TOKYO — The Boston Red Sox acquisition of Japanese pitching ace Daisuke Matsuzaka has cast a spotlight on that nation’s sports exports, and its fashion industry hopes to do the same with its designers.
That’s the analogy from Nobuyuki Ota, public relations director of Japan Fashion Week, which is staging its semiannual shows here this week through March 20.
“The key words of JFW are ‘international’ and ‘incubation,'” Ota said. “It is worth coming to find new, talented designers from Japan whose merchandise can be accepted internationally.”
Thirty-eight brands are showcasing their trends for fall. JFW is a complex of fashion festivities, including runway shows, exhibitions and a few other events.
The organization started in 2005 with the aim of having various components of the nation’s fashion industry work together to burnish the advantages of Japan fashion within a framework supported by the government.
The city of Nihombashi, a center of commerce, finance and distribution, is hosting the event.
“We strongly believe that through these creations, we will present a vital and powerful Tokyo to the world,” said Masahiko Miyake, chairman of the executive committee for Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo, in a statement.
Last September was the first time in the group’s 20-year history that JFW was held before the other major cities’ collections. The idea of holding the presentations even before New York at that time was clear: “to focus more attention on the Japanese fashion industry from foreign buyers and media, [hopefully leading to] more business opportunities,” said Ota recalling the success in New York when JFW was rescheduled to come before London, Milan and Paris.
This time, however, Ota said JFW changed strategies, reasoning that holding its week right after Paris was “the best way to show the importance of JFW in the world’s collection circuit calendar.”
For its spring 2008 collections, JFW is returning to a pre-New York slot, Aug. 30 to Sept. 5, at a new venue, Tokyo Midtown. Japanese designers are used to working on a retail schedule and didn’t traditionally have to take orders so early, Ota explained. “Young designers have to be active globally. In order to do so, they have to make samples earlier than they do now to show the merchandise to buyers.
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“Japanese fashion should not only focus on the domestic market. They should look to overseas markets,” Ota stressed. “Japanese suppliers have to be competitive on an international field. Otherwise, they cannot be competitive — even in the domestic market.”
Some brands, such as Mercibeaucoup, have caught the eye of foreign buyers and eventually expanded their business. Most of the brands at JFW have established their business domestically, but are looking for more international deals.
“Today, world markets are looking for new fashion resources and the Japanese fashion business is watching the global market,” said Ota, who is also president of Issey Miyake. “JFW is where buyers can find the next generation of Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto or Issey Miyake.
“Japanese product is a fusion of tradition and state-of-the-art technology,” he added. “All the technology has a unique cultural background, and that’s why numerous international luxury brands, like Marc Jacobs, Jil Sander, Prada, Chanel and Louis Vuitton, seek materials from Japan. There are many textiles, like high-density polyester, for example, that buyers cannot find outside Japan. Japanese technology helps Japanese designers create their collections.”
The Ministry of Economy and Industry allocates about $6 million to each season. “Backing from the government to the entire fashion industry is critical,” Ota said. “The government has started to back the creative side of the nation’s businesses, including fashion.”
With an eye to giving JFW a broader regional sweep, Ota held news conferences in Taiwan and Korea and also met with retailers. “In the future, I want designers from those countries to join the collections here,” he said, citing as an example Doho, a Korean designer who will hold his first fashion show in Tokyo during JFW.
Asked about the impact of other emerging nations, such as Brazil, Ota offered another sports analogy: “Paris is like the final game of the World Cup in soccer. Before that, each region has fashion tournaments. Tokyo is the field where [teams] from Asian countries as well as Japanese designers compete.”
Ota acknowledged that this took time and money. “The first thing we have to do is focus on p.r. In the future, I would like to show highlights of the Tokyo collections in New York and Paris.”
For a long time, Japanese designers have had a hard time gaining international recognition and heading overseas, especially to Paris. But Ota is not pessimistic, referring again to Daisuke and the Red Sox: “The more major leaguers that come from Japan, the more excitement is perceived about people in Japan.”