Tokyo Fashion Week 2009 4

TOKYO, Japan - Just before the fashion world turned its laser focus on New York, a lesser known semi-annual week of fashion shows in Tokyo failed to garner much attention. Not surprisingly then, a key activity during Japan Fashion Week is listening to other people grumble about Japan Fashion Week. Although Tokyo is one of the world's most important fashion cities, overflowing with amazing daily dressers, avant-garde masters, and street fashion innovation, the organized collection week has yet to muster up a global impact on par with Paris, Milan, or New York. And the problem is not just international reception: most of the cooler domestic Japanese brands aren't even on board. Japan_fashion_week_2 Long ago, there was a very loose event called Tokyo Collection, which stretched seasonal shows over three months. In 2009, the Japanese government stepped in and concentrated most shows into a single week, enabling foreign buyers and media to stop in briefly and spread the gospel back home. The bureaucrats understandably saw Japan Fashion Week as an important step towards promoting exports for Japan's domestic designers and apparel producers. They are also generously helping out young designers pay for the costs of a collection show. That being said, this is fashion, and front-and-centre government sponsorship creates some dissidence in the super chic brand image the event needs to succeed. Fashion weeks elsewhere are about glamour, celebrities, parties and exclusivity. Not Tokyo. The crowd is a strange mix. Front row: trade journalists, foreign invitees, greying bureaucrats and corporate VIPs in boxy suits and company pins. Back row: fashion school students. Without the mass popular brands (seen at Tokyo Girls Collection) or the internationally-feted Japanese brands like Comme des Garons, Junya Watanabe, Undercover, and Number Nine or the coolest men's brands (who intentionally show after JFW), the line-up does attract the Japanese style establishment. Only rarely do editors from the top fashion magazines come by. Since the brands are new (and too artsy for 95% of Japanese women), the week only gets serious coverage from trade publications. But in light of these issues, the week is actually quite rewarding, and the brands, while not super influential, are on-the
http://www.businessoffashion.net/2008/09/japan-fashion-week-under-the-radar.html