On Tokyo’s Fashion Landscape Now

From the boutiques of Nakameguro to the high-end, concept stores of Ginza, the retail landscape in Tokyo is eclectic. The book Tokyo Street Style, out April 3 from Abrams, is expansive, charting styles like the mori (“forest”) girl, who wears earthy fabrics, floral prints, and long skirts, and the ’90s revival girl, who scours vintage stores for the perfect MA-1 flight jacket. Fashion journalist Yoko Yagi and photographer friend Tohru Yuasa collaborated on this trend history meets travel guide, capturing women with cotton-candy-colored hair, BDSM-inspired jewelry, and tiny handbags.

                                                     
Japanese designers like Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, and Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garçons are described as “DC designers” (designer and character brands) and credited for starting a wave of gender-neutral trends. Yamamoto and Kawakubo inspired karasu-zoku (“crows”) style, an all-black, gothic aesthetic that became popular in Tokyo in the ’80s. Western readers may already be familiar with terms like kawaii (“cute”) and wabi-sabi (a philosophy of beauty rooted in imperfections), but this book introduces a host of other terms, like mejikara (which translates literally to “eye power”) and applies them to dramatic eyelash extensions, stand-out eyeliner, and bold lip colors. Kururimpa, a relatively new term, describes an inside-out, flipped ponytail style that was popularized by beauty bloggers’ DIY tutorial videos.

In this book, Yagi and Yuasa trace trends from the 1960s to today in different neighborhoods of Tokyo, including a return to high-quality products and craftsmanship. In one section, the jewelry designer Naho Okamoto explains how she incorporates traditional Japanese techniques like edo kiriki (glassware) into contemporary designs, and in another, journalist Hanami Isogimi says that fine-cotton imabari towels are treasured as personal luxury goods. Scroll to see shop owners, editors, and fashion students in avant-garde looks.

Ivanka Trump is ushering in a new fashion trend

Fashion editors swooned over the broad shoulders and stiff lines that took a leading role on the runways of New York Fashion Week this month, appearing in Marc Jacobs', Alexander Wang's, and Tibi's collections.

                                               
While women's suits have been creeping their way into fashion over the past few years (Hillary Clinton formed a campaign around hers) what we see now, and what is slowly trickling into our stores, marks the beginning of something decidedly different.

Today's style veers away from the so-called "pantsuit" and harks back to the 1980s, a decade when women started to command more power in the workplace and dressed in bright-colored suits with big shoulders.

The suit is now being used to make a statement for women's empowerment and by high-profile figures to assert their own power.

Ivanka Trump is a good example of the latter. As a woman in a high-profile position in the Trump administration, her style decisions are often viewed as political statements. She's recently been seen swapping trendy dresses for sharp suits to emanate an image of power and credibility in her father's administration.

Fashion’s potential to influence politics and culture

Political dressing is fashionable right now, but is it fashion?

Celebrities and stars turned up dressed in black at the 75th Golden Globes Award ceremony. Instantly the media was in frenzy over what they dubbed “political fashion statements on the red carpet.” This is just the most recent droplet of a rainy season of purportedly political fashion.

What is fashion?

The political dimension of clothing is intuitively understood from the moment individuals are born. Because essentially, human society equals dressed society. What one wears, how one wears it and when one wears it constitutes expressions of degrees of social freedoms and influences.

Dress expression ranges the full political gamut from conformity to rebellion. Simply put, dress style that challenges — or is perceived as challenging, or offering an alternative to the status quo — spontaneously acquires political meaning.

Simultaneously, “black bloc” dress indicated a willingness to resort to violence if necessary, much like the Black Panthers did in the 1960s and 70s. The Panthers took advantage of a loophole in the second amendment of the U.S. constitution that made it lawful to wear unconcealed firearms in public.

The 2017 Fashion Moments I Won’t Forget

The runway is my beat, but the year started with a pulse-quickening reminder that fashion is made on the street. I’m talking about the Women’s Marches on January 21 and the grassroots movement that had crowds of women (and men) in Washington, D.C.; New York; and cities across the country wearing handmade pink pussy hats. I can’t think of another item of clothing that has been so quickly embraced, nor a form of political dissidence that is so optimistic and cheering. A pink pussy hat is the fashionable equivalent of a raised fist. It’s so embedded with meaning, in fact, that London’s Victoria and Albert Museum has made the pussy hat part of its Rapid Response collection and the city’s Design Museum has nominated the Pussyhat Project as a Fashion Design of the Year. Give it the prize!

                                                   
My favorite show of the year was Rick Owens’s Spring ’18. The shared camaraderie of wearing the black plastic ponchos; the Palais de Tokyo fountains going full blast; Owens’s wife, Michèle Lamy, cackling maniacally on the loudspeaker; the layers upon layers of clothes . . . Against the backdrop of Hurricane Maria headlines, Owens’s collection felt like a siren call about the climate crisis. Then, the California fires came. Owens is from California. Which makes me wonder how he’ll address that in 2018.

The week after we all returned from Paris, Vogue put on its first-ever Forces of Fashion conference. Everybody has a conference these days—they’re part of the new experience economy that we’re all talking about—but not everybody has Rihanna as a speaker! I interviewed Victoria Beckham, who made the job extremely easy, warming up the crowd by warning it that, with microphone in hand, she just might bust out into a Spice Girls song. Beckham discussed ambition, determination, and, believe it or not, the value of “not knowing what you don’t know.” Every time I doubt myself these days, I have VB’s encouraging voice ringing in my ears.

Kitten heels are back in fashion

My feet are feeling a bit smug right now because they are cosily encased in Dior’s new kitten heels. Yes, those ones – the ribbed fabric pair with dressmaker’s cream ribbon wrapped around the slingback, logoed with J’ADIOR. They caught my eye at Maria Grazia Chiuri’s inaugural collection for the French house and have been on my shopping list ever since. And they do not disappoint. As a whole, this is a satisfyingly minimal shoe: the heel has a considered, architectural shape, gently sloping from the rim of the sole, while the ribbon adds the buzzy detailing. They provide just the right amount of lift to the derrière while not hampering swift movement, and offer a delightful respite from towering stilettos (I never wear them), platforms (dangerous and everywhere), fashionable slides (a shoe styled on a Birkenstock has its limits), and fuglies (the clue’s in the name). No wonder we’re falling in love with kittens again.

                                           

Kittens have been quietly returning to the catwalks for a couple of seasons now. And when the most influential designers of the moment agree on a trend, you can be sure everyone else will follow. Demna Gvasalia, creative director of both Vetements and Balenciaga, seems more enamoured than most. Much of Balenciaga’s a/w ’16 shoe collection had kitten heels attached – from hot-pink ankle boots to glossy white pumps. And at Vetements’ s/s ’17 show this summer, the opening look was accompanied by a charcoal satin kitten-heel slingback, designed in collaboration with Manolo Blahnik (the man who first nurtured our desire for this squashed stiletto two decades ago).

Meanwhile, for Gucci’s resort collection, Alessandro Michele has clearly been rummaging in the label’s archives, returning with his take on the house’s celebrated bamboo kitten heel, originally designed during Tom Ford’s tenure. For 2017 he has attached it to a metallic green slingback, punched with gold spikes – this time, the Gucci kitten comes with claws. And for summer, as well as the delicate Diors, Phoebe Philo at Céline has produced butter-yellow kitten-heel mules (also on the shopping list); at Prada they are partnered with confections of sequins, beading and elaborate feather plumage.

Spring racing fashion for all-comers

Can you hear it? At this time of year it’s a familiar tune. The sound of hoofs gaining ground as they come around the turn into the final leg of the spring racing season, with the Melbourne Cup Carnival its finishing line. No matter whether you are heading to the Birdcage at Flemington that week, or simply attending an event in Perth or Parramatta on Cup Day, finding the perfect race outfit is key.

                                             
For women, there is one non-negotiable that sets this look apart from any other special occasion outfit: headwear. Hats proper are always in vogue, whether a wide-brimmed straw or something bespoke from a milliner.

But there are some other off-the-rack trends that have gained trackside traction in recent years and that may better suit those less inclined to large statements.

The current fashion climate is easily adapted to spring racing. “From a women’s wear perspective, the look is very ladylike and pretty, which is perfect for the ladies this racing carnival.” That feminine slant is seen in floral prints, lace, “flippy skirts”, or even the midi-length skirt, according to Brewster. While strapless dresses or even spaghetti straps are a no-go for the races, Brewster says there is still a way to show off shoulders with halter-neck tops or the “cold shoulder” look of cut-outs, dropped shoulders or asymmetrical necklines.