20 Iconic Japanese Fashion Designers You Should Know

by Jes Kalled | LIFESTYLE

Japan has long been recognized as a hub of creative inspiration, and its fashion industry is no exception producing a rich tapestry of fashion designers, each with their own unique style, influence, and impact on global style.

But what is perhaps most fascinating about Japan's fashion scene is the recent revival of traditional Japanese clothing designs, particularly the kimono. Japanese designers are increasingly looking back to their cultural roots for inspiration, resulting in a renewed interest in the kimono and its unique craftsmanship.

We take a closer look at 20 of the most inspiring Japanese fashion designers, from global stars such as Yohji Yamamoto to the innovative designers like Hiromi Asai and Jotaro Saito leading the way in the revival of traditional Japanese clothing designs.

1. Yohji Yamamoto

Though he began his career pursuing a law degree, high fashion designer, Yohji Yamamoto, altered his course to help his mother at her dressmaking shop. The designer won the Soen and Endo awards while doing his fashion degree at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, which eventually led him to Paris. Thought of as avant-garde and untraditional, the designer is known to often use the color black. “I don’t bother you—you don’t bother me.” This is the motto of this color, he says. Distant from the mainstream and current fashion trends, a Yamamoto dress can seem formless, but this is very much intentional. “It meant something to me – the idea of a coat guarding and hiding a woman's body. I wanted to protect the woman's body from something – maybe from men's eyes or a cold wind" said Yamamoto in an interview with New York Times in 1983.

2. Jun Takahashi

Jun Takahashi is well known for his significant contribution to fashion in Tokyo, Paris and beyond. Takahashi is the founder and creator of the brand, Undercover, recognized internationally, and most recently for its collaboration with Dr Martens. In addition to Undercover, Takahashi opened a retail shop, Nowhere Ltd, in Harajuku, a location known for its fashionable hidden gems. Takahashi’s early collections were echoes of punk: ripped shirts and leather jackets. Perhaps this is owed to his years as the lead singer of the cover band, The Tokyo Sex Pistols. The designer is not only subversive, dynamic, and intriguing, but also… entirely practical. His outerwear is able to function as outerwear in freezing temperatures.

3. Hanae Mori

Hanae Mori’s career spans across 70 years. Her first atelier, Hiyoshia, opened in 1951, where she began designing costumes for various Japanese movies. This was the golden age of Japanese cinema. On a trip to New York City in 1961, the designer was horrified to see, during a depiction of Madame Butterfly, sandals being worn on tatami mats. The ignorance ignited Mori with the intention to show the western world what Japan, and Japanese aesthetics, were truly made of. She became known for her chosen motifs like the butterfly pattern, and her use of kimono. In 1965, her collection East meets West was presented in New York City. And in 1985, Mori was the costume designer for the lead role in Keita Asari’s version of Madame Butterfly, which premiered in Milan. Mori is just one of the two Japanese women who have presented collections on the runways of Paris and New York City. And she is the first asian woman to be included in the official haute couture design house by the Fédération française de la couture in France. Through many challenges and setbacks, Hanae Mori persevered. In 1996, the Japanese Government awarded her the Order of Culture award; she was the first fashion designer to receive it.

4. Issey Miyake

© Tokujin Yoshioka, Grid Body, Resin Sculpture

Issey Miyake is a groundbreaking Japanese fashion designer known for his avant-garde designs and innovative fabric treatments. Miyake established his eponymous brand in 1970, and quickly gained attention for his minimalist aesthetic and use of technology in fashion.

Miyake's signature pleating technique revolutionized the industry, allowing fabric to hold its shape without ironing. His designs were a departure from the ornate and elaborate styles that dominated the industry, emphasizing simplicity, functionality, and unique silhouettes.

Miyake's on the global fashion industry is immense, and his designs have been exhibited in museums around the world. His use of technology in fashion has helped to shape the industry in significant ways.

5. Tsumori Chisato

Akin to her delightfully interactive website, Tsumori Chisato is a unique, and bright high fashion designer. Tsumori began her career working with Issey Miyake after graduating from Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo. Once known as the Issey Sports Line, the collection soon became the I.S. Chisato Tsumori Designs. Her style, uncontainable now that she has branched out into her own brand, is a mixture of prints, manga, bohemian, and cuteness. Her studio, TC HOUSE OMOTESANDO, can be found in Shibuya, Tokyo.

6. Rei Kawakubo

Founder of Comme des Garçons is none other than the world renowned fashion designer, Rei Kawakubo. Based in Tokyo and Paris, the designer began as a freelancer, eventually opening up her own boutique in Tokyo in 1973. Kawakubo is known for challenging fashion, society, and herself, resulting in a unique design that at times deconstructs itself. Thought of by many as a fashion icon, the high fashion designer says otherwise. Her clothing was designed to offer a bold version of comfort, particularly for women; the implication was that her designs did not seek the male gaze, nor the approval of men. A conceptual artist at heart, Kawakubo’s abstract designs have continuously shocked and impressed an international audience.

7. Traditional Japanese Fashion

Vintage Kimono, available at Japan Objects Store

Traditional Japanese fashion design is closely knit with Japan's culture of collectivism. Contrary to the west’s emphasis on the individual designer, Japan’s traditional clothing sector focuses on the body of work made by craftspeople, particularly the careful attention given to individually hand-made pieces. What stands out is the work, not the worker. And most importantly, the passing down of shared knowledge from generation to generation, connecting the practices of history to the implementation we still see today. The result of this can be seen in one-of-a-kind pieces such the iconic kimono, or in the hand-painted lining on these silk kimono jackets. These pieces are examples of the fruit of precision—the labor of love that traditional craftsmanship and unity can create.

8. Nigo

Nigo, also known as Tomaki Nagao, is the creator and founder of the famous brand, BAPE, which caught the attention of the likes of the Notorious B.I.G. in the 90’s. Nigo wears many hats as a designer, DJ, entrepreneur, and current creative director of Kenzo. His career in fashion began with his friend, Jun Takahashi, when they were at school at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo. While there Nigo also met “the godfather of Harajuku,” Hiroshi Fujiwara, who allegedly gave him the nickname “Nigo,” which means “number two.” The name BAPE (Bathing Ape) refers to an idiom in Japanese: ぬるま湯に浸かった猿、 which translates to a “an ape bathing in lukewarm water.” The phrase is meant to highlight the state of overindulgence. The name of the brand is in particular reference to the Japanese youth, who are thought to overspend, indulge, and sit in bathwater that is no longer warm. Street fashion by Nigo fills the void of irony we all needed a dose of.

9. Kenzo Takada

Founder of the worldwide luxury brand, Kenzo, Kenzo Takada was one of the first men to be able to enroll in Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo in 1958. Drawn to Paris, the designer moved there, where in humble beginnings, he began his journey into originating various bold fashion trends. Though he only planned to stay in Paris for 6 months, he ended up staying for 56 years, passing away mid Paris fashion week in 2020 at the age of 8. Kenzo used vivid and wild prints, kimono fabric, and began by making sizes that freed the body instead of restricting it. This set him apart from other designers of Paris, and from other artists of the ‘70’s. After opening his flagship store, his success snowballed into international acclaim. The artist sold his brand to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in 1993 after his life long partner passed away. Kenzo, tired of commercial demands of the growing fashion industry, continued designing on his own like the visionary he was.

10. Junya Watanabe

Junya Watanabe began working as a pattern maker at Commes des Garçons while attending Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo. The young Fukushima born designer worked his way up and eventually was able to begin his own line under the Commes des Garçons name. Like his mentor, Rei Kawakubo, who is known for her offbeat and singular style, Watanabe has made a name for himself by making unique texture choices. Some have called him a “techno couture” designer for the way he uses fabric; draping techniques, distinctive concepts, and the uniqueness of the material itself. Similar to his mentor, the designer doesn't often give interviews and is rarely seen in the public eye.

11. Kansai Yamamoto

Eminent designer, Kansai Yamamoto, was thought to go in the opposite direction of the Japanese concept of wabi sabi. The designer won the Soen prize while at school at Bunka Fashion College in 1967, and went on to capture the attention of audiences through the medium of fashion and performance. Drawn to the idea and the power of the stage, the designer made several costumes for David Bowie. Perhaps one of the most famous of these is a stage costume titled Kabuki: a black and white jumpsuit with legs wide enough to resemble wings. Through Bowie, Yamamoto was able to pursue his love for extravagance and play with androgyny.

12. Hiromi Asai

Hiromi Asai is a kimono and fashion designer who uses high end textiles made solely in Japan. The designer is concerned with preserving the vitality of the kimono, which has made a long history through time. While supporting the continuation of the kimono itself and reinserting it into the minds of designers and consumers of fashion, Asai additionally cultivates fashion lines using kimono fabric and kimono aesthetics. Her desire is to keep the kimono in the high fashion spotlight. At the New York Fashion Week of 2016, Asai sent her kimono designs onto the runway and did just that. Her designs are sleek and bold; colorful and reflective of the clothing she breathes life into.

13. Jotaro Saito

Jotaro Saito is an avant-garde kimono designer, attempting to bring the kimono to everyday life. Born into an artistic family, Saito was likely influenced by his father, a modern kimono designer, and his grandfather who specialized in kimono dyeing techniques. Unlike most kimono craftsmen, who debut in their 40’s and 50’s as learned artisans of their craft, Saito made his debut at 27 as one of the youngest kimono designers in the limelight. Since then, Saito has aimed to bring the kimono to the forefront of the fashion conversation—more accessible, and easy to wear. This could be seen in 2008 at Tokyo Fashion Week when he showcased denim kimono. “My message would be -- you can wear kimono to a party, a birthday party, you can even put the denim kimonos in the laundry,” Saito said in an interview with Reuters.

14. Chiso

One of the most significant aspects of the kimono is the longevity of its history. It is a garment that has evolved through at least one thousand years of Japanese culture, dating back to its beginnings in the Heian era. Chiso, a company based in Kyoto, was established in 1555, and has long overseen the development of the kimono in Japan. When the company first began, it provided aristocrats and monks with clothing. The company grew to provide for temples and imperial family members. Throughout the Meiji period, Chiso specialized in yuzen, a special dying technique in Kyoto. The magnificent attention to detail and craftsmanship earned the company the coveted position of providing clothing and kimono directly to the Royal Household. Hundreds of years of generational knowledge has been passed through the hands of Chiso. "Tradition is not to conform, but to build around" they say.

15. Hiroko Takahashi

Modern Kimono designer, Hiroko Takahashi, takes an article of clothing with deep history and roots and expands its potential. Instead of using traditional kimono patterns such as flowers or birds, Takahashi has created her own composition. The designer is fond of straight lines and circles. The patterns stand out despite—or perhaps because of—her use of monochrome. In place of color, form is allowed to come forward loudly in center stage. Takahashi says she is interested in sustainable, rational, and genderless designs. She hopes that her dedication to the craft inspires others to think in this direction.

16. Tae Ashida

“The idea of Japanese fashion and what people wear is different. Many are actually quite conservative” said Tae Ashida, in an interview with Vogue in 2017. Daughter of the Japanese designer, Jun Ashida, who was personal designer to Empress Michiko, Tae has worked hard to earn a name for herself, though she’s naturally very proud of her father’s legacy. “Design is personal,” she said in an interview with Tatler Asia. Tae’s designs are elegant and chic, adorning the likes of runways and track fields—as seen in her most recent Spring/Summer 2023 collection that took place just three months ago.

17. Wataru Tominaga

Mens’ high fashion designer, Wataru Tominaga, is known for his colorful clothing, and extensive educational background. Tominaga graduated from schools such as Musashino University, Bunka Fashion College, Central Saint Martins College of Art in London, and the University of Art and Design Helsinki. The artist won the Grand Jury Prize Première Vision at The 31st edition of the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography. And his colorful designs didn’t go unnoticed by Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018. Regarding his current exhibition in New York with the Japan Society, Tominaga states “…the exhibition examines the ways in which these two practices experiment with artistic mediums beyond conventional forms of dress to challenge notions of subjectivity.”

18. Michiko Koshino

Michiko Koshino began her fashion career in London, after graduating from Bunka Fashion College. Koshino’s knowledge in fashion and retail began early due to working in her mother’s boutique store in their hometown of Osaka. Koshonio’s expertise expanded exponentially when she arrived in London, immersing herself in club scenes, and altering the atmosphere of fashion in the 70’s. Koshino designed for David Bowie, and developed a rebel-esque aesthetic for her runways in the 80’s and 90’s. One could find leopard print hair in a Koshino show, along with bomber jackets, and inflatable designs that literally popped out. A Koshino model may taunt or interact with the audience; a certain level of mischievousness attaches itself to her work. First and foremost, Koshino seems to be a driver of design, filled with vivaciousness and energy that burns brightly.

19. Kozaburo Akasaka

Kozaburo Akasaka is a Japanese-born, New York-based designer who has been making a name for himself with his innovative designs and meticulous attention to detail. He is known for his distinctive style that blends traditional Japanese design elements with contemporary Western aesthetics. His collections often feature traditional Japanese textiles and techniques, such as shibori dyeing and sashiko stitching, and he has a unique approach to fabric manipulation that results in sculptural, almost architectural garments. His designs are often described as gender-fluid, as he blurs the lines between menswear and womenswear.

20. Tamao Shigemune

Tamao Shigemune is a modern kimono designer who pays close attention to the kimono form, while simultaneously allowing for something modern (and wild) to flourish. The designer has a special interest in fairytales, adorning her kimonos with castles and swans. Other motifs such as koi fish, and flowers can be found in a Shigemune design but with an edgy aesthetic. Originally wanting to become a painter, the designer found herself drawn to the craftsmanship of dying kimono and obi early in her career. In her kimonos, the bright colors are bold and unafraid to stand out. Think: Alice in Wonderland in Japan.