Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo kicks off the spring/summer 2024 collection season

By choosing to run from 28 August to 2 September 2023, Fashion Week Tokyo is confirming its desire to position itself ahead of international sales campaigns. This choice is reflected in the theme of the spring/summer 2024 season: “Open, Fashion Week”.

Fashion Week Tokyo, sponsored by Rakuten Group, Inc, Japan’s largest online retailer, is hosting 50 brands: 35 are organising physical presentations, 15 virtual events (13 are taking part for the first time, seven are foreign). There will also be seven exhibitions, as well as the presentation of the ‘by R’ programme, initiated by the sponsor to support young Japanese brands.

The theme of the spring/summer 2024 season is “Open, Fashion Week”. The idea? To show that in a society where different values, viewpoints and lifestyles coexist, a new, brighter and freer era will emerge from open minds and the mutual acceptance of individual values. ‘Open’ wants to build a path of coexistence for generations to come.

The fusion of the digital and the physical strengthens the power of transmission on a global scale

The visual designed to express this sentiment was created using artificial intelligence (AI) and computer-generated images. It is a Full 3DCG (computer graphics expression method, drawn in three dimensions). It aims to convey the fact that the model has left the runway, a restricted space, to enter an open world, where the power of fashion is liberated and without limits, therefore symbolising a society that is diversifying.

This move away from the usual path is also reflected in the repeated choice to position the show ahead of the big Fashion Weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Xavier Latapie, co-creator of the Moddity diary for professionals, told FashionUnited: “Before the Covid crisis, Tokyo Spring Summer Fashion Week was held in October, after Paris. By changing the date, Japanese fashion is probably signalling its desire not to arrive too late in the international sales campaign calendar”.

This policy is clearly shared by Seoul Fashion Week, which has also changed its dates, and will now take place from 5 to 9 September 2023. Note that the autumn/winter presentations remain in March.

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.FR. Translation and edit by: Rachel Douglass.