Japan Fashion Week 2010 A/W wrap-up

Japan Fashion Week celebrated its 10th season with a week of the city's best in fashion wizardry. The schedule was full enough to top out four days of back-to-back shows, down from the previous and somewhat leisurely six days.

Despite the aggressive, trendy tones set last season, many brands seemed to throw up the white flag and show highly commercialized, safe collections in a move that seemed to come from left-field. However, this is still Tokyo, and there were some fun surprises and discernable Tokyo-centric themes that will hopefully tide the fashion elites over for the next six months.

Chroma

Even though the collection shows were meant to present clothing for fall and winter, there seemed to be an unusual use of sickly sweet colors like Pepto Bismol pink, Viagra blue and Vitamin C orange in what is normally a black-laden show season. A remedy for gloomy winter malaise perhaps? Mint Designs tried this palette on a coat in 1970s shaggy style with bright orange and white stripes, and Matohu showed quite a few pieces in punchy colors such as a column dress with an ombre print that went from grape to azure. Hisui threw out the seasonal color rules altogether and sent out pink and purple pieces printed with a pop butterfly pattern. 

Patterns

Aside from ignoring the body's curves, Japanese designers are most famous for their unique, wacky and surreal prints. Every season we get new batches of such visual windows into these designers' psyches for which consumers eventually get to be a walking billboard. This round the fabrics were in the form of naked dancing Matryoschka dolls at Jazzkatze, B&W photographic prints of laboratory butterflies at Aguri Sagimori, German house beams at Mint Designs and dinner table settings at Bortsprungt. The latter was co-founded by the late Nagi Noda, an art director who was known for creepy and kitschy characters like Han-Panda that was half panda, half pink bear.

Tokyo's Tokyo

There's a group of designers who are the true representatives of Tokyo design in the most stereotypical way possible. We mean those avant-garde collections in lumpy, bumpy, not in the least flattering shapes and odd styling. Normally they are left by the wayside for a small customer niche, but since the usual leaders of Tokyo fashion design decided to retreat so far into the safety zone they practically caused a black hole, these niche brands were given new context to revisit. Fur Fur with a 'more is better' ethos and overtly girlish style sent out sari skirts in white lace and coats spattered with a smorgasbord of lace. Shida Tatsuya piled on the layers in dirty cotton and giant fuzzy furs. Nozomi Ishiguro showed his wonderfully kooky Casper the Friendly Ghost inspired collection in an abandoned (and supposedly haunted) pachinko parlor building. Ka Na Ta meanwhile mashed droopy satin with cotton and knitwear and everything else in the cupboard for its "Cook"-titled collection.

Men Save the Day

Finally, the most unsurprising surprise came from the menswear, which has recently tended to eclipse the womenswear in terms of buzz. This is especially true since the in-look is to be super duper femme. Phenomenon's debut collection will be the most talked-about of the week with pleated shirt dresses (not dress shirts), thigh-high boots and knight in armor-inspired jackets that drew applause. Yoshio Kubo showed tailored pants with attached skirts, Hisui had knee-length kilts in her butterfly pattern, and Gut's Dynamite Cabarets gave its guys what looked like cut-off denim pencil skirts. Testosterone is apparently a virtue.

See photos of these and other top shows from Japan Fashion Week in the gallery below.

G.V.G.V. www.k3coltd.co.jp

This collection was based on David Lynch's eerie film "Mulholland Drive" and the saturated photographs of photographer Guy Bourdin. That translated to heavy leathers and liquid metal glam gowns with teeth.

 

Matohu www.matohu.com

Matohu designer Hiroyuki Horihata said of his and Makiko Sekiguchi's colorful take on column robes and dresses, "We were inspired partly by the Christmas lights on Omotesando this winter."

 

Aguri Sagimori www.agurisagimori.com

Sagimori incorporated butterflies and feathers into her dark collection with curious prints and a skirt and dress accented with what looked like crow feathers.

 

Hisui www.00s-s.com

Hiroko Itoh of Hisui took a groovy pop approach to her butterfly theme with foil-lined skirts to create a square wing-like shape and prints in pink and blue.

 

Theatre Products www.theatreproducts.co.jp

Theatre Products staged their show in the 83-year-old Mitsukoshi Theatre in Nihonbashi for their retro collection of shift dresses accented with pillbox hats and the odd pink tracksuit pant or two.

 

Gut's Dynamite Cabarets www.g-d-cabarets.jp

"Is that a smiling animal carcass or are you just happy to see me?"

 

Entoptic http://www.entoptic.net

This brand-spankin'-new brand pulled a rabbit out of its hat at the end of the spacey collection with this jacket that turned from white to purple under the UV spotlight.

 

Motonari Ono www.motonari-ono.com

Motonari Ono is a self-professed otaku who inextricably doles out elegant European clothes in silk and lace. We note that this collection was also inextricably set against a soundtrack of Lady Gaga remixes.

 

Somarta www.somarta.jp

Somarta presented a virginal ram-woman in the most ornate shoes on the planet: towering brass heels with fluffy fur tails. Then a skull-shaped bag with flowers sprouting out of the cranium had the audience buzzing.

 

Fur Fur www.furfurfur.jp

Fur Fur celebrated its 10th anniversary with a series of wedding-themed looks in white lace topped with head ornaments made from sugar.

 

Nozomi Ishiguro http://web.me.com/nozomi.ishiguro

The designer took a nod from benevolent ghosts with puffy skirts and jackets that swirled like cartoon smoke and linings with illustrations of friendly Casper.

 

Shida Tatsuya www.shidatatsuya.com

Supermodel Ai Tominaga lent her newly bleached noggin to Tatsuya's collection of multi-layered, voluminous creations.