Twice a year, the streets of Tokyo are abuzz with even more dazzling outfits than usual. The reason: Tokyo Fashion Week, which sees journalists and influencers flocking to Shibuya to be part of the glamorous event. This year’s Autumn/Winter collection, held between March 17 and March 22, will feature 37 brands in venues throughout Tokyo, including Spiral Hall and Toda Hall, for another thrilling week of groundbreaking looks.
Tokyo Fashion Week, officially titled Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo, may not be ranked among the Fashion Week Big Four, but it has plenty of its own charm. It showcases exciting brands that are well-established and others that are on the rise. Because it hasn’t blown up to the levels of New York or Paris, Tokyo Fashion Week is unpretentious and innovative. It is able to focus less on brand names, and more on storytelling, pushing boundaries and fashion for the sake of art.
Here are seven top brands that are sure to cause a stir at Tokyo Fashion Week.
Fetico at RTFW 2024
Fetico
Fetico, headed by fearless designer Emi Funayama, is a women’s brand that deifies the female figure. The brand was featured on Tokyo Weekender’s Radar Styles page before, and it’s clear we can’t help but keep coming back. It uses 1980s female silhouettes and combines them with modern fabrics, cut-outs and construction for a distinctly new-age look. The brand’s SS 2025 theme was “The Secrets,” featuring models styled with sneakers for the first time in the brand’s history and a collaboration with the eyewear brand, Blanc. We’re excited to see what the brand has in store for Tokyo Fashion Week.
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Kamiya
Having started his fashion sales career in vintage stores, designer Koji Kamiya is heavily influenced by vintage and archival fashion culture. His men’s fashion brand, Kamiya, blends vintage with modern street fashion and is characterized by its edgy, rebellious spirit. From an outdoor campsite in Akihabara to Shibuya’s Hyakkendana shopping street, Kamiya historically puts on runways in thrilling, non-traditional spaces for Tokyo Fashion Week. Fans are already buzzing to find out where this year’s venue will be.
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Satoru Sasaki
Satoru Sasaki is a primarily women’s fashion brand that was launched in 2019, and last September received the Tokyo Fashion Award. The designer, who calls the brand “weird luxury,” is attempting to find the tipping point between masculinity and femininity, comfort and high-fashion. Having just launched its men’s wear last year, it will be exciting to see how the brand is continuing to expand the boundaries of gender and fashion.
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Telma
Established in 2022, Telma opened Tokyo Fashion Week last August. Having worked under Dries Van Noten and at Issey Miyake and received the JFW Next Brand Award last year, designer Terumasa Nakajima is receiving a lot of attention. From oversized jackets with wide-fitting pants to feminine long dresses, Telma’s looks are consistently classy and evocative.
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Pillings
Pillings is a knitwear-focused clothing brand headed by Ryota Murakami. It’s a brand that’s all about handmade clothes which show the wear from their owner’s loving use; lint balls and thinning fabrics symbolize the love and connection we have with our clothes and each other. Last year, Pillings held its SS 2025 runway at the Science and Technology Museum in Kita no Maru Park, using the somewhat stuffy feeling and reflection of sound and light in the facility to amplify the airy feel of its designs.
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Viviano
Raised in China and the US, designer Viviano Sue’s motto for his brand is “chaos in shimmer through the veil of order.” Viviano often features bursts of tulle and color, lace and a ballooning silhouette, and you can always expect a show-stopping, voluminous tulle dress from the brand’s runways. Having just launched a men’s wear collection last year, Viviano’s whimsical approach to gender is exciting, and definitely worth looking out for at this season’s show.
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Ssstein
Though Ssstein won’t have a runway, the brand’s designer, Kiichiro Asakawa, is the recipient of this year’s Fashion Prize of Tokyo. He also just presented his first runway show in Paris this January as part of Paris Fashion Week. Ssstein’s looks will be presented at the special reception party held on the eve of Tokyo Fashion Week at the Spiral Garden in Aoyama, which is open to the public. This event is an opportunity for us to see the brand at a time when it’s growing rapidly and challenging traditional coat silhouettes, as well as blending maximalism and minimalism.
