Virtual and digital realities meet in Tokyo

Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo will be back in October, an unmissable event to discover Japanese creativity.

Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo, hosted by the Japan Fashion Week Organization (JFW Organization) and usually held in March and October, is the event that makes the Japanese city one of the world’s fashion capitals. Kaoru Imajo, the director of Japan Fashion Week Organization, recounts its history: “There was a fashion week in Tokyo since the 80s but the designers started to show to their own schedules, so the fashion week was not a real fashion week. It was like a fashion month, so Japan Fashion Week Organization was set up with government support in 2005 to better organise the event.” One of the main goals of Japan Fashion Week is to be a starting point for cooperation between designers, manufacturers and apparel retailers. “The way it is organised,” adds Kaoru Imajo, “we actually have two events, the textile trade show and fashion week, so we invite designers to the textile trade show. Then our fashion week’s main venues are in department stores in Shibuya and Omotesando so we sometimes collaborate with the stores involved.” Every season, a young creative director has the opportunity to supervise the image of the fashion week and design the related graphics, as the director of JFW Organization explains: “We always choose young talents for the creative director. The role of the graphics is to showcase the talents of Tokyo’s designers. Here I’m not talking only about fashion designers but also artists, and musicians.” At the moment, his team is working on the next edition of the event, scheduled for 12-18 October 2020. He concludes: “We are still thinking of presenting the show both physically and digitally, but it depends on the situation in Tokyo and worldwide. Physically, it will probably have restrictions, and digitally we are in discussions with our sponsor Rakuten. I think we will have not just fashion shows but maybe some educational events and music events online and hopefully some physical events with digital spaces, like using mobile phones and VR.”