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This edition of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo was marked by an atmosphere of celebration. Festivities kicked off with the 10th anniversary of the Tokyo Fashion Award, which selects eight Japan-based designers each year, rewarding them with two seasons at a showroom in Paris, as well as the financial support to put on a show during the Autumn/Winter season in Tokyo. In addition to a well-attended opening party at the Omotesando Hills shopping complex to ring in the award’s anniversary, a number of exhibitions and panel talks were hosted throughout the week.
There was a downturn in terms of scale, however, with 34 designers showing on-schedule this time compared to last season’s 43. There were 28 physical presentations across six days, as well as a handful of events, which made for a sparser, more manageable schedule that showed off the city’s most promising talent. The result was a small-but-mighty showcase that proved Tokyo to be an increasingly formidable fashion incubator.
“People used to complain about Tokyo Fashion Week and say, ‘We have no big names like Yohji [Yamamoto] or Undercover,’ but that’s what makes Tokyo Fashion Week more interesting,” says Hirofumi Kurino, co-founder and creative advisor of Japanese retail group United Arrows. “We have more opportunities [to create new names], so I’m very positive about the situation in Japan.”
Here’s a rundown from the week.
A tentative international presence
Tokyo Fashion Week’s ongoing insularity is a sticking point. The Japan Fashion Week Organisation (JFWO) began to address the dearth of foreign guests last season by inviting more international press this time around, and JFWO director Kaoru Imajo insists this will continue. Sara Sozzani Maino, a renowned talent scout and creative director of Fondazione Sozzani, was among those invited this season. Returning to Tokyo after a six-year hiatus, Sozzani Maino attended shows and appointments across the city, and hosted a talk with Yoshikazu Yamagata, founder of the influential private fashion school Coconogacco, whose alumni populate much of the current schedule. “It’s always good to come and see what’s happening in Tokyo,” says Sozzani Maino. “It can be impractical and expensive [to travel to Japan], but if you have the opportunity to come to Japan and see Japanese designers, it’s much easier to absorb it all here than going to Paris and seeing Japanese designers there.”
As usual, there was a marked lack of international buyers at the Tokyo shows, though potential opportunities to change this are on the horizon. One of them is a partnership with Paris-based trade show Tranoï, which opened its first Asian showroom during the week, bringing 134 designers from Africa, Europe and Asia to a large space in Shibuya. Tranoï also hosted a midweek party on the rooftop of the Parco department store, which was attended by more than 3,500 people (around half of whom were buyers).
“The benefit for Tokyo Fashion Week is that we share the audience, inviting guests who are here for fashion week to discover Tranoï, and then the buyers who come to Tranoï will also go to fashion week,” says Tranoï CEO Boris Provost. Expansion is on the horizon: the trade show intends to relocate to the considerably larger venue of Yoyogi National Stadium from September 2025. “We’re planning more activations, more events and more presentations,” says Provost. “With the launch now done, our challenge is how we create excitement every season.”
Designers are also looking for new ways to attract more international attention. Fetico’s Emi Funayama, who put on one of the week’s most well-received shows, sees the value in showing in Tokyo, but can also see the ceiling. “I’ve seen a rise in sales from showing in Tokyo for sure, but at the same time, I feel it’s limiting because buyers from overseas don’t come,” she says, adding that though she intends to stay on the Tokyo schedule, she plans to target the wider Asian market more.
Kamiya, a streetwise menswear brand by designer Koji Kamiya, held its show beneath the train tracks, driving in a giant Japanese ‘dekotora’ truck during the finale. The eponymous brand credits the online impact of its runway shows for helping grow its international sales. “After the show, we always get a lot more reach from people overseas,” says the brand’s PR Yuu Tsuruta, adding that many business connections initially happen via Instagram DM. The brand was recently picked up by Mannahatta NYC, as well as multiple retailers in Korea, including Tom Greyhound and Space Mue, bringing its total number of international stockists to 11. “At the moment we’re not holding any exhibitions overseas, so I think one of the strengths of our team is that we communicate with overseas clients on a daily basis online,” adds Tsuruta.
A leaner schedule
The reasons for Tokyo’s slimmed-down schedule this season were myriad. Having fewer designers on the schedule was partly intentional. “Since last season, we’ve focused more on quality rather than quantity,” says Hiroshi Komoda, secretary general of the JFWO. “The number of designers showing was smaller this time, but there’s a sense of new power and variety in Tokyo, with many designers giving shows or presentations that felt more unique. Overall, it’s been a very interesting week.”
There were plenty of buzzy moments to choose from. Sulvam designer and Yohji Yamamoto alum Teppei Fujita, who usually presents in Paris, celebrated 10 years of business with a homecoming show sponsored by Rakuten’s ‘By R’ initiative (which will also assist Fujita in holding an opening party at his new Paris store). Yoshio Kubo held a 20th-anniversary show for his eponymous brand that included a Japanese comedy presentation, while Anrealage Homme showed for the second season running, closing off the schedule with a bang.
Many of the city’s most notable menswear designers, including Irenisa, Soshiotsuki and Attachment, however, eschewed the official schedule, showing or releasing their Spring/Summer 2025 collections in July in order to be closer to the international men’s buying schedule. Other designers missed the week because of inflexible venues. Harunobu Murata showed a week earlier because he couldn’t secure his venue during fashion week, while Keisuke Yoshida will show his collection on Monday, citing both venue and logistical issues. “I wanted to be on the main schedule if possible, but it was too difficult to get the venue and the staff all together [during fashion week],” Yoshida tells Vogue Business.
“The city’s strictness around venues can be a problem,” says Komoda, adding that JFWO are doing what they can to connect brands with more show venues each season. “Fashion is part of the culture in Paris, for example, but it hasn’t become that way in Japan yet. It would be good if the whole town came together to support the fashion industry, but it’s still a little difficult.”
A healthy domestic market
For Asian designers from outside Japan, the country’s robust domestic market presents ample opportunity for growth. Seivson, a Taiwanese brand founded in 2017 by Tzu Chin Shen, which has been showing on the Tokyo schedule since 2022, established its business in Japan this season. Guangzhou-based designer Yueqi Qi also chose to show on the Tokyo schedule for the second time, bringing her intergalactic-inspired womenswear to an underground runway in Japan’s National Stadium. “The reason I keep coming back to Japan is the people who support my brand. I have many loyal customers here who seem to understand what I am doing,” says Qi, adding that she has grown her sales to 45 per cent in Japan.
Domestic buyers, too, are increasingly positive about Tokyo Fashion Week. “It’s gotten even more interesting in Tokyo over the past couple of seasons,” says Takenori Osawa, CEO of Midwest, a concept shop with stores dotted throughout Japan. Osawa notes womenswear designers Fetico, Viviano and Chika Kisada as highlights from the week. “Up until now, women’s clothing [in Japan] has been oversized and people didn’t want to wear tight clothing, but Fetico is pulling things in a much sexier direction,” he says. “The women’s market is doing well, and customers seem to be very happy with the uprising of Japanese womenswear brands,” agrees United Arrows’s Kurino.
For Osawa, the growing number of quality brands in Tokyo has made him more enthusiastic to buy local — Midwest has increased the stock of Japanese brands to around 80 per cent in recent seasons. Though Osawa admits the part played by the weak yen, thanks to a punishing exchange rate, home-grown designers offer plenty to fill the gaps. “It’s only since after the pandemic that I’ve felt things are getting much more exciting in Japan,” he says. “Of course, there were times when it was down, but I think we’re in a good place now.”
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