Kotoha Yokozawa is a bright 34-year-old who has experience on Uniqlo’s design team, and has built a strong business and a uniquely bold aesthetic. This season, her first show in four years, she spoke about living in Nishi-Shinjuku, a particularly busy, tourist-heavy part of Tokyo, and the scenes she observes there every day: partygoers drinking cans of chuhai, docking stations for LUUP scooters, and neon-clad joggers preparing for the Tokyo Marathon.
“I really like that slightly mismatched look of colors that runners wear, like they’ve bought different things and have to make it work,” she said backstage. “I think color has the power to lift your spirit, and I hope that comes across.” Unfolding in a confident palette that included punches of fuchsia, tangerine, mint, and lemon, it was a sporty, energetic collection that captured the freneticism of the Japanese capital.
Stretch pleat tops, the brand’s signature, were styled with sheer skirts and tight, cropped cardigans; less necessary was a drab fluffy jacket and some too-straightforward yoga pants. The highlights were the futuristic men’s pieces worn with popper-lined jeans, and slinky dresses decorated with fabric cutouts (a thrifty detail Yokozawa developed early on): “When I first started my brand, I didn’t have the money to commission a factory and I didn’t know much about patterns, so I’d cut it myself and attach leftover fabric.”
The set was one of the best of the season: two food trucks and a tuk-tuk had been transported onto the 9th floor of Shibuya’s Hikarie building, and the runway was lined with traffic bollards and huge plants. In a Y2K throwback, models wore plastic pedometers or tamagotchis clipped to their waists. “I really enjoy creating spaces, props, and even small souvenirs just as much as I enjoy making clothes. They’re essential to my work,” said Yokozawa. “Simply showing clothes isn’t what I like about fashion, it’s something that exists within a landscape.”
