By Renata Espinosa
March 19th, 2007 @ 2:09 PM - New York

As Japan Fashion Week's Fall/Winter 2007/08 season came to a close on Friday, March 16, there was the sense that the best collections showed early in the week, with highlights including two labels under the Issey Miyake group A-net, Ne-Net and Mercibeaucoup, and another young label, Mintdesigns.

The pickings were much slimmer in the final days, but standouts on Thursday and Friday included Theatre Products/Kingly Theatre Products (women's/men's, respectively), whose collections one journalist rightly said recalled the subversiveness of a Viktor & Rolf show, and Kamishima Chinami, a designer from the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido whose sensitive, beautiful collection represented a totally different side of the Japanese sensibility, the polar opposite of "kawaii" or Harajuku culture: That of beauty in restraint and the poetry of nature, in this case, of the snowy winter landscape of Chinami's region. Fashion haiku would be one way of describing it.

What's most notable about these particular collections is that they represent, in a nutshell, where Japan's strengths lie as far as fashion is concerned, and where the future of Japan Fashion Week is headed as far as putting itself on the international fashion map as they once were in the past: As a leading producer of cutting edge, directional fashion.

"I would like to nuture young talent," said Nobuyuki Ota, president of Issey Miyake Inc., speaking on behalf of Japan Fashion Week. "Here, it's very important to incubate. We have to push young designers to the international market."

When Mr. Ota first started working for Issey Miyake in 1981, he said, Barneys New York was the first American retailer to buy Japanese designers. He compared the situation 25 years ago to today - journalists and buyers on the hunt for fresh new designers.

It's the beginning, perhaps, of the Japanese new wave as far as fashion is concerned. Comme des Garcons' Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and Jun Takashi of Undercover may have put Japan on the map in the '80s and '90s, but given Japan's current status internationally as pop cultural trendsetter and launching pad for cool, whether it's a new game, gadget or street fashion trend, the time seems to be right again for Japanese designers to break out.

Though Japanese fashion is generally more associated with street wear, there are many talented designers in Japan - Everlasting Sprout and Ato also showed promise, for instance - while some of Japan's more commercially-minded brands such as G.V.G.V and Ritsuko Shirahama wouldn't be out of place on a runway in New York or Milan. Both showed slick, wearable looks for city girls who might also have DKNY, Proenza Schouler, Marni and Miu Miu in their closets. But that's not a compelling enough reason to make the trek to Japan Fashion Week alone, to see versions of collections already being seen on Western runways.

What one really wants to see is something never seen before, something unique, so the goal of making Japan Fashion Week an incubator and launching pad for young talent is logical.

For Mr. Ota, this means using Japan Fashion Week as a training ground for these young designers.

"What's most important is that we promote talent abroad," said Mr. Ota, who said he encourages Japanese designers to eventually show their collections outside of Japan. "But before that, our young designers have to know what is international. We have to give them information, we have to education them about conducting international business."

Ota said that Japan's Council of Fashion Designers, along with JFW, are conducting seminars on the business of fashion, particularly on the international scale.

JFW also selected 10 young designers to show in a special off-site venue, the Tokia building, free of charge thanks to various sponsors. The venue fee at the main tent at Japan Fashion Week costs 5 million yen, said Mr. Ota, or about $43,000, though these shows are sponsored, so the venue fee ends up costing 1.5 million yen, or $12,800.

While the cost of showing with Japan Fashion Week isn't necessarily prohibitive, some designers, including Yohji Yamamoto's daughter Limi, who showed her collection on Thursday, March 15 and has plans to show in Paris next season, opted not to show as part of the official schedule.

"Some groups don't want to work the government, as usual," said Mr. Ota. "Some could not make the deadline, as they hadn't decided whether to show or not, while others don't have the money to do a show."

Japan Fashion Week's plans for next season include inviting more Asian designers from other countries (a couple of Korean designers showed this season, including Dojo and Han Ahn Soon), changing the dates so that the collections occur before New York fashion week, having more sponsored shows for young designers and continuing to encourage Japanese designers studying abroad at places like the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, St. Martins in London and Parsons School of Design in New York to return to Japan to show their collections.

"Japan has opened the door," said Ota. "Please come."

http://www.fashionwiredaily.com/first_word/fashion/article.weml?id=1042