http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/27/style/fjapan.php
The young apprentice: Japan's secret weapon
By Suzy Menkes International Herald Tribune
TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2006
TOKYO Tao Kurihara stands by the bubble-pink door of her studio and peers anxiously inside. "It's so messy!" she says of the mild clutter of fabrics, drawings and samples. "I would not want Kawakubo to see it."
But Tao knows that Rei Kawakubo, founder of Comme des Garçons, will not enter her protégé's private studio, where 15 people are preparing Tao's patterns and samples and 30 are working for Junya Watanabe, another CDG designer with his own label.
Tao, now 32, joined the company in 1997 after training at London's Central Saint Martin's school. She spent eight years under the wing of Watanabe, 44, (who had himself spent a decade alongside Kawakubo) before she was allowed to create a modest collection. She has now graduated to a mini catwalk in the Paris showroom, offering intriguing concepts such as lingerie style in knits, trench coats inset with handkerchiefs and layered patch-dyed dresses.
"I still cannot believe what I am doing now," says Tao, who has another day job at CDG, creating the Tricot line.
She has Tokyo's apprentice system to thank. Abandoned throughout the Western world, it could be the secret weapon of Japanese fashion.
Issey Miyake, who has various labels under the master brand, had three designers on the runway at Japan Fashion Week. "It takes eight years," Miyake says, referring to the system of setting up separate lines in the shelter of his ¥24 billion, or $206 million, company.
Miyake's position as "master designer" is interesting because he gradually handed his signature label to his apprentice, Naoki Takizawa, who took over completely seven years ago. Takizawa, who has been allowed to put his own name above the door at the Roppongi Hills Miyake store, says that apprentice and master should have an age distance of about 20 years, as he does with Miyake and with his current team of 20-somethings.
Unlike designers clinging on to collections after 30 years, Miyake now concentrates on special projects, such as a foundation, which will open in 2007 as part of Tokyo's new midtown project. Named "21_21 Design Sight," the dedicated design center is under construction with the architect Tadeo Ando.
Miyake is also focused on A-POC (A Piece of Cloth), which started in 1998 as revolutionary garments cut from tubes of material and has now evolved to include jeans and furniture coverings.
At next month's Milan furniture fair, an A-POC project with the designer Ron Arad will show "upholstery" that can switch from covering an Arad's "Ripple" chair to clothing the human body.
"It is very important in the 21st century when everyone is wearing jeans and a T-shirt to find another way - in clothing and the future of furnishings," says Miyake.
Should Japanese fashion, searching for an identity in global fashion, make more of the apprentice idea?
Kawakubo - who opened last week in Kobe a new store with images of grand, gilded and chandeliered palaces - says that she is always "on the lookout for young talents." She then nurtures them within her $180 million company as they slowly develop a personal vision, as with Watanabe and Tao; or she supports fledgling designers in CDG's joint venture with the Corso Como store in Tokyo's Aoyama district - or in her menswear corner in the department store Isetan.
But in spite of her belief in upcoming talent, Kawakubo is leery about the structure of Japan Fashion Week, claiming that "it makes no sense for them to organize all these shows if the designers have nowhere to sell" and that "what money they put into the Japanese fashion system is put in the wrong place."
Kawakubo blames the department- store obsession with imported luxury brands and says that they do not value home-grown designers - or make space for them. She would like to see the big stores, where even she has to fight for space, "take a risk" with an entire Japanese designer floor.
"The few Japanese who are succeeding, such as Undercover, Number Nine, Tao or Sacai are strong, independent designers - but there is some other good talent out there if only they had better support and encouragement," says Kawakubo. "The money they pour into Fashion Week could be used so much more effectively if only they had a bigger vision, like bringing young designers to Europe and urging department stores and journalists to take more notice."
In spite of those tough words, last week's Japan Fashion Week runway shows were well-planned and smoothly operated. They included students from three colleges showing their talents. Esmod, a school with French roots, offered polished clothes, while other students were wildly experimental. Most Tokyo designers showed gentle, youthful styles such as Yab-Yum's Japanese flavored collection or more conventional couture looks from Ylang Ylang and miss ashida, the work of Jun Ashida's daughter, Tae. DressCamp's wild show followed in John Galliano's footprints.
But there was no sense of eager buyers or that stores (even though they were often sponsors) were promoting Japan Fashion Week alongside the cherry blossom spring festivals - except for wacky windows at Loveless. That store is a stone's throw from Miyake's A-POC boutique and the flagship CDG store, refurbished with vintage chandeliers and currently showcasing Kawakubo's new collection of lustrous real pearl jewelry in silver and gold.
The apprentice idea could be a pearl in the crown of Japanese fashion, and it is a system that deserves to be studied within the country and beyond. It could even solve the succession questions that hang over so many famous houses.
European fashion would be transformed by the Japanese concept of a master brand that can be constantly refreshed - and by the idea that the new talent can be given the opportunity to develop within the structure, rather than leave for total independence.
I'm not a massive fan of Tao, but it's a million miles away from the egomaniacal showboaters that are Viktor & Rolf..... There's nothing show-y about tao, it's very understated. Nice clothes seem like a good idea to me.
Of course Tao will not and cannot be flamboyant or egoistical - there's a saying in Asia that one mountain cannot hold two tigers, or tigresses. That's the problem, someone who listens, who is reverential and deferential will simply not be blazing new ground, but be respectfully treading in the footsteps of The Great One. On the other hand, favouritism blinds the old guard from the weaknesses of those they nurture as successors. That's an age-old occurrence not unlike the weaknesses of the inheritance system or the monarchy. It's endemic in Asia, you see it in Wang (in IT), you see it in Tse, you see it in the second generation running huge conglomerates like a family business. This recipe simply doesn't yield a great, independent, bold designer.
It's great that she is so positive about everything, but this constant applause isn't going to push the fashion industry forward. I'm sure all the designers love her, but this isn't her job, if you know what I mean. I think the NYTimes has much higher journalistic standards, at least their fashion reviewers are witty and entertaining enough.
She's getting all this recognition because she does stand out.
