This latest fashion week seemed to mark a return to pre-pandemic normalcy. Nearly a year out since the Japanese government gave the greenlight to forgo facemasks, Tokyo is bustling once more with locals and foreign tourists alike taking to the streets in diverse style. As if responding to the freedom in the air, designers similarly brought a renewed enjoyment and spontaneity to their work. Moreover, the return of many familiar faces staging shows for a consecutive season suggested that the long-ailing Japanese fashion industry has at last begun to recover its former vitality.
In terms of overall impressions, designers continued to raise the bar this season with extremely high-quality garments that largely showed a meticulous Japanese attention to detail and design. Whether a newcomer, perennial runway fixture, or a brand returning after a short hiatus, everyone brought their A-game this season, seemingly prepared to compete with their worthy peers spanning the spectrum of experience.
Perhaps the most encouraging trend this season was found off the catwalk, in the sheer number of promising young brands who presented collections in exhibition form. Sensitively sublimating uniquely inventive themes in their designs, these upstarts articulated an original worldview through a mix of innovative styling, lookbooks, and exhibition formats. These exhibitions offered a stimulation altogether different from adrenaline-packed runway shows and boded well for the future of Japanese fashion.
With so many strong collections this season, it was difficult to choose which brands to feature here. Certainly, more than a few worthy brands were inevitably left on the editing room floor. Nonetheless, we at Technoculture Oligo Press (TCOP) hope this latest round of reviews provides a snapshot of the passion and soul the current cohort of designers is bringing to the act of creation, as the curtain rises on a new stage for Tokyo mode.
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