Japanese Designers

[ilaughead]

Karma, Surver, for the list!

Japan is definitely getting to be the freshest-perspective in menswear.

 

[Belapuente]

I saw that J Crew has a Japanese outlet. I bought stuff from them that says made in Japan.

 

[Belapuente]

Japan

I saw that J Crew has a Japanese outlet. I bought stuff from them that says made in Japan....very nicely done and styled. I agree that Asia is a place yet to be discovered as far as fashion goes.

BP

 

[manolocraver]

Rei Kwabuko remains my fave but is Milkfed Japanese? I know Sofia Coppolla designed the line but the website and its production are solely Japanese. So is Milkfed Japanese?

 

[markie]

Rei Kwabuko remains my fave but is Milkfed Japanese? I know Sofia Coppolla designed the line but the website and its production are solely Japanese. So is Milkfed Japanese?

Yes, I believe so.

 

[Honey~Blade]

Isamu Katayama Backlash is bloody awesome.

 

[cocohokkaido]

Junya has always guaranteed compliments for me. It's surprising because I don't work or socialize in the fashion industry and he's certainly not a household name like Marc Jacobs (at least in LA anyway). I don't even think people know what it is....they just like it. There's something about his cutting, fit, choice of fabric---- the man ALWAYS gets it right. I also think his stuff is the most feminine and sexy compared to other big Japanese names. He cuts extremely well for a woman.

What's even better, I wear his stuff to work all the time, but for chrissakes I work at an investment bank---- super conservative!

A gay friend once said to me, if he was a girl, he'll only wear Junya because he doesn't see the point in anything else.

 

[mikka000]

sofia started milkfed when she lived in japan for a while in the 90s. hence her feeling the need to make a movie like lost in translation.

 

[luckyme]

Junya has always guaranteed compliments for me. It's surprising because I don't work or socialize in the fashion industry and he's certainly not a household name like Marc Jacobs (at least in LA anyway). I don't even think people know what it is....they just like it. There's something about his cutting, fit, choice of fabric---- the man ALWAYS gets it right. I also think his stuff is the most feminine and sexy compared to other big Japanese names. He cuts extremely well for a woman.

What's even better, I wear his stuff to work all the time, but for chrissakes I work at an investment bank---- super conservative!

A gay friend once said to me, if he was a girl, he'll only wear Junya because he doesn't see the point in anything else.

I am totally on board with you. its great to hear that you wear his designs in a conservative environment, I would love to see how you pull that off.

IMO, he is consistently one of best pattern makers out there today.

 

[softgrey]

i've been looking at ato recently...
the runway show doesn't really do much for me...
but some of the pieces look cute separately...

not sure about quality or pricepoint because i haven't ever seen it in real life...

 

[cocohokkaido]

^^^ Lucky, I'll post pics soon. My biggest regret is I didn't buy his pinstripped puffy jacket from, I want to say....F/W '04? Can you imagine showing up to work where my bankers are in pinstripped tailored pants, and I in a....puffy jacket of the same material? That would've been so good!

I really hope someone bought his trench from the last collection. Oh [swoon].....that was a masterpiece. The fit was superb but I'm quite petite so I couldn't do the coat justice. It would've been perfect on someone taller.

 

[kahlilg]

Thanks surver!

 

[MissMagAddict]

Source | The New York Time | On the Runway | Cathy Horyn's Blog

Here are two recent entries I thought might be of interest...

Here in Tokyo | December 27, 2007

Although the purpose of my trip is to see Rei Kawakubo, as well Junya Watanabe and Tao Kurihara, for a piece in the Times Magazine, I paid a visit yesterday to Jun Takahashi of Under Cover. Takahashi has been friendly with Kawakubo for a number of years, since he began writing her letters and she replied. Not surprisingly, Kawakubo is a big supporter of Takahashi’s, as is Rei’s husband Adrian Joffe. How many designers of his generation think conceptually, without following the earlier generation of design mavericks?

I was especially eager to see Jun’s studio, which from the outside looks as if a giant corrugated sea container had been suspended in a neighborhood of lanes and small houses. I was greeted by Yuka Nakamura, from his press office, and we went down a couple of flights of stairs, lined with stuff and bicycles, and found Jun in a large loft-like room where the spreading limbs of a tree trunk occupy one corner. It would be an amazing place to think and work. There were three desks with Macs along one wall, a bank of d.j. equipment at the other end, and in the center was a long white, glass-topped table with partitions lined in silver glitter paper. Jun, who had on a black leather jacket and jeans, is somewhat shy but very friendly and conversational. We talked for awhile about Kawakubo and Comme des Garcons, and when I mentioned how much I liked his winter collection, for its clarity, he smiled and said he thought maybe his work was becoming recognizable. He spoke about the difficulties of satisfying his own desire to make interesting things and keeping up with the six-month cycle of the fashion shows, and said he sometimes thinks about focusing on his stores (he has 30 in Japan) and skipping the Paris collections altogether. I said I hope he doesn’t stop showing in Paris but that I understood his desire to break a pattern. I don’t think he’s really decided anything but at least he has the freedom (and courage) to question what he’s doing—and why.

I asked Jun what he thought of the luxury-goods companies in Europe. He seemed to regard them as something very far away and unrelated. But it’s hard to ignore their presence in Tokyo, from Armani and Dior to Louis Vuitton and Prada. A couple of people told me that many of the big spenders are now from China and Korea. I’ve only been out and about for two days, but I’d describe the look among young women as approval-seeking, post-Chloe. It’s not startling, in other words.

After I left Jun’s studio, I walked over to the Under Cover shop. The last time I was there, maybe three years ago, the windows were filled with stacks and stacks of folded clothes, almost as if someone was saying, “Don’t look at me, don’t come in.” Jun now changes the décor of the store about every six months. I loved the way he did the displays—like, three wooden school chairs turned over with a glass table top resting on them. He sells some vintage Under Cover pieces downstairs. I saw a heavy felt jacket from his wonderful show at the Grand Hotel a few seasons ago, and a pair of jeans from around 1999. Across the front, if I saw correctly, were printed the reversed letters S-K-C-O-T-T-U-B. Man, I laughed: So many ways to turn your perspective upside down.

A Word (or Two) from Junya | December 28, 2007

Yesterday, I hung out for a good portion of the day at Comme des Garcons, talking to folks. Despite the impression of surprise and playfulness left by the Comme des Garcons shops, which are designed by Rei Kawakubo and Toshiaki Oshiba (a collaboration that goes back more than 30 years), the headquarters are a no-frills, no-nonsense workspace: cutting tables, mannequins, offices, what you might expect. Tao Kurihara is warm, thoughtful, slightly impish and easy to talk to. She is no pushover, I felt.

Tao giggled with something like alarm when I casually asked what she’s planning for her fall show. Such information is a secret at Comme des Garcons; nobody knows what the different studios are working on until their respective shows, in Paris, and everybody at CdG respects that.

I loved my chat with Junya Watanabe. Junya is someone with a strong sense of character—that’s evident when you talk to him—and a good sense of humor. Of course, as many people in the fashion world know, Junya is also a man of few words. You have to tug and persist and avoid questions that can be answered with a yes or a no, though he will frequently answer that way. We had a productive conversation about Comme des Garcons and other matters and then as we were winding up, Junya smiled and said, “Can I ask you a question?”

“Fire away,” I said.

Junya wanted to know, in essence, how a critic views a designer’s clothes—not just his but any designer’s clothes. He asked if I was guided by personal taste, and I said no or rarely. I explained that I looked at each designer differently, based on their objectives and audience. I told him I consider their work over the long term; after all, great designers sometimes have bad shows. I told him that I consider what else might be going on in a house to influence a designer’s choices that season—commercial pressures, for instance. I think that’s reasonable and fair. After all, one of the problems that we all face in life is a lack of information—sometimes we might make a better decision if we just had a little more information. That’s just as true for fashion collections as it is for relationships. I mentioned the blog and I said that there is clearly a preference to discuss the fashion leaders—the real designers—and not the celebrity hunters, etc. Junya seemed surprised that I held different designers to different standards.

Shouldn’t you treat them all the same, he asked.

I said, no, not at all, pointing that Junya holds himself to a pretty high creative standard. Not every designer struggles to come up with something new and technically innovative.

He was so talkative. It was fun. Then he asked me if I thought creativity was important in fashion.

Maybe Junya felt that the world cared less and less for creative design, maybe he was working on something particular in his studio and didn’t yet have the answer. I don’t know. I just told him what I thought. I said, “I think it’s the most important thing of all.” He drew his head back and a smile rapidly appeared on his face. I said I’d see him in Paris.

 

[aybaybay]

i like BAPE better than n(n). less derivative.

 

[unipine]

thanks for these articles, MMA
the second one made me smile.

 

[surver]

i like BAPE better than n(n). less derivative.

if BAPE is not derivative, i don't know what is... it's the ULTIMATE branded example of 'derivative'!!! N(N) is so much more original in comparison to BAPE... although i do agree that many of the designs are derivative...

 

[aybaybay]

number(n)ine is wack.

bape took the reappropriation thing to a new level with the Sta and pretty much everything else they make. bernhard makes fake versace (str8 ripped the logo), fake chanel (similar to the bape sta concept), and no one says he's derivative.

 

[GoldenPetals]

I feel like there are a million threads about this topic, so I didn't wanna make another one. Does anyone have any recommendations for lesser known Japanese or Korean designers and brands? Especially ones that are fairly accessible from the US?

Quite a few already mentioned in these old posts, but I also love a brand called Support Surface (www.supportsurface.jp)

Any recommendations appreciated!

 

[Drusilla_]

on the higher end there's The Real McCoy's (mad expensive though their version of the Schott Perfecto jacket >>>> the original), on the more accessibly priced end I'd say maybe Beams/Beams Plus? I have one of their shirts and I love it, the colours are incredible. Tokyo Bopper if you're into a Comme-esque shoe (great for both sexes and their website ships worldwide)

 

[JohannesL]

I feel like there are a million threads about this topic, so I didn't wanna make another one. Does anyone have any recommendations for lesser known Japanese or Korean designers and brands? Especially ones that are fairly accessible from the US?

Quite a few already mentioned in these old posts, but I also love a brand called Support Surface (www.supportsurface.jp)

Any recommendations appreciated!

I think except those well-known and established Japanese designer brands, other DC (Designer's & Character's) brands (what they called in Japan) in the 90s and 00s have almost disappeared over time. Instead, SPA (speciality store retailer of private label apparel) has become the norm, but they are seldom those high fashion and luxury brands. One thing worth noting is that most of those SPAs are well-made and reasonable-priced. I suggest you check with ONWARD group brands, Beams (like Drusilla_ has suggested), MASH group brands, MARK STYLER brands or even Baroque Japan brands. There are really a lot of SPAs that will be a long list which depends on your personal style and taste.