Can a new Tokyo fashion festival revitalise Japan’s retail industry?

To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here. Though it may not be regarded as one of the big four fashion cities, when it comes to vibrant street style and a dynamic retail scene, Tokyo is the envy of the world. From the packed floors of Shibuya Parco, where racks of Issey Miyake float alongside Pokémon merch, to the select shops that serve the city’s bold dressers, nowhere does it like Tokyo. The significant cultural cachet of the city is something the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is looking to capitalise on with a new annual event called Tokyo Fashion Crossing (TFC). Set to kick off every year on Culture Day — a Japanese public holiday that takes place on 3 November to promote culture and the arts — the four-day event included multi-brand runway shows, pop-up shops, talks and exhibitions across the distinct fashion hubs of Shibuya, Ginza and Marunouchi, all of which were open to the public and free to attend. The Japanese government put up a cash injection of ¥600 million (£3.25 million) and partnered with retailers the Japan Apparel Fashion Industry Council (JAFIC) and Japan Fashion Week Organisation (JFWO) for the event, which it intends to use to generate interest in the country’s brands and get more people shopping. A total of 140 brands were showcased, from niche domestic labels including LVMH Prize winners Doublet and Tomo Koizumi, to heavyweight international brands such as J Press and the Anglobal-owned British label Margaret Howell. “Fashion is one of Tokyo’s key strengths, so we want to raise the fashion profile of the city, and for it to follow in the footsteps of fashion capitals like Paris, Milan and London,” says Yuuki Nishijima, director for business promotion in the commerce and industry division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. “Due to Covid-19, people have been refraining from going out for an extended period, which has caused a decline in our apparel industry. Now that restrictions have finally been eased, I think it is a great opportunity for Tokyo to show off the appeal of fashion,” he says. Japan’s spending on apparel took a hit of ¥1.84 trillion (£9.96 billion) due to the pandemic, according to a report by Globaldata. This has been compounded this year by the increased cost of living and hotter summer temperatures: household spending on clothing and footwear was down 5.9 per cent year-on-year in August, according to official figures from the Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. The government hopes that TFC will give consumers a push in the right direction. “We see the ¥600 million as a form of investment,” says Nishijima. TFC also comes at a time when international tourism in Japan is approaching pre-pandemic levels, with official data from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) showing that 2.18 million foreign visitors came to the country for business and leisure in September, with the weak Japanese yen remaining a significant boon for inbound consumers. A portal for brand discovery? Onlookers in the crowds at the TFC events were comprised largely of shoppers and tourists passing by, while some had been drawn by the celebrity wattage — ambassadors for the event included YouTuber Kemio, comedian Yurian Retriever, actor Terry Ito and model Ai Tominaga, who all gave speeches and walked the runways, while TikToker musicians sat front row. It presented a rare opportunity for Tokyo’s upcoming designers to advertise their clothes directly to the public. “We focused on including as many of our brands as possible,” says Kaoru Imajo, director of the JFWO, which worked to connect brands and designers with the event. While it seems TFC will continue to be held in November on the long weekend that comes with the annual Culture Day, Imajo hopes to strengthen its ties with fashion week. “Fashion week will still happen at the end of August, but maybe we’ll do a promotion event related to TFC to try and bring them closer together,” he says. To encourage shopability among the general public, organisers said it was important for the runway looks to be down-to-earth. “The clothes we see in [industry] fashion shows are often clothes that ordinary people don’t wear, so we wanted to focus more on realistic outfits that will make consumers want to buy them when they come to see the show,” says Yuji Hasegawa, executive director of JAFIC. The outfits showcased were all directly available in stores around the city and some were tagged on TFC’s Instagram account, but processes on how to shop the runways were unclear. Tokyo Fashion Girls Collection, a paid public event showcasing Japan’s teeny-bopper brands and which has its own shoppable app and online store, could serve as an example of how to do it, says Loic Bizel, a veteran fashion consultant in Japan. “[TFC] seems great for promoting Tokyo creativity, but if it’s to promote shopping then it was maybe a bit confusing,” he says. Organisers agreed that more could have been done to boost the shoppable aspect. “Since it was the first time for this event, we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked to prepare, so there were some missed opportunities,” says JAFIC’s Hasegawa. Soft power flex The biggest success of the first TFC came through in Japan’s cultural flex, with a diverse array of models at the Marunouchi show intended to promote inclusivity in fashion, and a Kabuki performance on the runway in Ginza. Masataka Hattori, a stylist who worked on the Shibuya fashion show that happened on the rooftop terrace of the Parco department store, sought to promote the cultural history of the area by dressing models as recognisable subcultural streetwear styles such as gyaru, karasu zoku and other trends that were born in Japan and adopted around the world. Hattori says he hopes the event will bring some positivity and encourage people young and old to learn more about Tokyo’s fashion history. “I wanted to show that fashion is more enjoyable when you dig into where it comes from,” he says. Another highlight was the ‘Neo-Tokyo’ pop-up shop, which brought together a small group of cult labels and creatives in Marunouchi’s Kitte shopping centre, including underground brand Balmung and vintage shop Pat Market. “I think even if people come here and don’t buy anything, they’ll still be able to feel the depth of Tokyo fashion,” says Yoshiko Kurata, who curated the pop-up. For organisers, the inaugural event served as an experiment that is intended to pave the way for further investment in more public-facing concepts in the future. “We’re planning to do a wrap-up meeting with the Tokyo City Government this month to discuss next year and try to improve upon what we did this time,” says JFWO’s Imajo. Fortunately, organisers are unlikely to run out of cultural material to play with. “Fashion in Shibuya and Harajuku especially has had a huge influence on the rest of the world, and so it’s been fun to showcase that,” YouTuber Kemio told Vogue Business. “What we have in Tokyo is still unlike anything you can find anywhere else.” Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More on this topic: ‘Like a homecoming’: Studio Nicholson plants a flag in Tokyo Young Japanese are craving fast fashion. What happened? Chanel and Marni eye Japan’s luxury market, where offline is king

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