Tokyo Fashion Week 2007 3

TOKYO: Japan Fashion Week, the annual event formerly known as the Tokyo Collection, was something of a surprise. Much of the work displayed on the runways from Aug. 29 through Sept. 5 spoke of a cheerfulness not usually associated with Tokyo brands, which are known for relying heavily on themes and being more than a bit cerebral. This time, the key note for spring/summer 2007 was a light sensuality and sexiness, without animosity or politics. In a way, Japan Fashion Week itself was in the same mode. The event, now in its fifth year, is rapidly shedding its unfinished, training-wheels image to emerge as a formidable if small-scale, contender for attention in the international fashion show arena. Thirty-eight designers participated in this season's shows. The ever-popular Theatre Products, a brand designed by Taeka Nakanishi and Akira Takeuchi, carried the slogan: "Love was made for you and me." That translated into an array of 1960s-inspired dating outfits, shown to giddy tunes blasted by a live band. Today in Fashion & Style The duck that laid the golden egg LV's effervescent '80s High-flying Hermes The show was, perhaps, the closest the label has ventured into the territory long claimed by the Realclothes brand. Many of the dresses (deceptively simple designs in jellybean colors) drew sighs of longing from the female audience, as if triggering the desire for a proper dating occasion with dinner, dancing and holding hands in a movie theater. Dresscamp is another brand that offered some wonderful dating outfits in its show, "Moroccan Flowers." This was the label's final Tokyo appearance - Toshikazu Iwaya plans to show in Paris next season - and his line-up came off like a splashy, farewell party. Lace, frills, embroidered satin, short skirts textured with mermaid scales and fantastic sandals festooned with organza ribbons made up this collection, prompting critics to say they were astonished to see how far the bad-boy designer had evolved from his nasty/naughty image of five years ago. Then, Dresscamp tore into the Tokyo fashion scene with ferocious fangs: The models wore fur brassieres, animal-print shorts, muzzles over their mouths, masks and not a whole lot more. No one could have missed Iwaya's declaration of war against the monkish/stoic and schoolgirl styles of yesteryear. Iwaya's styles - for which the adverbs revealing and clinging were created - and his favorite materials - vinyl, leather and snakeskin - positioned Dresscamp as the quintessential Tokyo brand. But in this collection, Iwaya kissed Tokyo goodbye by shattering his own stereotype and going all out for romance with a hard-candy sheen. If Dresscamp muted the kinky and outrageous, others were more than ready to fill in that slot. Rocker&Hooker is a new brand that emerged last year; its designer, Keisuke Nakano, is barely out of his early 20s and makes no bones about it. Raw, ugly and provocative, his collection featured men's pants that seemed to have been fashioned by 5-year-olds armed with scissors, construction paper and glue; women's skirts and dresses resembled food package labels pasted together to form a very skimpy shape and then applied to the body with the wearer's sweat. But the showroom was packed with Nakano's fans, most of them rocker types honing gorgeous dirt-bag looks as they channeled Kurt Cobain. No discussion of Tokyo fashion is complete without a reference to the city's obsession with Gothic/Lolita styles. The most visible and successful of the labels fixated on that style is h. Naoto - and the designer (of the same name) showed a series of elaborately worked dresses highlighting Tokyo "Goth-Loli" at is finest, from multi-tiered vintage lace skirts decorated with skull and heart motifs to transparent black lace dresses covered in safety pins. Naoto has said his decision to take part in fashion week this year stemmed from a desire to expand the Gothic-Lolita image. He seemed to
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