Contemporary Japanese Designers and Brands to Watch

Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake took Japanese fashion to Paris in the 1970s and 1980s. The labels in this survey came afterwards. They were founded between 1990 and 2015, most of them began as small Tokyo businesses, and several are now shown in Paris. This guide gives each label’s founder and founding year, marks the milestones that can be checked, and says how to approach a house that is still designing.

The 1990s: the second generation

  • Tsumori Chisato, 1990. Founded by Chisato Tsumori.
  • Undercover, 1993. Founded by Jun Takahashi; the founding year is disputed, since some accounts place the start before 1991. The full account is in Beautiful Disorder.
  • Miharayasuhiro, 1996 or 1997. Founded by Yasuhiro Mihara; first shop in 1998 and a collaboration with Puma in 2000.
  • Toga, 1997. Founded by Yasuko Furuta; the ANDAM laureates list carries Toga under 2007.
  • Sacai, 1999. Founded by Chitose Abe, born in Gifu in 1965 and formerly of Comme des Garçons, where she spent eight years and ended on Junya Watanabe’s team. Sacai launched with five knitwear pieces; its method is described as hybridisation. See Hybrid Garments and Japanese Duality.

The 2000s: Tokyo and Paris

  • visvim, 2000 or 2001. Founded by Hiroki Nakamura. See Return to Sacred Making.
  • Anrealage, 2003. Founded by Kunihiko Morinaga; shown in Paris from 2014.
  • Fragment Design, 2003. Founded by Hiroshi Fujiwara.
  • Kolor, 2004. Founded by Junichi Abe.
  • Facetasm, 2007. Founded by Hiromichi Ochiai.

The 2010s: a new wave

  • Mame Kurogouchi, 2010. Founded by Maiko Kurogouchi.
  • Comoli, 2011 or 2012. Founded by Keijiro Komori; accounts differ on the year.
  • Doublet, ready-to-wear since 2012. Founded by Masayuki Ino; winner of the LVMH Prize in 2018, described by PEN as the first Japanese brand to receive it.
  • Noir Kei Ninomiya, 2012. Founded by Kei Ninomiya. The first collection, for spring/summer 2013, was shown in October 2012; Business of Fashion dates its first show outside Japan to 2014 and its first Paris presentation to 2017.
  • Hyke, 2013. Founded by Hideaki Yoshihara and Yukiko Ode.
  • Auralee, 2015. Founded by Ryota Iwai.

Collaboration and technical wear

Two other tracks run through the period. Sacai’s first collaboration with Nike dates from 2015; the LDWaffle was previewed on the runway for spring/summer 2019 in June 2018 and released in May 2019. Goldwin, which began in 1950 as Tsuzawa Knit and was renamed in 1963, became the distributor of The North Face in Japan in 1978 and won the Japanese trademark rights in 1994. One writer calls Goldwin the protagonist of Japanese gorpcore; that is a view, not a settled fact.

How to collect a living label

  • Season first. Record the season code and the care tag.
  • Collaborations. Check the collaboration tag and any numbering before you buy.
  • Sizing. Japanese sizing runs small; take measurements, and see the sizing guide.
  • Condition. See Japanese condition ranks.

Why Japan

These are Tokyo-founded labels, so the Japanese pre-owned wardrobe is the natural place to meet their early seasons, and pieces kept by their first owners are often in good condition.

In the archive now

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Looking for a particular season or collaboration? Our Hunting Salon™ searches across Japan’s private collector circles on your behalf.

Index terms: contemporary japanese designers · sacai · doublet · anrealage · kolor · noir kei ninomiya · hyke · auralee · mame kurogouchi · toga · mihara yasuhiro · tsumori chisato · fragment design · goldwin

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