roof-in-the-sky

On The Brink of Fashion

Has Japan arrived on the world fashion market? With its ‘cool’ street style one would surely think so; but has Tokyo produced brands that attract foreign buyers? On March 17th, Japan unveiled its 2006/2007 Fall/Winter Collections during Japan Fashion Week (JFW) in Tokyo. About fifty Japanese and foreign designers participated in the event. In an attempt to boost JFW’s popularity, Fashion Strategy Forum condensed all collections into one week to follow the practice accepted in other cities. With a renewed interest in Japanese pop-culture and street fashion, designers in Japan are re-defining their brands and trying to bridge the gap between Japan’s fashion industry and international markets.

JFW was the second event of its kind in Tokyo, organized with government support to advance Japan’s fashion industry; since in the past decade, the industry has been losing talent to Paris and Milan, and lagging behind China and South Korea. As a prelude to the collections, JFW began with a symposium—“Fashion and Culture of ‘Cool Japan’”—featuring Suzy Menkes, the fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, as the keynote speaker. This symposium set the tone for the rest of the week—the main theme being Japan’s ability and desire to capture foreign buyers and press and export its fashion abroad. Suzy Menkes was skeptical. “But can fashion in this city hit three high “Cs”: cool, cute and creative?” she wrote in the Herald Tribune two days into JFW.

Unlike the political message established in Paris (Jun Takahashi, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren covered models’ faces and heads in what was seen as a reflection of Islamic influences), Tokyo’s was essentially commercial. Fashion Strategy Forum organized JFW around three main axes: the artistry of Japanese designers, Japan’s innovative textile industry and Japan’s business operations. In the words of Masahiko Miyake, the JFW Executive Committee Chairman, the JFW was about “the creativity of [Japanese] designers, the technological expertise of [Japanese] textiles industry, and a system of product delivery driven by the world’s most demanding consumer market.” The aim was to draw attention away from increasingly popular Western brands and promote Japanese fashion and textile industries on foreign and domestic markets.

Japan’s fashion industry aside, the week also included blatantly commercial shows by Theory, (an American label) themed “Business-to-Consumer,” and Edwin, Lee Something, Wrangler collective, titled “Jeans in Japan.” Capitalizing on celebrity power, the latter opened to Brad Pitt on the screen and pop star Anna Tsuchiya with actor Hiroki Narimiya on the runway. These weekend events, open to the public, played on the willingness of the Japanese consumer to pay enormous amounts of money for foreign brands, but ignore some of its talented domestic designers. Unfortunately, such commercial displays show that Japan is still seen as a consumer of high fashion, not its producer.

JFW proposed a variety of ideas, styles, and trends without one clear message, but with several main directions. Among the big names showing in Tokyo were Junko and Hiroko Koshino, Toshikazu Iwaya, Yukiko Hanai and Takeshi Mori. The collections of Keita Maruyama, Toshikazu Iwaya, and Yukiko Hanai were a trip down memory lane—their garments evoked an antique past of ballrooms and aristocracy. Other designers such as Eri Utsugi, Kazuaki Takashima and Hiroko Ito combined cute, serious, conservative, fun, classic, and fresh, to present an inherently Japanese contrast of ideas and concepts. Junko Koshino was one of the few designers that explicitly used Asian motifs in her pieces. Many designers looked to the Western past of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s (some even further back) for inspiration and did what Japan does best: redefined it in Japanese terms. Others, such as A.D.’s Hideo Nishimura and Ylang Ylang’s Ryunosuke Aoyagi struggled with identity crises.

The collections presented during the week were serious and mature, with fur and velvet playing an important role in establishing the mood. Black and white dominated the catwalk with grays and browns as supporting colors. The general trend was toward bubble skirts and jackets, furs, elaborate headpieces, corsets and over the top glamour. JFW took its observers to a distant and mystical past and future with shapeless forms, oversized pieces and asymmetry at Lilith (by Lily Barreth) and Yab-Yum (by Patrick Ryan and Mami Yoshida), and strict lines and defined silhouettes at Takeshi Mori, Yuki Torii and Yukiko Hanai.

Despite the commercial undertones, and identity struggles of some designers, JFW was a mixture of creativity, elegance, coolness and class, but lacked electricity and social glamour of a true fashion week. A low-key event, it failed to excite the attendees.

With mild success JFW showed that it has potential to become an influential event in the future, but it still has a long way to go in capturing foreign hearts. There is a conflict between Japan’s street style sense and its ability to export that style abroad. Tokyo, in some sense, is the true capital of fashion, where it is played out on the streets more than on the runway. Nevertheless, while Paris, Milan, London and New York have established their niches, Tokyo remains an open question. What will Tokyo become in the world of fashion? With only 90 foreign press and 20 foreign buyers attending this spring’s collections, the answer stays unclear. If nothing else, JFW will continue to provide a playing field and springboard for designers in Japan.

posted on www.ikjeld.com

A.D.

Ambiance Collections

Flavor of the Week

The Menagerie of mercibeaucoup

Mercibeaucoup, Eri Utsugi’s debut collection, was the second show on JFW’s schedule and already it overwhelmed the audience with a mix of ideas. This collection, implicative of Shibuya girls in animal character costumes, looked more like a zoo than a catwalk. Utsugi’s trench coats, dresses and shirts were worn with hats and hairdos in dramatic animal shapes. The collection was warm, cute and at the same time jarring with its contradictions.

Japanese motifs, kimonesque forms, animal prints, box pleat dresses set against animal headpieces, made for the most avant-garde collection of the season.

21st Century Geishas by Junko Koshino

Junko Koshino put on an electrifying show that evoked all the enchantment of fashion. Her skillfully crafted dresses and robes, highlighted with elaborate headpieces, had a hint of a futuristic past. Hers was an extremely modern take on the theme of kimono and the sexuality of geisha. Black fitted dresses were decorated with obi-like inserts slightly above the waist and accompanied by wide kimono sleeves. Koshino combined bustiers and corsets with dragon printed skirts under kimono-patterned robes. Koshino’s experience with opera costumes showed through in the grandeur of the collection.

Lilith’s French Pierrot

Fall/Winter 06/07 at Lilith can be summed up as classic chic. Lily Barreth, a French designer based in Japan, hid body lines behind shapeless, asymmetrical, and oversized Pierrot garments. Lilith had an element of theatrical clownism—huge bow ties, long sleeves on large corduroy suits, and puffy skirts, accentuated by Dr. Martin boots with colored ribbons taken from Takeshi Dori. The collection, mainly of black and while, was spiced with neon green turtlenecks and red overalls. Barreth craftily managed to combine her French artistic heritage with Japanese pop-culture themes.

Yukiko Hanai’s Breakfast at Tiffani’s

Yukiko Hanai unveiled a beautiful haute couture collection in subdued browns and creams. Models wearing fitted and tiered dresses, lace, burgundy velvet suits, elaborate headpieces, and big flowery accessories ignited the audience. Watch out the power suit of the 80’s and masculine lines. These garments were meant for seduction. The fitted lines and sexy earth tones accentuated female sexuality and sensuality. Resembling cinematographic costumes of Marry Poppins and Holly Golightly, the collection inspired women to be flirtations, elegant and glamorous.

Yub-Yum’s Haunted Tent

Inspired by a recent Nicole Kidman horror film “The Others,” Yab-Yum took its viewers to a haunted house. The tent was transplanted from Tokyo to an enchanted witch forest. Peasant skirts, corduroy jackets and pants in earthen colors, tall black trekking boots, feathery accessories, shapeless forms and layers, all combined to give the collection an outdoor feeling.

Yab-Yum’s Patrick Ryan said after the show that, “There’s pressure to always be new and different, to recreate yourself every season and surprise the critics.” Yab-Yum’s challenge this season was to work counter to its popularity and go back to its roots rather than search for newness. This season’s collection included old ideas and pieces from previous years of Yab-Yum’s 12-year history.

DressCamp: Pirates of the Caribbean on Acid

Renowned Toshikazu Iwaya wrapped up JFW with his highly acclaimed and anticipated haute couture DressCamp collection. Iwaya kept the anxious crowd waiting outside for an hour while he ran a late dress rehearsal to perfect the delivery of his collection. The appeasing pre-show Champagne only worked for the first thirty minutes. But, once the irritated fashionistas settled inside DressCamp’s baroque castle, they were impressed with Iwaya’s crisp brilliance. The curtain opened to Vivaldi’s Summer from Four Seasons, filling the tent with dramatic tension and sexual energy as corseted courtesans and aristocrats in furs paced down the catwalk. Muscular Johnny Depp look a-likes, clad in tight transparent checked shirts, top hats and capes shot cool piercing gazes at the photographers and the audience. Iwaya revealed his “Phantom of the Opera-esque” masquerade with rose petals flowing from the ceiling and vulgar expressions of desire splattered all over the runway.

The collection was exactly what its name suggests—it was camp. Iwaya combined modernity with 17th century Versailles, sexual aggression with class, and everyday wear with theatricality. Headpieces, veils and corsets emphasized the artificiality of the entire show. Animal printed fabrics combined with real foxes on men’s shoulders projected a feeling of fake greatness. Women sported bustiers slightly covered with flower printed transparent shawls.

The final curtain captured the tension on a climactic note and also signaled the end to Fashion Week.

posted on www.ikjeld.com

DressCamp

The Wonderful Signs of Miyajima

This one was my favorite.

No monkey business here.



To the ropeway!

I'm lost with this one.

No note taking on the beach.

An Amateur’s Adventure in Fashion World

Tokyo, Japan—Fashion, Fashion, Fashion! Ah, the exciting world of Omotesando glamour and exclusivity, the street style of Harajuku, Shibuya and Akihabara, the absurdity of garu and otaku! We all love Tokyo fashion and consumerism, but this post is about neither. It’s about my adventure as an amateur fashion writer.

Last week Tokyo saw its own fashion extravaganza, the 2006/7 Fall/Winter Japan Fashion Week, or simply JFW—an event comical in scale compared to major fashion weeks around the world. Somehow—perhaps by harassing many PR people and pretending to be a serious reporter—I was able to obtain a press pass to attend JFW. Among the designers participating were Toshikazu Iwaya, Junko and Hiroko Koshino, Kyoko Higa, Takeshi Mori, etc.

The fun part was bugging PR people about sending me last minute invitations and then ending up in front row seats at collection shows. I just told the organizers that, being a serious reporter, I didn’t have time to contact them before the deadline, and it worked.

In an attempt to appear professional, I ran down to Kinko’s to get business cards (in case anyone asked); and then presented them to the guardians of the tent before each collection instead of invitations. Eventually, however, pretending to be a real reporter exhausted my energy resources and I decided not to fight my way into every show. I tried to stay away from real reporters, or at least professional looking people, from fear of being uncovered as a journalistic scam. However, at the end of the week I made friends with all the foreign photographers and fashion blog writers. It turned out they all felt the same way I did.

The press pass afforded me such privileges as access to the press tent, which had free coffee and ice cream. I steered clear of the coffee machine because it looked too complicated (I was trying to attract as little attention as possible).

Upon entering the press tent, I was shockingly surprised at how serious everyone looked with their iBooks. “I should’ve brought mine,” I thought, so that I too could pretend to be seriously working on my article and sending drafts to editors. Alas, I was resigned to my notebook. Upon this realization I decided to leave the tent and walk around the heavily unsecured event area.

During shows I sat with my notebook and a serious look on my face pretending to be a real fashion critic, bowing and making impressive head gestures of approval or disapproval.

At the Theory collection, before the show, a cute PR girl chased me around the tent with her business card: “Please send us the article when it’s published." I kindly accepted and thought to myself: “Well, honey, if it’s ever published, I’ll make sure to send you a copy.”

Though nothing like the Fashion Week in New York, JFW was still a fun adventure for this American girl in Tokyo.

I’m not going to review any of the shows because I did that for my article, which will be available online. Here are some pictures from Toei Johjima and Theory by my friend Peter.

To get reviews, check out www.japanesestreets.com

The Daily Yomiuri Anomalies

Remember how I wrote about ordering the Daily Yomiuri and never paying for it? Well, I’ve been enjoying my free newspaper since January (already three months). Remember how there was a representative that showed up at my door the same day I ordered the paper to locate my mailbox? Well, clearly, they knew where I lived, where my mailbox was, and what I looked like, so they had plenty of chances to ask for my bank account information or send me a bill, but they didn’t and I resigned to the fact that they never would.

Last night, I was watching TV when the doorbell rang. If you’re from Brooklyn you know not to open the door when you’re not expecting anyone. But last night I wasn’t in Brooklyn, I was in Tokyo. I went to the door and looked in the peephole; it was some lady. I asked who it was. She started to answer in Japanese. I thought, “The f…ing Jehovah's Witnesses again.” I had no choice but to open the door since she already knew that I was at home. I opened the door devising a retreat strategy in my head.

To my surprise, the lady handed me a bill for 2,600 yen: “This is your Daily Yomiuri bill."
“Do I have to pay it now?” I asked.
“Yes, please.”

I went to get my wallet thinking, “Couldn’t they send me a bill? They know where my mailbox is.”

I paid the lady, closed the door, and puzzled at the fact that in this IT driven impersonal world of soft money, the Daily Yomiuri still sends someone to collect my hard cash.

Yep, not everything in this country is as advanced as they say.

Losing MY Religion

Epitaph: "Hope is for the hopeless, because the rest will be all right."
--Richard Knobbs

(Singing birds in the background) Life in Tokyo can be such an amazing and rewarding experience… (Scratched record) Hmmm… No, not really. Life in Tokyo is pretty much like life in New York; it all depends on whom you know and how well you know them. Surviving in this city also depends on the same two factors. If you know enough people to get you into clubs for free, you party, if not, you dance to iTunes at home because you don’t have any money. The biggest question is always, “Can you get me in on the guest list?” Once you’ve found your niche and those you milk there, it’s hard to get out and move on to new and exciting things. Parties become mundane and outings to temples unholy.

After you spend a certain amount of years in Japan the novelty wears off. The “Harajuku girls” no longer excite you (Actually, they never excited me as much as they excited Gwen Stefani). “Hello Kitty” vibrators—have one (a collector’s item). One becomes cynical about the way the city is changing: “I can’t believe they destroyed those cute little houses on Omotesando to build that monstrous block of glass to house stores that no one can afford.” I’m starting to talk like the bitter expats with bees up their asses. And I was once a pretty happy kid.

When people enviously email me to ask about life in Tokyo, I can’t help but laugh. How is life in New York? I want to ask them. ‘Cause right now it looks a lot more appealing than life here. Been here, done this—is my new attitude. The only thing left to do is climb Mt. Fuji. According to my theories the trip should provide me with spiritual guidance. My father believes that there’s something wrong with my head if Mt. Fuji is more important to me than seeing my family. That’s not necessarily true, I'm just trying to give Japan another chance to impress me before it fails completely.

If only all those people who get me into clubs could also get me a job that paid a lot of money and didn’t involve me teaching them English. I’ve taught so much English that I now gesticulate and speak like a retard. While waving my hands I say things like:“I—w-e-n-t—to—a—p-a-r-t-y.—It—w-a-s—f-u-n! —D-o—y-o-u—u-n-d-e-r-s-t-a-n-d?” Besides that, I learned to research absolutely useless things and stare at my computer in disbelief--the disbelief being an allergic reaction to my boss and her assignments.

“I can't help but wonder" if the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms will rid me of my cynicism. Honestly, I’m starting to lose hope.

Workaholism: Love Thy Boss

My job just got that much more exciting. We got this new "bloke" from Turkey. Charming guy and all... Except that my brilliant boss has him translating from Japanese to English. Let me make it clear… His First Language Is Turkish. My boss’ best plan ever! You’re Turkish—translate from Japanese to English—so that the Ukrainian b...tch that claims to have grown up in New York can curse like a British sailor while editing Japturkinsh gibberish into “standard English.” The best job for a slacker —just make sh...t up and pretend to have spent hours on it.

Assignment #2: Write something about New York that Japanese people would be interested in reading. Restaurants and fashion are too outdated; everyone writes about that. How about cheap restaurants where New Yorkers go? Or, what about Japanese doctors and hospitals?

Rebuttal: Yes, because I go to see a Japanese doctor in New York on a weekly basis, I would be the best person to make recommendations. How about you make me do something that I’m actually capable of doing? Like, edit legible English into the “Chicago Manual of Style” English?

The Black Hole

I’m going through writer’s block, a sort of mental constipation, if I may say so. It may be because it’s been raining for the past couple of days and I can’t find anything to motivate my imagination.

I went to see Munich and was impressed with the way it addressed sensitive issues. Both sides got a fair share of spotlight. Kudos Spielberg.

It made me think of the Middle East as the world’s vagina—the most delicate region. Rub it with a little too much force and it will explode with a yeast infection, or worse, nuclear weapons. It is the birthplace of three major world religions whose incestuous love/hate triangle continues to produce monstrous offspring. The violent love affair between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, which constantly penetrates the Middle East, makes it the black hole that continually secretes a foul discharge: “51 Killed in Baghdad Explosion,” “Hammas Comes to Power,” “Attacks in the West Bank,” etc. Like an infected vagina swarming with bacteria, the Middle East is swarming with militant groups, ‘terrorists,’ corrupt politicians, suicide bombers and all those who suffer from them on a daily basis. Perhaps a little bit of ointment from the World Bank or other such monetary organization to help kill the infection. Then, maybe, the mother of the civilized world and our religions can begin producing healthy babies. We’ll just have to be careful and not touch it again with our imperialist hands.

Workaholism

Do you sometimes find yourself at work completely spaced out, unable to perform any sort of intelligible tasks? You stare at the computer screen in front of you and realize that you have to do this for the next 7 hours of your workday. I do almost every day. Considering that I work part time, that’s pretty much every time I come in to work. There is a blockage in the pipe of communication where I work. No one knows what he or she is supposed to be doing. We just sit around and stare at our computer screens for hours. My company has no top-bottom, left-to-right, vertical, horizontal or parallel organization of how information travels. My boss tells me that the fifth floor wants me to do something that will make them money. O.K… Well… A little more guidance would help. “They want to sell you,” she tells me. I choke on my coffee and tell her that I could make a lot more money selling myself in Kabukicho. After numerous meetings, which clarify absolutely nothing, I’m creating travel English lessons to be sold on the web. And guess what, they are selling me. I’m the one teaching the lessons on camera. The running joke in the company is that some Akihabara nerd will buy the lessons to masturbate. As long as they make money, anything’s O.K. So here I am sitting in front of my computer trying to figure out what it is that I’d like to teach Japanese people about travel English and I still haven’t figured out exactly what they want.

My foreign co-workers and I decided that we should start a naked circus wind quartet and tape our performances to sell that on the web. Sure that’ll be a lot more interesting than hearing me stutter through my poorly written script in a cheap studio with a fake plant.

Troubleshooting

Are computers really replacing human interaction and becoming our new best friends? If you disagree, imagine your life without one and see if you can survive.

After spending hours with my computer, I can't help but agree with the sad truth. I spend more time with my computer than with any of my friends. That may, of course, be due to the fact that I live in Japan and human interaction is not easy here. But, even those in this country who speak the same language find live interaction troublesome. Japanese people will even go as far as buying a robotic pet instead of a real one.

I wonder if I don't intaract more with my computer than those on the other end of the line trying to communicate with me. It is my source of news, music, entertainment, creativity, movies, my DVD/CD player, telephone--in other words my link to the rest of the world. There are fewer occasions recently when I leave my computer to link myself to the world outside my apartment. I go to work, buy food, and occasionally meet my friends, but other than that my interactions are confined to my computer. It is my source of pleasure, and has even replaced a boyfriend figure in my life. On Saturday nights, I stay in to watch movies with my computer, listen to music with it and spend other quality time together. Sad? Yes, but inevitable.

Conclusion: Winter is the worst time for self-motivation.