Highlights of Japan Fashion Week (II)

Not so long ago I wrote about Japan Fashion Week SS09 held in Tokyo and about my favorite collections presented there. Well, here are three more.

Matohu is a young label designed by Hiroyuki Horihata and Makiko Sekiguchi and probably "the next covetable Japanese export" as Fashion Wire Daily considers. Both Horihata and Sekiguchi studied the Apparel Design Course at Bunka Fashion College (Tokyo) and after graduation they subsequently worked for Bora Aksu in London.

 

 

After returning home, in March 2005 they launched Matohu, a womenswear
label which mixes contemporary design aesthetics - modern silhouettes,
simple, comfortable cuts - with Japanese traditional sensibility. A
signature piece for Matohu is their kimono jacket worn loosely belted
and layered over slouchy trousers and flowing dresses. For
their spring 2009 collection the designers used a traditional Japanese
tie-dying technique called "tsujigahana" creating beautiful, elaborated
prints.

Motonari Ono is a young designer (born 1981) who studied fashion design at Mejiro Design School (Tokyo), London College of Fashion Foundation (LCF) and at the Royal College of Fine Art Antwerp. In 2004, he joined Bora Aksu (London) as a chief pattern-maker and, after returning home in 2006, he established his namesake label - motonari ono.

 

 

The time spent in Europe has left a strong mark on his design philosophy: his spring 2009 collection has strong military influences and romantic, historic references mixed with his version of Lolita look. Motonari Ono sent down on the runway "porcelain dolls" dressed in military jackets teamed with short shorts and miniskirts, waistcoats, mini dresses and rompers with puffed sleeves, poet shirts with Elizabethan removable collars in ivory white or deep black with red and gold details.

Norio Surikabe, the man behind Support Surface label, worked for more than 10 years with Italian fashion houses (Romeo Gigli, NN Studio, Alberto Biani, Trussardi) as an assistant, then chief designer and design consultant. In 1999 he started his own label, Support Surface, offering high quality clothing which allows women to be true to themselves.

 

 

In 2003 he won the prestigious Kuwasawa Award prize, smoothing the labels' path to success as it has every chance of becoming an international brand. Every Support Surface collection, the spring 2009 line most of all, exudes the elegance of classical sportswear mixed with beautiful, soft fabrics and a impeccable flair for draping, folding and pleating.