Tag - matohu

 
 

MATOHU

Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
May 27, 2018
On the changing face of Japanese styling
Lifestyles and desires change and fashion has always adapted with the times, but with easier access to global influences, it has become more eclectic than ever. From casual looks to match a lifestyle, to fanciful art collaborations u2014 Japan aims to please all.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 18, 2018
Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo: Womenswear brands add an extra dash of cool to elegance
Japan Times fashion contributors select eight womenswear collections to look out for during Tokyo fashion week
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 22, 2017
The traditional kimono never goes out of style
The fusion of traditional Japanese culture with contemporary life isn't a new concept, but as trends change the results can vary greatly. On the runway, we are seeing sophisticated ideas that infuse new looks with time-honored tastes in subtle yet effective ways; while on the streets, the stylings of old-world Japan have never been more kitsch and trendy. With plenty of second-hand kimono readily available, going full traditional also need not be expensive, or, if you're in need of something for Halloween, they can add some authenticity to the spookiest costumes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 1, 2017
Matohu: Observing tradition in modern design
Design duo Hiroyuki Horihata and Makiko Sekiguchi have been making the case for the inclusion of Japanese aesthetics in contemporary fashion for more than a decade.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 26, 2016
Designer Jotaro Saito seeks to free the kimono from the confines of tradition
Jotaro Saito has been showcasing his kimono brand at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo since 2006, almost a decade before the eyebrow-raising appearance of X Japan frontman Yoshiki Hayashi's Yoshikimono brand at the event last October.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 26, 2016
Tokyo fashion week: Womenswear's mixed messages
The 2016 fall/winter womenswear collections that were unveiled on the catwalk during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo offered a wealth of cozy clothing that will likely appear in stores later this year. As has been the case in recent seasons, the designs were as varied as the selections presented on a conveyor belt at a kaiten sushi restaurant, and featured a mixed platter of items that ranged from modest glamour to primitive streetwear.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jan 9, 2016
Avatar models, Sanrio menswear and disheveled clothing — fashion at its oddest
Louis Vuitton is being struck by Lightning
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 25, 2014
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: breaking with tradition
There is an identity crisis at the heart of Japanese fashion. It has two contradictory faces that it would like to reconcile — both domestically and abroad. On one hand, the image of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu acolytes posing on the streets of Harajuku prevails and yet, at the same time, the word "Japanese" invokes the image of traditional garments — regrettably reduced to just the kimono in most minds, simply a fixed aesthetic locked in time as a national costume rather than a fashion object.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 26, 2013
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: Invisible touch
Clothing that morphs into a person's body shape at the flick of a wrist sounds like something straight out of a science-fiction film, but such innovations were on display at the wonderful Anrealage show at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo last week. Designer Kunihiko Morinaga has developed an in-seam system that can change the shape and size of his designs with the simple turn of a knob. In lay terms, think of drawstrings with invisible ropes. Morinaga's show featured models stepping out in oversized coats, dresses and pants that magically shrunk before the audience's eyes. Anrealage showcases so many innovations such as this that you'd think they'd long be global superstars by now. Instead, you'll have to trek to a small shop on the outskirts of Harajuku to get your hands on any of their items.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 26, 2013
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: Walking the line
The menswear schedule looked somewhat lacking on paper this season at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo. The big names that would normally take the lead in international coverage — namely, Takeshi Osumi's post-Phenomenon project, Mr.Gentleman, or the internationally friendly Whiz Limited — were both absent from the runway or else content to broadcast their collections online. This may have deprived the week of the crop of brands that bounce off and refine that which has already proved palatable to international tastes, but instead left the stage wide open for an altogether more honest face of Tokyo and its fashion to emerge for the international fashion community to see.

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world