At Tokyo’s prestigious Bunka Fashion College, students concentrate in silence that is broken only by the sound of scissors and sewing machines as they strive to emulate the global success of alumni such as Kenzo Takada.
The loss of greats Takada and Issey Miyake heralds the end of a fashion era, decades after Japanese design revolutionized Parisian catwalks in the 1970s and 1980s.
The French capital remains a goal for emerging talent such as Bunka graduate Takuya Morikawa, whose streetwear-inspired tailoring made its Paris Fashion Week debut two years ago.
Photo: AFP
Morikawa, 40, hopes his shows at the industry’s top event will lead to “an amazing future, beyond my wildest dreams.”
Before launching his label TAAKK in 2013, Morikawa spent eight years at Miyake’s studio, where he worked on runway collections and the famous “Pleats Please” line, but also harvested rice and made paper to learn about traditional craft methods.
He said he was saddened by Miyake’s death this summer, but implored younger designers not to feel disheartened.
“We need to do our best to not let these designers’ deaths impact the fashion world. If that happens, it means we’re doing our job badly,” he said.
One of the big names picking up the baton is Nigo, who shot to fame in the 1990s with his streetwear brand A Bathing Ape.
The designer, who also studied at Bunka and whose real name is Tomoaki Nagao, was named artistic director at Kenzo last year, after founder Takada died of COVID-19 in 2020.
Another Japanese label enjoying international success is Sacai, founded in 1999 by Chitose Abe, who was tapped as the first guest couture designer for Jean Paul Gaultier.
Takada and textile visionary Miyake became hugely influential by pursuing their passion in Paris, as did haute couture trailblazer Hanae Mori, who died in August.
Left holding the torch are Yohji Yamamoto, now 79, and 80-year-old Rei Kawakubo, founder of Comme des Garcons, who shook up the fashion establishment in the early 1980s.
New challenges, including the vast range of styles now available for every taste, have made it harder for emerging designers to grab global attention, Bunka president Sachiko Aihara said.
“The world was shocked” by avant-garde Japanese design, she said, recalling how her students began to dress in black after Yamamoto launched his first monochromatic clothing line.
“But we no longer live in an era where a designer presents a collection and everyone wears it,” she said at the school, whose basement archive is packed with valuable garments that students and teachers can study.
This is because of the explosion in diverse types of clothing, “not a decline in talent,” Aihara said, adding that it was also essential to study business to start a competitive brand.
Designer Mariko Nakayama, who worked as a stylist in Tokyo’s fashion scene for decades, also remembers “feeling goosebumps” wearing Comme des Garcons for the first time.
However, she agrees that the industry is different.
“Looking at Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton, for example, I feel that now is an era of edit,” with designers making modern tweaks to classic shapes and patterns, she said at her boutique in Tokyo’s upscale Omotesando area.
Working in Paris, London, New York or Milan is still seen as key to succeeding for Japanese designers, said Aya Takeshima, 35, who studied at Central Saint Martins in the British capital.
Takeshima’s recent show at Tokyo Fashion Week for her brand Ayame featured women wearing sheer blouses and embossed dresses, while male models donned delicate dresses.
She said she had chosen to study abroad to “learn what I needed to become an independent designer,” adding that the experience had helped her understand different perspectives.
“Honestly, I think it would be difficult” to succeed internationally while only working in Japan, she said.
“In Japan, it felt like technique was drilled into you first, while ideas and concepts ... were secondary,” but it was the other way around in London, Takeshima said.
Bunka college recognizes these benefits and plans to offer a scholarship for studying abroad as part of its 100th-anniversary celebrations next year.
For 21-year-old Natalia Sato, a student at Bunka, Miyake and the old guard of Japanese designers “brought a great deal of Japanese and Eastern values” to the world, including techniques inspired by “delicate” traditional craftsmanship.
“I’m worried that the foundation they built might be destroyed by their passing,” but “at the same time, this is a turning point” that could provide new creative opportunities, she said.
“It’s a chance for me to think about how we can create new values,” she added.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS