Japan once wowed the world with its own big names, such as Issey Miyake (Issey Miyake handbags), however, now many Japanese fashionistas complain that top fashion designers in Tokyo eventually leave Japan for catwalks overseas.

Mikio Sakabe / Shueh Jen Fang

Fashion designer Mikio Sakabe is one of the "U-turners" - young Japanese designers who trained abroad and are now returning home to build their brands. He is one of the many Japanese designers seeking a new platform in Tokyo after several years of fashion experience in Europe. Sakabe's doll-themed collection ("INDUSTRIAL DOLLS") has already been introduced in Paris and Milan. A popular doll, for instance the “Licca-chan” doll, has both a sweet appearance and an unnatural, mass-produced aspect.

Mikio Sakabe said before his 2008-2009 autumn and winter show: "I'm trying to attract more Japanese by pushing the pop culture one step forward. It's not just kawaii ('cute') but more of a strength within the cuteness."

ELTTOB TEP ISSEY MIYAKE introduces MIKIO SAKABE as an “incubation” brand from this season.

Eri Utsugi

Eri Utsugi is the founder and lead designer of Japanese fashion label mercibeaucoup. The label, under the Issey Miyake A-Net company has become highly popular since its founding, presenting a wide array of quirky menswear and women’s clothing options.

Alternately described as quirky and cute, Utsugi’s designs are made up of a wide array of influences that combine the cuter, fun aspects of some Japanese fashion with a slightly more mature, almost indie perspective. Many of her designs are taken from construction workers, as she herself admits, due to the comfortable appearance of their clothing.

While the idea of cosplay was once relegated for those inaffectionately dubbed Otaku, designers like Utsugi have reinvented the form in fashion, using the idea of anime and manga inspired designs as centerpieces in shows and new lines.

Utsugi debuted her label at Japan Fashion Week in March this year in a spectacular show that saw models sporting face paint and wearing Afro wigs sculpted into animal shapes while sweeping confetti down the catwalk with brooms, bowing each time they crossed paths. Shown to the sounds of retro video-game music, and featuring myriad animal motifs, layering and clever patterns, it was a wacky, naive lineup typical of her out-there oeuvre.

Her huge fan base also shows that Japanese fashion does not necessarily have to be about dark, deconstructed, introspective style.

The brightly colored and often bizarre results are the antithesis of Western notions of seductive fashion, and Utsugi's work is often cited as representative of Tokyo style. That is not an image she has striven to cultivate, though.

"I don't actively seek to makes clothes that are typical of Tokyo style," she says, "but I am from Tokyo, so I guess that just comes out in my designs. Anyway, I'm not overcome with admiration for European fashion like I was as a design student, so there is more of a Japanese worldview; it's about cuteness not sexiness."

Eri Utsugi Bio

Eri Utsugi was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1966 and attended the Apparel Design Course at Joshibi Junior College of Art and Design. She spent time in both Esmod Japon fashion design school and Studio Bercot in Paris, France and worked with multiple designers throughout her career. In 2001, she started at the company BIGI, where she worked for a time as the lead designer of the fashion brand Frapbois. Her big break came in 2005 though when she joined Issey Misake’s A-Net company and launched her own label, mercibeaucoup.

The label has grown tremendously since its launch, garnering enough international attention for her to sign distribution deals already in Europe and soon in North America.

Hokuto Katsui and Nao Yagi

Tokyo has opened up its catwalk from September 1 through 7 at the Japan Fashion Week, so designers could present their newest collections for the spring/summer 2009 season.

Tokyo-based mintdesigns might look like a stylish fashion label. Indeed, the designer duo Nao Yagi and Hokuto Katsui boast experience as assistants to Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen (Alexander McQueen Handbags) respectively. The duo designers from Saint Martins, Hokuto Katsui and Nao Yagi, have been exhibiting their collections in Tokyo since 1993.

Their atmospheric use of colours and their playing with construction are a part of their romantic style of virtual children from the future that wear hats shaped like wooden fossils. The collection is dominated by blue and pink colours, as well as effective prints, which makes Mintdesigns so recognisable.

Hokuto Katsui and Nao Yagi Profile

Hokuto Katsui: studied at Parsons School of Design in New York and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Moved back to Japan and founded Mint Designs.

Nao Yagi: Graduate of Doshisha University in Fine Arts and of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Co-founded Mint Designs.

Founded Mint Designs in July 2001. Debuted their first runway show at Tokyo Collection in October 2002. Designed the costumes for the film Casshern, which opened in 2004. Won the 7th Moet et Chandon New Designer’s Award in 2005.

Source: Reuters, Virtualjapan, Japantimes, Pingmag, IHT, IFW