Tokyo may be the style capital of Asia, but with South Korea and China
snapping at its heels and Japan’s most iconic brands rooted in Europe, the
city is being urged to haul its fashion week into the big leagues.
Amazon Tokyo Fashion Week kicked off its spring/summer 2017 season showcase on
Monday with six days of events intended to promote 50 brands, a mixture of
the established and the new.
Yet Japanese labels that are household names in the West — led by Kenzo,
Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and Comme des Garcons — eschew home shores for
the bright lights, prestige and visibility of Paris.
Tokyo Fashion Week attracts only 50,000 visitors — just a quarter of the
total number that attend New York’s two annual fashion weeks, and also lagging
behind London, Paris and Milan. Held after the fashion merry ground exhausts the “big four,” few make the
extra trip to Tokyo, and not many in Japan believe they are missing out.
According to a poll from local website Fashionsnap.com, only 20 percent of
the Japanese fashion industry, including designers, stylists and editors,
consider Tokyo’s events to be of interest.
The calendar, the no-show by the biggest brands, reluctance to open their
doors to the wider public and sluggishness to embrace see-now,
buy-now were all listed as shortcomings by the 221 people surveyed.
The award-winning, Milan-based Turkish designer Umit Benan, wants to change
all that. “Everyone needs to get together to make the Japanese fashion week
much better,” the menswear designer told reporters after making his Tokyo debut,
having announced he would ditch Paris fashion week.
He called Japan’s menswear the “most sophisticated you’ll see in the
streets” and said Tokyo was packed with the world’s most creative buyers and
designers, along with some of the most sophisticated consumers around.
“I think you really need to focus on your own fashion week, trying to
create new waves in Japan fashion,” he said, joking that he loves Japan so
much, he visited 40 times in the last five years.
He called Japanese fabric second only to Italy’s. But unlike in Italy,
where high fashion is governed by precision, he said the Japanese were
willing
to take risks, such as mix nylon with cashmere.
“The Italians don’t have the balls to mix nylon into a 200 euro fabric,” he
said. “In Japan they’re very flexible and very creative, spontaneous… when
you touch it you’re like my God what is this?”
While Tokyo has long been a springboard for up-and-coming designers,
neighbouring Seoul, with its vibrant street style, and Shanghai, as the
commercial capital of China, are attracting increased interest.
“To me, Tokyo is the Asian fashion centre with long fashion-forward
history,” said Hong Kong designer Vickie Au who brought her “Urban Chill”
collection to Tokyo after showing in New York. The street look, minimal
style and clean lines of her House of V label,
this season inspired by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry is well
suited
to Japanese taste.
While she has boutiques in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and online, she is
looking to break into the Japanese and US markets.
Au cited Yamamoto, the famed Japanese designer based in Paris, as an
inspiration, praising him as a master of “modern and avant-garde tailoring”.
Christelle Kocher, creative director of up-and-coming French label Koche,
also said she had learnt from Yamamoto and that it had been special to be
the only French brand participating in Tokyo this season.
“Japanese culture is really refined and I think may be more than other
places, they understand the beauty of the craft and the beauty of the time
to make beautiful things,” she said.
US retailing giant Amazon is sponsoring Tokyo Fashion Week for the first
time, and among the fashion set in Japan there are hopes that it can help
rebrand the event into something brighter and larger.
The company is already the largest clothing retailer in the United States
and fashion vice president for Amazon Japan, James Peters, signalled that he
is determined to replicate that success in Japan. While Tokyo still follows a six-month delay between catwalk and store, he
said Amazon would be happy to help Japanese designers facilitate see-now,
buy-now collections increasingly at the fore in New York.
“I think if that’s what the designers want to do, we’re ready to do it,”
he
told AFP at the week’s launch party.
(AFP)
Photos: Amazon Tokyo Fashion Week, Facebook