Fashion Week is forced to connect

On March 2, the cancellation of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo for the fall / winter 2020 season was confirmed, putting an end to all speculation about its fashion shows scheduled for mid-March during the current COVID-19 global pandemic.

Why so late to cancel? The fashion system is always thinking of a season to come. March fashion week offers, for example, would be on sale starting in September, to be worn by the well-dressed until early 2021. Although the collections were presented to the industry in March, they would have been put into production samples at least a month in advance, and before that, they would have been designed, thought out and subjected to a process of consultation on trends.

Slamming the brakes on fashion week after all which means financial disaster for many and, given that production is seasonal, it can’t just be pushed back a few months.

The parades and the exhibitions that accompany them, where buyers’ orders are actually taken, involve astronomical costs. The size of the brand does not matter, they must all send invitations via public relations agencies, reserve models and plan after-parties, a significant financial expense that must be recovered by sales to survive. For small brands, fashion weeks are already a gamble.

The big brands that are fortunate enough to be sponsored could have the softened blow, but for newcomers, the cancellation is a serious setback and potentially the end of the road for some.

However, Tokyo Fashion Week is made of harsh things, and it is not its first last minute cancellation, it is not even the first in a decade. The last time was in March 2011, due to the great earthquake and tsunami in eastern Japan, when prolonged power outages and a general feeling of uncertainty and sadness in the capital rendered the improper and inappropriate continuation of the event. The crucial difference in the case of this fashion week was that the trade shows went largely as planned, which means that normality resumed surprisingly quickly, even when the aftershocks sounded.

This month, all major trade shows have been canceled, including Project Tokyo and PR01. Trade show of the biggest group showrooms of fashion week as well as the lion’s share of small rooms. It was just too risky to have such gatherings where large numbers of people would handle the same clothes.

It was at this time of need that the Save the Fashion Week project, initiated by the public relations agency OneO Ltd., came into action. He promoted and deleted the Tokyo Fashion Film web portal, which encouraged a number of brands to continue their scheduled fashion shows, starting the week of March 16, with no live audience.

The portal site offered not only the live broadcast of fashion shows, but also digital archives of shows and interviews with creators who drew distant audiences to replace empty chairs on the sites.

The official Fashion Week homepage and YouTube channel have also done a great job of displaying lookbooks and audience-free shows for the 14 brands that have launched.

While all of this is admirable and live streaming is a useful resource for fashion industry professionals, knowing that a show will be archived for posterity on YouTube lessens the sense of opportunity and the excitement of watching a live show. The young brand Yusho Kobayashi, which was not on the official calendar, for example, published its show on Instagram Live with a much greater impact on social networks than YouTube, in particular because the fans could react, comment and send their applause in real time from afar.

From what happened for Tokyo fashion week, however, what seems to be in fashion?

Well, given the time to prepare for the event, fashion cannot really respond to the current situation. For practical clothing, we already have Uniqlo, and there was no appearance or pockets large enough to accommodate an industrial mask. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The styles to come veer towards fantastic escape.

Tellingly, DressedUndressed, now from sole designer Takeshi Kitazawa, opted for open skin and privacy in a striking spectacle of bold slits and nude colors hinting at a desire to remove social distance in the most primitive way.

But it was Junnosuke Watanabe, founder of the fashion brand Neglect Adult Patients, of the founder of the subcultural record label Idack, Junnosuke Watanabe, who took advantage of the week at a distance with his live concert promoting a bold collection featuring idols from the Bish, Mameshiba no Taigun, and Bis groups as models.

Beyond the safe streetwear for sale, the performance was filled with Internet-ready memes and references, and included famed television star Kuro-chan, of the trio of comedies Yasuda Dai Circus, performing alongside Mameshiba no Taigun as part of a long-running joke with the TBS variety show “Wednesday’s Downtown”. It was probably a lost sight for many, but a laser targeted direct hit on the brand’s existing fans who clearly know how to use digital media.

It is ironic that the plight the fashion industry is facing right now can be the impetus not only to drag Tokyo fashion week into the digital age, but also to reach the potential global audience that accompanies it.

To see the Tokyo Fashion Film archives, visit www.tokyofashionfilm.com. For images and photos from the Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo collections, visit .