TOKYO FASHION WEEK WRAP
With a strong Japanese influence seen in the ready-to-wear shows in Paris and beyond this season, it was perhaps the perfect time to take a close-up look at Tokyo Fashion Week (October 13-19, 2014), which saw Tilda Swinton, no less, attend opening night.
(Although the conclusion after checking out a week's worth of shows is that Japanese designers might do well to look at some of the ways Western designers are playing with Japanese themes and textiles to create original quirks this season, which most failed to do in favor of a focus on Western design.)
With so many designers elsewhere playing with all things Japan, it threw the fashion scene here into sharp relief and emphasized its reliance on Western motifs.
Think the sports influence found here with designers like 99%IS.
The label sent out a menswear collection complete with elaborate masquerade masks which jazzed up the outfits, which ranged from slim fitting leather trousers, with zippers running up the front of the calves, to tropical shorts worn with footballer-style loose-fitting T shirts.
Shoes included chunky slip-on flip flops and pointed leather shoes. Suits, skirts and leather looks were jumbled together and sometimes paired with a top hat in almost carnavalesque costume ensembles which had character not necessarily found elsewhere here with the many safe, pretty looking collections on show in the capital.
The Japanese flavor of the season elsewhere was limited in Tokyo to a few kimono collections unlike in Paris. Consider Jotaro Saito, who sent men down the catwalk for the spring/summer 2015 season wearing pretty kimonos (yes, men do wear these traditionally), as well as women, with new twists like ropes tied around their Obi belts. Some sported more graphic looking patterns than one might associate with old fashioned kimonos that are often inspired by traditional stories. And these kimonos sashed around the ankles, unlike a more traditional design where one can see the socks.
The kimono is the subject of a current exhibition at the Met.
More overseas influence came back to Japan with another designer showing here.
After studying in the US and working in New York, designer Yoshio Kubo returned to Japan in 2004. This season he sent out male models with obscure looking designer beards and dashes of color on their faces and chests, mirroring Hirsute trends current in the West.
The presentation was colorful.
One carried a fishing net, another a flag. And these models walked like Western urban warriors, wearing graphic bomber jackets or floral bombers with matching Bermudas. This designer showed some originality with ideas like a patch of what looked like an Ikat rug decorating a Sweatshirt, or a black suit fitted with an Adidas-like stripe running down the trousers.
Making sure its fashion is fit for all who care to wear it, the brand HaHa chose to open the show with a blue-haired model in a wheel chair wearing a technofied hospital gown. The designer also sent out a pregnant woman and a girl in a wheel- chair in this motley crew of characters.
Looks ranged from twee denim jackets worn with pretty pink ballerina-esque skirts sporting flowers to avant-garde head pieces that encased the model in a curtain of black or a layered kimono that looked almost Roman and draped.
Others seemed inspired by the kimono.
Considered a Japanese brand to watch, Somarta presented outfits that looked like they were made from vintage kimonos but cut into knee length wrap around dresses with no sleeves. But the collection was eclectic and included futuristic looks. Consider a cyber looking dress with a white mesh umbrella used for the skirt.
Other labels kept the eye focused with a range of styles and some creative looking pieces, although nothing too outlandish for the most part.
Ritsuko Shirahama kept the originality flowing from piece to piece from Chanel inspired suits to sculptural dresses. A label with the name of Patchy Cake Eater, meanwhile, dressed men in cowboy boots combined with a pinstriped short suit in this playful collection of deliberately ill-fitting outfits with sleeves and pants cut a tad too short.
There were more kimonos on display by Sansai Saito, including some decorated with some rather kitsch dog patterns. This Kyoto-based designer is the son of a famous kimono dyer.
But while this collection was an attempt to modernize the traditional outfit, Japanese designers, traditional or not, might want to look to the West which found far more funkier interpretations of the kimono and Japan this season, from designer germ masks to a beautiful reworking of old textiles.
And while Japanese designers emulated some of the themes running through Western collections this season, they missed a great opportunity to play with their own traditions and textiles. It was one that should have been a home run, and could be seen everywhere from Dior down this season.
No wonder then. On the streets here in Japan are increasingly ugly doses of Normcore and rapper styles, which is a great pity given the originality that Japanese youth have been known for in the past.
Perhaps the country's designers showing in Tokyo also need to do more of what the Japanese seem to do better than almost anyone else--be it individually or with designers showing overseas like Comme des Garçons--and continue to think outside of the box when it comes to fashion.
If Japan is known for attracting the likes of Lady Gaga looking for outlandish pieces like shoes from the fabulous young Kyoto designer Masaya Kushino, you might have to look beyond Tokyo Fashion Week to find it. It can be found.
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