Whether it’s the Maid Cafes in the nerds’ electronic hive of Akihabara, the Hysteric Glamour fashions around Harajuku, the leather jacketed Shibuya Gals, or the more couture looks coming from the likes of Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto,  Japanese fashion is pretty intense and diverse.

By adopting a mixture of current and traditional trends, Japanese trendsetters are unabashedly ready to explore their personal fashion identities no matter what you might think of them.

While more couture looks boldly highlight a higher end identity, street style renegades mixing homemade with anime punk are at the front and center of a fast fashion trend moving as fast as any other part of the world.

Kate Black, founder of  eco-blog Magnifeco says the climate for disposable fashion there doesn’t differ from other developed nations in that “fast fashion” is just part of the fashion psyche. Black says long before H&M and Forever 21, the Japanese frugal-fashionistas had Uniqlo, ABC Shoe Mart and 109 which are filled to the brim with low-priced items.

“There is an annual fashion show called the Tokyo Girls Collection – which dictates fast fashion trends to women in their early 20s. It’s a huge sold-out event where 20,000+ girls attend a full stadium event, with runway shows from some of the top “fad” designers and brands and then what appears as a mainstream trend on the street stems from that,” says Black.

Cosplay Girls at Harajuku

Shantel Girtley, Sales Account Executive of L.A based Style Assembly, a showroom housing many sustainable designers gets to see forward dressing Japanese buyers at Market a couple times a year. She says there are usually two types of savvy Japanese buyers that emerge at markets to buy for their customers.

“Those that are American press driven and those that want ‘under the radar’ lines. They’re usually swarming the designers who are unusual in some way. You will also find them shopping for lines that are domestically made here in the U.S. at  Market locations in Vegas and New York,” says Girtley, who is particularly enamored with the looks coming out of Tokyo.

“I may be biased when it comes to Japanese fashion, specifically originating from Tokyo. I personally love the way they use clothing and accessories to transform on a day to day basis. I believe they are pushing the envelope in every way to carve out a path for most to follow. The fashion coming out of Tokyo is fearless, yet incredibly graceful. This ironically would be my personal definition of ‘fashion’. Whether its straight off the runway or straight out of the streets, Tokyo fashion infuses both to create a buzz that we just can’t stop talking about,” says Girtley.

From Tokyofashion.com

Tracey Forrest, founder of the True Collaborative Showroom out of Portland, Oregon – another sustainable designer’s showroom – says Japanese buyers are very professional buyers who know their budgets, know what their demanding customers will want, and make quick and calculated decisions.

“They plan a smart mix of heritage brands with strong brand equity and also place a few new innovative brands to keep the mix interesting and innovative for their customers,” says Forrest.

Not sure what you think about Japanese fashion or its interesting history? Currently two Japanese fashion exhibits are running that you can take in: One is “Japan Fashion Now” at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT) in New York City, and the second is “Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion” at the Barbican Art Gallery in London.

According to Sarah Scaturro, of the print journal Fashion Projects, “both focus on Japanese fashion designers and celebrate their contributions to the Western fashion system,” and both shows offer looks dating back to 30 years ago and pay attention to contemporary Japanese sub-cultures.

Image: The Sydney Morning Herald

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The London Design Museum’s exhibit “Drawing Fashion,” which runs now through March 6, 2011, is a unique exploration of 20th and 21st century fashion illustrations reminiscent of a time when couture and glamor were far more chummy than today. The exhibit reflects the artistic style of each decade, through Art Nouveau to Art Deco and Pop Art.

Exhibit fashion curator Colin McDowell told Vogue, “Each drawing exemplifies the period it came from which is why illustration is so special. I want this exhibition to kick-start people in thinking ‘Why don’t we use illustration again?’ I collect Vogues and my favorite one is from 1923 – it’s so beautiful because of its drawings,” says McDowell.

These illustrations, hailing from the likes of artists that have worked with Chanel, Dior, Comme Des Garcons and Alexander McQueen bring to light a neglected area in the fashion world that began as an advertising tool pre-photography and only continues now in a handful of design houses. While it seems a dying art, the very much alive exhibit, collected over the past 30 years by Joelle Chariau of Galerie Bartsch & Chariau, is a compilation of artists like turn of the century illustrator Lepape to current artists like Mats Gustafson and Aurore de la Morinerie.

Antonio, New York Times Magazine, 1967

Gustafson, an illustrator who’s advertising campaigns have been utilized by Bergdorff Goodman and Chanel, told the Huffington Post his work has always been about “the shapes he draws attention to” and how working with designers such as Yohji Yamamoto has enabled him to complement his own style with theirs. “You have to somehow fall in love with whatever you work with, to find the most interesting perspective or the beauty in whatever you do. When it really clicks between you and the designers, then of course it is more dynamic and more exciting.”

Mats Gustafson – Red Dress -Yohji Yamamoto, 1999

While illustration expresses fashion in a more exaggerated way, inviting us to interpret clothing through more of a designer’s lens, the artist has the task of being the bridge for us to see how the designers wanted the clothes to really look on a body.

Chariau, with her 30 years experience on the art says: “their work is interesting as fashion drawing, but is also interesting from an art perspective.”

Watch this video interview with collector and co- founder of Galerie Bartsch & Chariau, Joelle Chariau and illustrators Mats Gustafson and Francois Berthoud at the Drawing Fashion media view.

The Design Museum shop will be stocking exclusive exhibition merchandise including limited edition prints, posters and postcards while a book called Drawing Fashion will also be available at the exhibit.

Top Illustration from Antonio-At Home, New York Times Magazine, 1967

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