Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo: Womenswear sees domestic designers back on home turf

Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo: Womenswear sees domestic designers back on home turf

The Tokyo fashion scene continues to lead the pack in fresh streetwear trends and international haute prowess, at least if the collections unveiled at Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo in mid-October are anything to go by.

Online retailer Amazon finally flexed its muscles this season with the presentation of its “AT Tokyo” program, inviting some of the most famous or buzzed-about brands in Japan to the catwalk and selling exclusive items online.

The womenswear lineup this season was pretty impressive, featuring a Sacai/Undercover joint show and Toga, among others. Attracting Sacai to present its latest collection was a real scoop. The label is arguably one of the most sought-after brands in high fashion, with Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld even anointing the brand’s designer, Chitose Abe, as the next big thing.

Meanwhile, Undercover designer Jun Takahashi has been skipping Tokyo’s fashion week to showcase his collections in Paris for 15 years. His spring/summer collection was noteworthy, with the garments worn by “twins” in the style of “The Shining” and featuring designs inspired by the work of artist Cindy Sherman.

Takahashi’s collections are often presented in a dark dream-like state, and his spring/summer show was sure to send goosebumps through the crowd. Takahashi is one of the best “storytellers of fashion” that exist in the industry and it was a treat to see him back on his home turf.

Toga designer Yasuko Furuta celebrated the label’s 20th anniversary with a collection that was shown at the National Art Center, Tokyo. Although Furuta usually presents her designs in London, she delivered a completely different lineup in Tokyo. The garments were poignant homages to everything that makes Toga unique, and featured elements such as abstract cut-outs, sleek silhouettes and androgynous styling.

 

At the other end of the Tokyo fashion spectrum sits streetwear, which has been finding its way to the catwalk in recent years. Street-style icon and DJ Mademoiselle Yulia took the kind of chaos typically found in Tokyo and transplanted it onto Growing Pains‘ second collection as a mashup of ideas, including giant prairie sleeves, poly vinyl coats, pop-inspired graphics and even martial arts gear.

Akiko Aoki was arguably the best new label presenting at Tokyo fashion week. Her clothes tick all the boxes of what young style-sensitive women in Japan now want — items that are edgy without being provocative, all the while bathed in dusty pastels. Aoki presented a series of pink creations that included bondage-inspired details that had the audience’s smartphones working overtime to catch every item on display.

Another new label during the week was Memuse, which was produced by idol group Dempagumi.inc member Risa Aizawa. As a former Akihabara maid, her collection incorporated many maid-uniform motifs as well as anime-inspired looks that would fit right in with a cosplayer’s wardrobe. “My collection is designed to be everyday clothing to wear in battle,” Aizawa says.

Veteran designer and self-professed otaku Mikio Sakabe, who is an adviser for Memuse, presented a collection that was along similar lines. Sakabe has the rare ability to transform fantasy into reality, pushing the boundaries of Japanese avant-garde in the 21st century. He says he attempted to make authentic kimonos for this collection but found it to be such a daunting task that he instead paid homage through traditional sewing techniques and fabrics.

Speaking of the avant-garde, Malaysian designer Moto Guo unveiled a standout collection, presenting the label’s highly “feminine” looks on male models. The genderless movement — consisting of gender-neutral clothing — is one of the most refreshing trends to come out of Tokyo in recent years. Sakabe initiated the movement, but it hasn’t taken long for the style to become normalized enough to be cute instead of shocking. Let’s wait and see if the rest of the world agrees.

Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo: Menswear designers take it back to the streets

Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo: Menswear designers take it back to the streets

The menswear collections on display at Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo in mid-October appeared to be marching in step with a global push toward irony-drenched streetwear.

Although the sportswear overtones have died down to a level that wasn’t suffocating in the recent New York, London, Milan and Paris collections, a number of shows in Tokyo appeared to be hitting the same notes.

As far as streetwear aficionados go, perhaps this isn’t such a bad thing. Given Tokyo’s formative role in defining the term in the ’90s, it represents something of a homecoming, and a number of brands are fighting to lay claim to the streetwear throne now that the old guard has fallen from favor.

The spring/summer collection presented by Discovered earlier this month appeared to draw inspiration from the end of the ura-Hara streetwear boom of the 1990s.

Tatsuya Kimura and Sanae Yoshida, who bring nearly two decades of experience to the runway, unveiled a lineup that was essentially a love letter to the street culture of the ’90s that won the duo their initial fame almost two decades ago.

Revisiting the shoegaze/nu-gaze music scenes of the 1990s and 2000s, Discovered truly looked to be in its element, presenting numerous accessible yet novel garments that should tempt consumers away from vintage boutiques.

The label even had time to deliver a response to fashion maestros Vetements’ hyped DHL T-shirt. Discovered’s version was billed as an official collaboration, but it was still edgy enough to become one of the most talked-about looks from the week.

Speaking of hype, Takahiro Miyashita, who rose to fame in the late ’90s with his label Number (N)ine, brought his solo project The Soloist back to the runways for the first time since 2009. The howling winds and unseasonal chill that accompanied the show couldn’t put off menswear acolytes from lining up for a glimpse, and even those stuck outside the venue seemed happy enough to be close to the increasingly enigmatic designer.

The Americana-obsessed Miyashita had already presented his latest collection in Paris earlier this year in the wistfully romantic manner his fans have become accustomed to, and so the Tokyo show allowed him to play to current streetwear tastes — patches, logos, graffiti and transparent plastic tech-wear — bringing the collection in line with a new generation.

Miyashita’s fans may have been worried by the first couple of garments he presented on the runway, but by the time raw-edged Western shirts and dense rock ‘n’ roll-inspired embroidery made appearances toward the end of the show, the sense of relief in the room was palpable.

Elsewhere, the young guns of the anonymously produced BlackEyePatch marked themselves out as a Japan-tinged streetwear label with global potential, while U.S.-based NerdUnit from Ronald Chew appeared to zero in on Tokyo as the next destination for his label, marking the country’s capital as the battleground to watch for the next generation of rising streetwear talents.

That said, the streetwear scene doesn’t represent menswear in Tokyo as a whole either on the streets or in the marketplace, and with more than 30 dedicated stores nationally, Hare gave us a clearer glimpse on what young men might actually be wearing beyond the capital.

Beyond the millennial market, Fortuna Tokyo‘s kōgei craft-infused collection was a surprise hit of the week, featuring leather-jacketed samurai and chic conservative menswear coupled with geta sandals that target the department-store shopping crowd the week usually neglects.