The Bunka Festival 2019
This month, Bunka Fashion College opened its doors for another year of fashion, pop-up shops, and performances with its renowned fashion festival. After attending Bunka’s festival last year, we had high hopes for this year.
Each collection was created by a group of students and sponsored by various companies. The students are involved in every aspect of the show from the collection itself, to model castings, fittings, music, and rehearsals. The entire production is put together by the students—even the stage itself! The process is great practice for entry into the professional fashion world. The director of the show said this year’s theme of “ten” expressed a spirit of cooperation and a sense of unity1. Fashion really is about collaboration at every level!
Highlights from the show included stylish outdoor gear in strong colour-blocked blues, reds, and whites, perfect for hiking up Mount Fuji! Plus, an updated take on traditional Ukrainian clothing in a multitude of layers and frills of deep reds and greens—a perfect way to showcase European aesthetic and Japanese design.
Aside from the fashion show, there were pop-up shops run by students selling pieces they had designed and collaborated on. Not every student at Bunka studies fashion design—some dream of running their own clothing store. So, you’ll also see students who have set up their own pop-ups and are acting as buyers for select shops. Their pop-ups consisted of collections of clothing and accessories, handpicked to represent a particular look. And of course, each booth was transformed to suit their aesthetic! The CHICKs! booth, complete with nineties and noughties style apparel, was decorated with pink butterflies a signature motif of that era. The cyber-esque look of the booth for Brain Drain totally matched their technology inspired collection.
We only attended one day of the three-day festival. There was so much incredible work presented and we are excited to see what the next generation of creatives emerging from Tokyo will produce!
Written by Choom.
Images courtesy of Choom.