Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo news and archive

Ryo Matsumura of Japan's Rakuten: 'We would like to represent French designers who are not yet known'

In past seasons of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo, the event’s headline sponsor, tech firm and e-commerce retailer Rakuten, has made it known of its intentions to secure stronger ties with the influential fashion weeks of the West. During Tokyo’s FW24 fashion week, for example, Paris Fashion Week’s official tradeshow partner, Tranoï, announced it...

News

Four brands named as winners of JFW Digital Grand Prix 2024

The Japan Fashion Week Organisation (JFWO) has announced the four winners of this year’s JFW Digital Grand Prix, recognising brands that have excelled in the realm of digital presentation. While the jury collectively agreed that no work presented this year “would lead to new challenges or the development of digital expression”, and as such there...

Fashion |In Pictures

In Pictures: Marimekko takes Tokyo for Unikko print’s 60th anniversary year

When fashion and tech platform Rakuten launched its ‘by R’ initiative back in 2020, the concept was initially based around supporting and encouraging the return of homegrown talent to their roots of Japan, putting on an international pedestal established names that have globally surfaced in the midst of the local industry. However, like all good...

BusinessFeatured

Rakuten FWT: Sentimentality reigns among emerging names as global ties continue to strengthen

As the demand for Japanese designers grows, it is no wonder that a similar fate has befallen the country’s local fashion week, where the roster continues to expand as the born-and-raised talent make the shift between European presentations and home shows in greater numbers. Over the course of March 11 to 16, Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo (FWT)...

Fashion |In Pictures Featured

Rakuten FWT street style defined by black ties and sporty eveningwear

Japan’s clothing style is well known for its contemporary and unconventional forms, often mixing western garments (or yōfuku) with traditional and heritage elements to create an aesthetic that is truly unique to the country. This could be seen on the streets of the rising fashion capital Tokyo, which last week was abuzz with its ongoing fashion...

Fashion

Marimekko heads Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo line up

As we continue to descend deeper into the fashion week season, Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo (FWT) has now unveiled a number of details for its own AW24 event, which is scheduled to take place from March 11 to 16. At the height of the roster is Finnish label Marimekko, which will be participating in the fashion week for the first time under the...

Fashion Featured

BAPE’s Tokyo homecoming looks back on 30 years of leadership in streetwear

In the heart of 1993’s Harajuku, Tokyo’s home of outlandish fashion and subcultures, A Bathing Ape – more commonly known as BAPE – was born, a lifestyle brand that promised to offer up a renewed take on streetwear through the eyes of its already acclaimed founder Tomoaki Nagao, or Nigo. As a devout hip hop fan, Nigo formulated the brand through...

BusinessFeatured

Fashion Week Tokyo designers on Japan's market and broadening their horizons

Over the weekend, Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo (FWT) wrapped up its SS24 edition, another in which it bolstered a message of taking a globally holistic approach to such occasions, while still supporting the local industry. And, as always, as one edition wraps, sights are already set on what is to come, and where the fashion week can go from here....

Fashion |In Pictures

Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo ss24 Highlights

Tokyo fashion week for the ss24 season was again sponsored by technology conglomerate Rakuten. The runway shows and presentations ran from Monday, August 28 to Saturday, September 2. Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo aims to become the gateway for success in the world for new designers; the starting point for cooperation between designers,...

BusinessFeatured

Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo and its growing emphasis on global inclusion

‘Open, Fashion Week’ was the overarching theme of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo’s spring/summer 2024 edition, which had been centred around the “strengthening of power to transmit globally”. Like other fashion weeks of its calibre, Tokyo has its sights set on attaining a more global reach, an element that was only enhanced after the pandemic and...

Fashion Featured

Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo SS24: 5 Trends that dominated the runway

Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo came to a close over the weekend, rounding out a week-long event that exhibited the collections of around 50 designers. Like years prior, the occasion was marked by its emphasis on localisation, bringing Japanese designers to the forefront of the schedule in order to support the country’s industry. This also allowed...

Fashion Featured

Tokyo Fashion Week ss24: street style

Rakuten fashion week Tokyo ss24 is in full swing, running from Monday, August 28 to Saturday, September 2, 2023. As is always the case, attendees take their attire very seriously. Tokyo street style is often referred to as ‘Harajuku.’ Harajuku refers to an area in metropolitan Tokyo and is most known for its eccentric street style culture, hence...