There couldn’t be a more fitting venue for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo than Shibuya’s brand-spanking new Hikarie shopping complex. Shibuya is the main artery to all of the most influential neighborhoods of style; directly to the east is ritzy Aoyama and to the north is Harajuku, where street trends grow into globally recognized phenomenons. As we’ve seen three days into the shows, streetwear is where the action is at Tokyo fashion week.
It began with Facetasm on Saturday, which proved just how experimental the Japanese designers get with sportswear, especially when it comes to men’s clothing. Here, colorful layering was key, with the best looks featuring boxy cocoon tops over shorts and long johns, wrapped up with a gang of sleeves woven into each other and tied around waists. Phenomenon (pictured) also leads in the men’s streetwear arena. Designer Takeshi “Big O” Osumi matched floral garden prints with camouflage on dress shirts and jacquard dinner jackets, but kitsched them out with pieces accented with giant tie-dye splotches and cloud patterns.
In a completely different vein are Matohu and Shiroma, both taking inspiration from artisanal techniques of yore and restructuring them for twenty-first-century consumption. The former featured a collection of traditional robes created from textiles that resembled car tire treads or retro printed curtains. Shiroma, meanwhile, put out a series of looks created from Japanese washi paper that had been ingeniously manipulated to look like crocodile leather.
—Misha Janette
Photo: Giovanni Giannoni
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