Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo recently took place and our SVP of Industry Relations, Jessica Michault, had the pleasure of attending. If you missed out on this Japanese Fashion Week, then read on for Jessica's scoop on the 7 buzziest moments.
Through this quick summary, you'll also get a rundown of the top 10 most viewed collections on GPS Radar (thanks to our partnership) as well as the key facts that made this fashion week an absolute sensation. Read below for the full update on Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo and discover the top 10 rankings.
7 things you missed at Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo
Make an Impact:
Fashion shows today are no longer just about showing off a designer’s latest collections. In the age of Instagram, more and more consumers are looking for fashion experiences before they even think of buying a designer piece. Brands need to make sure their shows are unforgettable. At Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo many brands got creative in terms of the atmosphere they created for their collections. Standouts included the dancers used as models who performed throughout the Rieka Inoue Gnu presentation, the live piano performance at the Hiroko Koshino show, the impressive bodybuilders who graced the runway at the start of the PRDX Paradox Tokyo show, and the opening dance number at the ACUOD by CHANU show. The latter successfully garnered attention as it made it to the top 10 rankings of most viewed galleries on GPS Radar.
The Giorgio Armani of Kimonos:
Fashion is always looking to the future and what is coming next. However, it was nice to see that Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo also made room for fashion that honors the sartorial heritage of its country by including designer Jotaro Saito’s collection of Kimonos on the official calendar.
Over the close to 30-minute show, Saito presented a collection of Kimonos that underlined the brand’s vast richness and variety in prints and fabrics. They beautifully displayed how an individual’s personality can be reflected in the Kimono they pick and how they layer and combine different patterns via the obi and belts they use to finish off the look. The uniqueness of this show certainly sparked buzz - which translated into nearly 1,530 views of its gallery on GPS Radar, making it the second most viewed brand on the platform for #AFWT.
Also, the undeniable flair of the renowned actor and singer Taichi Saotome, who became good friends with Saito when he ordered an original stage costume from the designer, gave the whole show an added sense of spectacle when he made a guest appearance as a model on the catwalk.
Cool Collaborations:
Western brands aren’t the only ones landing cool collaborations. At Hyke - 4th in the most viewed galleries on GPS Radar ranking - designers Hideaki Yoshihara and Yukiko Ode knocked it out of the park with their partnership with the North Face via a series of oversized outerwear pieces. Mitsuru Nishizaki, the designer behind the brand Ujoh, teamed up with the Italian brand Saldarini to use its innovative and environmentally friendly Cashmere Flakes 'padding technique' that uses pure cashmere as padding for outerwear. At the Saldarini Cashmere Flakes by Ujoh presentation the designer said that it was when he visited the Saldarini factory in Como, Italy and saw its potential that he decided to team up with the company.
“I saw Armani's collection form last year there, which was using this material exclusively. The product I saw has an amazing quality. Also the idea and objective behind this project also felt fashionable to me,” explained Nishizaki.
Melting Pot Mode:
The international press might be coming to Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo to see the best that Japanese designers have to offer but the fashion week also showed to have a spirit of inclusivity. The up and coming, Shanghai-based brand SHUSHU/TONG, designed by Liushu Lei and Yutong Jiang had a great showing at the fashion week. And two brands from Indonesia presented thanks to an outreach partnership with Jakarta Fashion Week and Indonesia Fashion Forward. Both the streetwear brand Danjyo Hiyoji and the poetic Eri label highlighted two hidden gems in the fashion world. Not to mention the fact that the buzzed-about French brand Koché also presented in Tokyo this season and two Japanese brands that now show in Paris - Anrealage and Beautiful People returned to their native land to present their collections to local fans.
Location Location Location:
For International guests, nothing beats getting to soak up the local atmosphere like seeing a fashion show in an unexpected location. The brand, The Dallas, gained access to a private Tokyo club to show its latest collection, Koché presented on a rooftop, and Tae Ashida took the fashion crowd to a luxury hotel. Fashion Weeks that incorporate more of their city into their events helps not only to create unique fashion experiences but also imbue the entire fashion week with a sense of place and purpose.
The Future of Fashion:
Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo recently added a new program into its calendar. It launched the Tokyo Fashion Award, a fashion prize that picks six fashion brands from Tokyo that the organization will support as they try and grow their international expansion. They do this by funding both a showroom for the winning designers during Paris Fashion Week and also backing runway shows for the six designers on the last day of fashion week. By thinking both locally and globally, this initiative by Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo gives budding designers a double-barrelled shot at getting their nescient brands noticed by international press and buyers.
You Had to be There:
Making it to Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo might not be in the cards for everyone but the organization has built up an impressive online presence in both Japanese and English that is chockablock full of helpful information. Not only does it have full bios and backstories on each and every brand that shows during the fashion week, but it is also very reactive in terms of getting up show images and videos onto the individual brand pages.
There are daily reports that break down the news of each day of the fashion week and, in collaboration with fashionsnap.com, there is a lot of great street style coverage on the site. So if you are not able to make it to the land of the rising sun, fully engrossing yourself in the extensive official website is a pretty satisfying substitute.
And, if you'd like access to downloadable pictures of all the fashion shows from this Japanese Fashion Week, log into the only dedicated online community for fashion professionals: GPS Radar.
Top 10 Most Viewed Galleries from #AFWT on GPS Radar
*Header image Courtesy of Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo
By Jessica MichaultSVP of Industry Relations
Jessica Michault is the Senior Vice President of industry relations at GPS Radar by Launchmetrics. She is also the editor-at-large for ODDA magazine and contributes to publications like the New York Times, the Business of Fashion, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Mixte magazine.
