New spring, new blossoms, new fashion looks. Every March and August, Rakuten Tokyo Fashion Week showcases exciting new collections by both established designers and newcomers to watch. Joining the fashion behemoths that are Paris, Milan, London and New York, Tokyo’s fashion week is a bit smaller but an ever-growing and equally stylish affair. Spread across venues in Shibuya, Omotesando, Harajuku, Roppongi and more, Rakuten Tokyo Fashion Week is serving fashionable looks from March 10 to March 16, 2024, and we at Tokyo Weekender are picking our favorite moments from the runway, the audience and the street fashionistas.
Tokyo Fashion Week Opening Event
Dear reader, we’ll need you to put aside the traumatic scenes from The Devil Wears Prada and the like, because Rakuten Tokyo Fashion Week is keeping the vibes effortlessly mellow. The opening party was an elegant evening of sparkling sake, fabulous yet laid-back fashionistas and a poetically beautiful film and installation. And we absolutely loved it.
The looks of the attendees made a perfect capsule of Tokyo’s diverse fashion. We saw kimono outfits with a touch of that Harajuku Romanticism, dapper suits to strut in Otemachi while getting a latte, leather strap accessorized blazers for a Shinjuku Nichome night out and more.
Fashion Prize of Tokyo 2024
To kick off Rakuten Tokyo Fashion Week, the opening party also featured Masu (stylized as MASU), the award-winning brand of “Fashion Prize of Tokyo 2024.” This prize, hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Japan Fashion Week Organization (JFWO), is aimed at supporting designers based in Tokyo so they will be able to go global. Designer Shinpei Goto, the man behind Masu, exhibited his latest collection that was previously presented in Paris. Having the mannequins seated among the event attendees brought the ready-to-wear collection even closer to the public.
We were big fans of the sparkly pieces and the teardrop face jewelry. If you see the TW team “crying” around Tokyo, look twice, we might just be wearing teardrop jewelry influenced by Masu.
RTFW 2024 Runway Reports
Yohei Ohno at RTFW 2024
Yohei Ohno
When we opened the invitation for the Yohei Ohno show, the whole room smelled like perfume for days. This was a foreshadowing of the March 13 runway show, where a signature fragrance was pumped into the air. Fragrance packs were also distributed to all guests to take home as a souvenir. The show took place in the En-Oku Hakukokan Museum Tokyo, appropriate considering the brand statement is about drawing inspiration from art and sculptures. The new collection mixes classic elements from both Western and Eastern cultures, with a little peppering of Bubble-era retro.
Excitingly, in an interview after the show, Ohno announced that he has been appointed as the designer of the attendant uniforms for the upcoming World Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, for the Sumitomo Pavilion.
Fetico at RTFW 2024
Fetico
Give us Fetico or give us death. Having featured in our Radar Style in print, it’s no secret TW loves this brand. The Fetico runway is our favorite from Rakuten Tokyo Fashion Week 2024 at the time of writing. It took place at the Tokyo National Museum where models whooshed back and forth as if teleporting from two connected portals, accompanied by hardcore industrial music. Both the sound and location, though seemingly disparate, were a good representation of the collection itself that married the romantic and coquettish with confidence and strength. There was lace and leather, bows and furs, all in one. It was nice to see some diversity in the models, as there were different skin colors and body types.
We’re obsessed with the puffy quilted leather gown, while the cowgirl denim ensemble felt like something from a different collection.
The Wildfräulein runway show
Wildfräulein
Wildfräulein was the runway show that was an exciting surprise for the TW team. Cyberpunk, industrial chic, with techwear influences, we can definitely see these items being worn in 2050 by someone paying for a yakitori with a digital chip in their iris. The runway show took place on a warehouse-looking floor of the Seibu Shibuya Movida department store. The models emerged carried up by escalators, while a live band rocked on. Models were also racially diverse, though only faces with chiseled jawlines were present.
We loved the asymmetric androgynous looks and the goggle-like eyewear.
Haengnae
The cherry on top for us was Haengnae, a brand by designer Anna Choi that TW has also featured in our Radar Style in print. A treat for the senses, the hall was filled with live cello music and gorgeous perfume hanging in the air. The lights drowned the space in red and then in blue, as models walked and posed slowly, with regal elegance. Simply breathtaking.
Three main colors feature in the collection: black, red and beige. These are the signature colors of Haengnae and its “Romantic Edgy” vibe. By fusing all elements from Choi’s experience — the craftsmanship of Japan, the free expression of New York, and the haute couture of Europe — Haengnae reflects the designer’s aesthetic sensibility fully.
Taking place in Shibuya Hikarie on March 16, the last day of the RTFW runway shows, the Haengnae runway show took us full circle as it was the same location as the RTFW opening event.
The Digital Voice Project of RTFW
Bringing Tokyo Fashion Week closer to everyone interested, outside of industry insiders and the media, this year the RTFW again appointed fashionistas and influencers to also post on social media about the shows. The project is named “Runway Watcher,” part of the overall “Digital Voice” project. There’s also “My Runway” in which a photographer shoots the venues through their original viewpoint. This year, Shimpei Mito was handed that role.
As media, TW attended a selection of runway shows during the Rakuten Tokyo Fashion Week Spring 2024, so make sure to check our Instagram too. We’ve added more photos and a video to capture the atmosphere.
Tokyo Fashion Week Spring 2024 Photo Gallery
