gius
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2006
- Messages
- 10,859
- Reaction score
- 12
from textileandapparel.com
It is almost inevitable that Japanese fashion designers move their base of operations to Paris, Milan or some other European city once--or even before--they establish their names internationally, because these cities are considered the centers of the fashion world. [FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Japan often receives visits from foreign designers, but these visits are typically limited and timed to coincide with some major event, such as the opening of a boutique. It is obvious that the world does not consider Japan to be a fashion center in the same way as the European cities, and this is borne out by the small number of foreign journalists who attend the Tokyo Collection, an event at which designers in Japan present their new creations twice a year. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]But some non-Japanese designers do choose to establish their base in Tokyo. They may differ in terms of philosophy and style, but they all seem satisfied to be in Japan so long as their customers love their clothes--or at the very least they see no overriding advantage in moving to a "fashion center" to pursue their careers. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Patrick Ryan, who has been living and working in Japan for almost 18 years, said Japan was probably the most targeted market in the world from the viewpoint of fashion companies' mass-marketing based on fashion trends. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]But Ryan, known for simple, rather low-profile clothing that eschews the conventional trends of the moment, said Tokyo is at the same time a place where many people understand their own style and are always looking to introduce new flavors to create new styles. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]"So it is fun to look at people [on the streets] in Tokyo. That is very different from Paris, for example, which is ruled by established fashion brands, or London, where new and traditional things are gently mixed together to create rather indifferent looks," Ryan said.[/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The Paris-born Scot started his own brand, Yab-Yum, with his wife, Mami Yoshida, in 1994 after working with Kansai Yamamoto, one of the nation's leading fashion designers. They debuted at the Tokyo Collection in 1996. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Ryan, who at one point when he was working in Milan was faced with the choice of working for an Italian fashion house or taking a job with Yamamoto, said he chose to come to Japan as it seemed a good opportunity to work in a country that few people around him had visited. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]"The experience at Yamamoto helped me learn the preferences of the Japanese and how to communicate with fashion buyers," he said. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Besides marketing Yab-Yum clothes at several shops in Tokyo, including their own boutique in Ebisu, Ryan has worked for Burberry as a consultant designer and created designs under the name Kabuku for U.S. sportswear company Timberland. "I have been very well accepted in the fashion world here and have had a deep and passionate relationship with both customers and the fashion press," Ryan said. "It might seem the obvious thing to take my creations to an international level, but since I have a good circle of supporters and friends here, I just don't see the point of going abroad." [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Christopher Nemeth, who has been living in Tokyo since 1986, said Tokyo is a place where you can "do many things" as a designer. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]"People at clothing factories are very eager to try new things even when they are not sure about the outcome," said Nemeth, who started designing clothes despite majoring in art at university. There was "nothing I wanted to wear," he explains. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]"This [eagerness of clothing factories] is not the case in Britain. It is very difficult especially for a budding designer in the first place to find a factory that will readily accept their requests," Nemeth said. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Nemeth first came to Japan when he was asked to work here as a designer by his future wife, Keiko, who went to London to buy clothes for her shop in Tokyo. After handling Nemeth's clothes at her shop, they opened a Christopher Nemeth boutique in a backstreet off Tokyo's Omotesando avenue in 1994. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The shop, guarded by their pet miniature schnauzer, Oliver, is full of his sculpturally crafted clothes, including shirts and jackets whose unique stitching patterns call out for attention. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Currently, his clothes are available at his boutique and another in Osaka. Avid fans of his clothes include some who have set up a Web site about Nemeth to discuss his designs. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]"Fabric, button and other textile companies also are always active here in introducing new products," Nemeth said. "And they are eager to listen to the opinion of designers. So I have never felt any inconvenience in working here as a foreign fashion designer." [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Nemeth said he liked Tokyo simply as an observer, too. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]"You may think London is the place for street fashion, but actually it is Tokyo where you can find many adventurous people in terms of clothing. Nobody points at you and laughs at you no matter what you're wearing in Tokyo," he said. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Since he himself is not interested in established clothing styles, Nemeth believes Tokyo is the very place where he can best pursue his own creativity and personality. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Meanwhile, German designer Jurgen Lehl, known for his extensive use of natural materials, says there is no particular reason why he has been living and working here since 1971. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Lehl said he meant only to spend a holiday here when he first arrived. Japan, he says, was "very different from Europe, and many new things were happening at that time." [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]During his stay he happened to do some work at a firm as a textile designer, and this was his first step toward becoming an established name here. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Lehl, who now designs various items ranging from furniture and tableware to jewelry, said that above all else he tries not to create "unnecessary or useless things." [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]"I don't want to make things which will harm nature or be environmentally unfriendly. As far as I create things, I try to make things that will last for a long time," said Lehl, while dining in his company's organic food canteen, which he cited as a "must" for Jurgen Lehl headquarters when it was established in Koto Ward, Tokyo. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The mannequins he ordered for his boutique in 1984 illustrate what Lehl is after. Rather than go with models that were popular at that time, he asked a mannequin company to create a design with the kind of natural pose a human could easily adopt for 10 minutes, using the body shapes of not Western but Japanese women. One of his fashion models was used to provide the proportions for the new mannequin design. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]As a result, Lehl obtained a 1.68-meter-high mannequin with narrow, square shoulders, a larger head, a flatter body and shorter, plumper legs. The clothes he designs for the Japanese market look far better on these new mannequins, which he still uses to this day with some modifications. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Jurgen Lehl clothes are now available at more than 40 shops around the nation. Because of his policy of making clothes only with carefully selected natural materials, including an India-made handwoven mixture of silk and cotton, he cannot produce any particular item in large numbers. "But I think my philosophy has been well understood by my customers here as if it had trickled down over them for many years. After all, you don't necessarily need language to convey what you're thinking." [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Akira Miura, editor in chief of fashion weekly WWD Japan, says few foreign fashion designers base themselves in Tokyo and start their own brands here. "But when it comes to company-hired designers, it is clear that the number of non-Japanese designers is increasing," he said. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Miura explained that this trend resulted from fashion companies' desire to look for designers who have been exposed to different tastes and cultures in terms of fashion. "Such firms are very much aware that the ability of someone to create something with a taste of luxury is limited without such a background, and it is this taste of luxury that has been increasingly pursued in the fashion market." [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]"There's no doubt that this kind of ability or talent is favored more in Japan," he said. [/FONT]
[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]"It is extremely hard to maintain creative momentum season after season," Ryan confided. "But I hope to continue having an amicable and enriching experience here like my heroes--Lafcadio Hearn [known in Japan as Yakumo Koizumi (1850-1904)] or Paul Jacoulet [French-born Japanese printmaker (1896-1960)]." [/FONT]
