built on that foundation. Style Forest AI is the consumer expression of that same work, made personal, in the hand of anyone with a phone.

Hydra Forest began with a question about how people understand themselves and built a deep body of knowledge around that answer. We continue to research the newest data and to deepen our work in the field, and on that foundation we are building the infrastructure to bring that answer to everyone.

Trusted at the Summit of Luxury

Luxury houses don't open their doors easily. They've spent generations shaping the experience of their most valued clients, and they're careful about who they allow into that world. So it carried real significance when two luxury maisons welcomed us in.

In March 2023, our collaboration began with a maison within the LVMH group. Our team built an original training program for their boutique staff, working across several markets in Asia and more than forty stores. We shared the techniques and the know-how for understanding each client more deeply, one step at a time. The people at the heart of the client experience came away able to read appearance with greater depth, and to turn that into recommendations that felt more personal.

A year later, in March 2024, a French luxury maison worked with us at its Ginza flagship. Together we created a High Jewelry salon for some of its most valued clients. Through our 3-Axis Diagnosis™ methodology, clients encountered new possibilities and perspectives, and grew interested in designs they might not have chosen before. For the maison, it became a way to create a new kind of experience for the clients it cares for most. For the clients, it became a chance to discover sides of themselves they hadn't seen before.

This is what years of accumulated research make possible. The method was built over years of research and refined with real people. It was that steady work, we believe, that made it possible to work alongside houses with such exacting standards. We hope to continue building that trust, one relationship at a time.

Already There on the Most Important Day

A wedding is one of the days people carry with them for the rest of their lives. Every part of it holds meaning, even in how someone looks as they turn toward the people they love. Our work belongs to everyday appearance, and it belongs here too, on the days that matter most.

Dressmore is a bridal house in the Kansai region. They carry a wide range of wedding dresses, in many designs and sizes, so that every bride can find the one that feels right for her. Together with Dressmore and KINDLER, we brought our Appearance Intelligence solution into their wedding rehearsals, as part of how their stylists propose hair and makeup. It began as a store rollout.

Until then, those proposals rested mostly on each stylist's own sense and experience, and the results could vary from one stylist to the next. The team wanted a clearer, shared basis for the choices they made. Our solution gave them that footing. Stylist and bride could look at the same objective picture and talk it through, whoever was guiding the session.

What the brides told us has stayed with us most. One said that seeing herself in clear figures gave her real conviction, and let her approach the rehearsal at ease. Another said the proposals turned what she had thought of as her flaws into strengths, and showed her a side of herself she had never noticed. For Dressmore, it became more than a diagnosis. It opened a way for stylist and bride to understand each other and build trust as they worked toward the look she had hoped for.

That is why the work spread. Proposals grew easier to explain, and brides left not only satisfied but quietly confident, ready to meet the biggest day of their lives. On that strength, Dressmore expanded the solution across more stores. The technology earned its place in daily use, the experience improved, and the bond between stylist and bride grew stronger. For a house whose work is to send brides off at their most beautiful, that is everything.

Dressmore is one example. Our solution can serve any setting where how a person looks shapes how they feel and how they are seen, and we intend to bring it to many more. From everyday styling to a once-in-a-lifetime morning, we want Appearance Intelligence to be there, quietly helping people feel like themselves.

Across Industries, Across Borders

Our work has never fit into a single category. Appearance touches nearly every part of how a person is seen, and we have spent years researching and building for all of it. So it's no surprise that partners have come to us from many directions, including fields that might not appear connected at first glance. What connects them is simple: across all of them, how a person looks shapes the impression they make on others.

Our solution is already at work today, supporting companies across a range of industries. And the value is the same everywhere. When people can look like themselves, it lifts more than their appearance. It lifts how they feel, and that matters not only to them, but also to the people they serve.

We have signed letters of intent, or are in active discussions, with partners across many fields. In aesthetic medicine, ReO Clinic in Osaka and an aesthetic clinic in Melbourne are preparing to bring it into their practice. In hospitality and travel, the Kyoto ryokan house Kuraya, the inn group Keiyugyo with around fifty properties in Kyoto, and a luxury travel company are exploring how it could enrich the welcome they give their guests. In nail and eyelash care, VELDA DESIGN plans to use it across its salons. A hair salon group listed in Japan, with stores in Japan, Singapore, and Korea, is preparing to adopt it, and an online apparel retailer with more than sixty storefronts in Japan is moving in the same direction.

The reach now extends beyond Japan. In the United States, discussions are nearing agreement with an aesthetic clinic in Los Angeles and a styling salon in New York. Conversations are moving forward in cosmetic dentistry as well, where the way a smile looks can mean a great deal.

Step by step, the map has grown to span Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Australia, and the United States, and to cross from fashion and styling into bridal, aesthetic medicine, elderly care, hospitality, nail and lash care, and more. The industries differ, but the underlying need is the same. Appearance Intelligence is becoming something larger than any single solution. We're building it into the infrastructure of the future.

The People and Structure Behind the Work

Technology is only as strong as the people who build it and the research that stands behind it. We set out early to build both with care, so that what we are building can rest on solid ground and grow steadily.

At the heart of it is the Human Appearance Science Research Center by XYI, our research base in Tokyo. Over many years, we have built and refined a broad body of research and data on human appearance. That work is the foundation for everything we do today.

And the research never stops. The way people dress, and the way they are seen, change with the times. So we take in new information continually, refining the research and keeping it relevant to the world as it evolves. What we learn continuously flows into the work of Hydra Forest's partners. Staying close to both the research and the real-world environments where it is applied: that is the role of this center.

The people leading the company have spent their careers where technology, craft, and research meet. Shinya Kitajima serves as both CEO and CFO. He built his career in finance at Sony Financial Group and at Ernst & Young Global Limited (EY), one of the Big Four firms. At EY, he worked on the audit and finance of some of the world's leading public companies, supporting them with discipline and rigor as they matured into responsible, publicly listed businesses. He brings that same experience to how the company is structured and how it plans to grow.

Our technology is led by two CTOs. Asuka Kadowaki leads our work in AI and computer vision, the core technology that reads appearance with precision. Tsuyoshi Nomura leads our work in XR, including augmented reality (AR), the area that brings the technology to life as experiences people can feel. The two of them have taken research and shaped it into products people can actually use, and they understand what it takes for a technology to become something people rely on day to day.

That foundation is also what lets us look further ahead. As the work matures, we have set our sights on becoming a public company, and we are steadily preparing for it. But that ambition also carries responsibility: to serve more people and contribute more to society, and to move forward as an open and accountable company. We are walking that path in the order it should be taken, one careful step at a time, building something meant to last.