JAPAN: Tokyo Collection debutante Emiko Miki wows audience with high-tech and avant-garde fashion

Record ID: 197441

  • Title: JAPAN: Tokyo Collection debutante Emiko Miki wows audience with high-tech and avant-garde fashion
  • Date: 16th March 2007
  • Summary: DESIGNER EMIKO MIKI INSTALLING VIDEO GADGET INTO WHITE HANDBAG CLOSE UP OF VISUALS ON SCREEN (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) DESIGNER EMIKO MIKI SAYING: "I think high-tech is something unique to Japan and when I am carrying a gadget like overseas, people love it because I'm Japanese and they think the high-tech stuff that I carry matches me. That's how I got my inspiration."
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Fashion,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA8CRARE9LTGK6234V61YAS99TU
  • Story Text: Maverick Japanese designer Emiko Miki refuses to follow fashion trends in Europe.
    Unlike many Japanese designers who are admirers of high-end Italian or French brands, Miki is going her own way.
    Her latest show at Japan Fashion Week Tokyo Collection Thursday (March 15) showcased her hybrid fashion featuring kimono-influenced couture and Japan's latest high-tech gadgets, such as portable video screens attached to handbags or dresses beaming psychedelic images.
    Having worked as a computer graphics creator and a kimono designer, the U.S.-educated designer Miki says she has simply put together what Japan can offer.
    "I think high-tech is something unique to Japan and when I am carrying a gadget like overseas, people love it because I'm Japanese and they think the high-tech stuff that I carry matches me. That's how I got my inspiration," designer Emiko Miki told Reuters.
    Miki added that she defied the suggestions of her colleagues to use Western models. At the show, all her models were Japanese "to stick to the Japaneseness," she said.
    Japan Fashion Week started two years ago as a joint project between the Japanese government and fashion industry to promote made-in-Japan fashion overseas.
    Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has put up funds for the shows this time around, so designers need only cover half the cost of their marquee slots.
    Officials say they hope they will gradually be able to pull out of the role of backer to give way to private sponsors, along the lines of the London and New York fashion weeks. ENDS
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