The Tokyo spring/summer ’09 (already, yikes!) collections started at 10:30 on a very muggy (but at least not raining) morning on the terrace outside of the Tokyo Midtown shopping complex.
Actually rain would have been more fitting, since the runway for the Mint Designs show was bedecked with umbrellas and many of the outfits included plastic-y rain jackets and ponchos. Just when I was thinking that the collection could have done with a little less of these, a really cute clear plastic swing coat with the Mint Designs doll pattern in white appeared. Hmm… kind of want that, as well as swashbuckling rubber boots. Some of the dresses were pretty too, in more grown-up woven fabrics (as opposed to knit). This time the headdresses were a very “Night at the Museum” chic wooden model of dinosaur skeletons, which matched the prints on several of the items. The fitting theme was “Death Pop.”
Mint Designs on the terrace.
PR rep Naoko greeted me with apologizing for not returning my emails (or phone calls for that matter), but more than made up for it by seating me next to Risa Okamura from Ryuko (fashion) Tsushin. Risa writes content for the established fashion magazine and TV program and, bless her, decided to escort me into the Merci Beaucoup show (I was ticket-less) with her.
Then she took me back stage! Unfortunately Reuters was monopolizing designer Eri Utsugi’s time, but I did get to meet the show’s stylist, Mary Fellowes, who used to work for British Vogue. Mary and I went for tea after the show because I wanted to pick her brain about the experience of being a foreign stylist working with the JFW. Not to mention someone with a Vogue background working on something as out there as Merci Beaucoup! Anyway, more on that later…
More Mint Designs
During the show Risa had been explaining to me Mary’s influence on the ensembles, how they just looked more pulled together and sophisticated than a few seasons ago. It turns out that it is really just a matter of belted waists and matching shoes, but I could totally see Risa’s point. The synergy of designer and stylist isn’t something I had considered much during the shows, or the fact that some brands use stylists and others don’t.
I thought I should take photos back stage, you know the whole behind the scenes thing, but it just didn’t feel right. The poor models! Some of them were in the middle of changing—nude colored bras, thongs, and all—with the male TV crews running around. I will post some photos from the JFW when they're up.
Of course no day can be perfect, when I got home I realized why my legs have been driving me crazy all day—18 new mosquito bites, likely acquired during the 45 minutes on the terrace.
Mint Designs with designers Hokuto Katsui and Nao Yagi.
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