Fashion Week lands in Tokyo

Written by: Rebecca Milner on March 12, 2008 at 12:43 am | In Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Technology & Gadget Trends |

Tokyo’s biannual Japan Fashion Week kicked off yesterday with a week-long schedule that includes 45 labels, 10 of which are showing for the first time.

The promotional flyer (left) and the guys from local designer brand Guts Dynamite Cabaret (regular fixtures at fashion week, right).

Since the well-known Japanese designers, like Yohji Yamomoto and Rei Kawakubo (of Comme des Garcons) have long shifted their shows to Paris, the Tokyo runways are typically seen as a training ground for young talent.

Among those cited as up-and-coming talent are the duo of Nao Yagi and Hokuto Katsui behind the label Mint Designs. The seven year-old brand presented a collection titled “Trash, Slash, and Flash,” the final show of the first day.

The show attracted a considerable crowd (some invited, some not).

Unseated invitees line up to get in.

The designers after the show (left), and the madness that followed (right).

Compared to its counterparts in Paris and New York, fashion week in Tokyo is a low-key affair. Buyers and editors, in simple black (as opposed to washed-up celebrities), make up the majority of the front row.

That said, the shows are not without their characters and special guest appearances. Sophmore brand Zechia, by Lica, ended the show with a piece of “Recycouture,” an ensemble stitched together from an old item donated from one individual plus leftover fabric scraps from the Zechia collection, with the intention of creating both something new and something that evokes that individual’s storied past. The individual in question happened to be Yuriko Koike, Japan’s first female defense minister, who donated a safari jacket she wore when she first joined the House of Councilors in the early 90s.

She made an appearance at the show to check out her new jacket, which will actually be auctioned for charity.

The reworked outfit (left, photo courtesy of the Mainichi News) and Koike being interviewed (right).

Shopping mall deluxe, Tokyo Midtown, plays host to the main event where shows will be broadcast live on large screens around the complex, as well as on the JFW website. This is the sixth edition of the event, which replaced the 20 year-old Tokyo Collections in 2005.

Tags: Fashion, JFW, Tokyo Midtown
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Technology & Gadget Trends
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