Japan Fashion Week (JFW), now in its seventh season, has never put much emphasis on menswear. This year, it appeared merely as an afterthought.
A paltry selection seems at odds with the fact that the Japanese menswear market and number of top-quality domestic labels is huge. The enormous success of Shinjuku's Isetan Men's and the Hankyu Mens department store in Osaka, which opened earlier this year and contains a great section of homegrown talent in addition to international labels, is testament to the obsessive interest in men's clothing in Japan.
It's never going to happen, but the creation of a separate menswear event (including both JFW men's collections and the numerous off-schedule shows) would be a winner for the domestic fashion market. Modeled on something like the legendary trade fair Pitti Uomo in Florence or the Milan and Paris men's collections, it could be an event run by fashion experts for fashion lovers. It would be great to see Tokyo organizing something like Pitti, which is unfailingly a few undiluted days of the best menswear on offer anywhere in the world.