JAPAN DAY TWO

The latest from the Tokyo runways is chic, artistic... and a little bit nuts.

NYLON wanderer Helen Armide reports from her second day at Japanese Fashion Week, where sushi is next after style...

As the collections continue, it's increasingly clear why Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, and Comme des Garçons are Japan’s sartorial symbols. They're never conventional and share love for layers, unusual texture, the occasional winsome print, and stellar craftsmanship. And again and again this week, it's clear the rest of Japan's emerging style set want to do the exact same thing.

While to live in Tokyo is to inhabit a concrete jungle, Kazuaki Takashima, the former Issey Miyake employee and Né-net founder, clearly has earthier surroundings in mind. Boho dresses were paired with boots redolent of Doc Martens. Hair was wildly teased, and all that was missing were twigs and leaves. Victorian influence abounded:  Imagine Alice and Anna Sui consorting in Wonderland. It was a bit out of reality, but Takashima's fantastical world was not an unpleasant place to explore.

Akira Nara paired bare legs with boxy jackets, loose silk dresses, and slacks with suspenders. Nara’s customers clearly don’t have the patience for typical evening fare: they have a more audacious eye and an agenda that includes getting noticed.

Support Surface was similarly inviting, with looks and proportions ranging from casual high-waisted pants with soft-pleats and fitted blazers, to draped dresses and tops that loosely enveloped the models in gauzy, semi-transparent materials.

ato was definitely a shift from the more solid blocks of color seen at earlier shows. Raucous outfits knocked against thumping music, and thanks to asymmetric cuts and vivid prints radiating hot colors, any piece could be the centerpiece of any outfit. Or party.

The spring collection from Everlasting Sprout was created almost entirely with digital technology, co-designer Keiichi Muramatsu explained, so that he and partner Noriko Seki could more easily depict what they dreamt (oooh, how mystical). Their goal this season was to “elevate natural realms into a dream world while embracing the spiritual, and reflecting internal emotions."  Translation:  crocheted cotton, slouchy tops, wide pants, and a hooped skirt that was Rococo reminiscent yet shorn to sixties’ shortness.

tinydinosaur from designer Naomi Yamamoto, was, in a word, lovely. From the opening trench coat, constructed by layering ink-jet florals printed on origami paper over cupra chiffon, to the silk cotton jersey dresses covered in a chiaroscuro of colorful flowers, the clothes were unstintingly elegant.  Though Yamamoto carefully outlined her objectives in the opening program, these were clothes that needed no explanation or translation - and totally defied the cartoon image of the brand's crazy name.

More tomorrow!  Now off to have tea with Hello Kitty!
HELEN ARMIDE



This story was published on September 3, 2008.