The Tokyo Design Exchange

Hey everyone,

Am just back from Tokyo-the land of geishas, sushis and cutting edge Japanese designers. As mentioned earlier, I am selected to be in PARCO's young fashion designer zone next year. So am sent on a 6 day design exchange trip to learn the best design practices from the likes of Comme des Garcon, Issey Miyaki and Limi Feu and the branding masters. This trip is organised by Parco, Spring Singapore and Textile and Fashion Federation.

My trip was packed back to back with workshops, trade fair visits and site visits to important flagship stores. It was an eye-opener to learn from the maestros, witness their luxurious tailoring, their creative visual merchandising and their amazing customer service experience! Every designer has created a very strong universe of their own. So am bursting with inspiration. But meanwhile enjoy the pictures below.

At Narita airport.

With one of our mentors David Wang, the designer of IS, and the other young designers outside of PARCO Japan.

Limi Yamamoto-the daughter of Yohji Yamamoto who is also a famous designer in her own right. She is sharing with us her experiences of showcasing at the Paris Fashion Week.


Editor of fashion web magazine. As you can see she is sharing some Japanese street fashion trends. Everyone dresses to make a statement on Tokyo's streets!

Snapping away during breaktime. We had 6 workshops packed in a day!

Editor of one of the largest Japanese fashion magazine publisher. They publish female titles that cater from teenagers to mature ladies and she is giving a talk on the Japanese fashion market.

Bunka Fashion College-The prestigious place which has nurtured Kenzo Takada, Yohji Yamamoto. We had a design exchange with the students and teachers there.

Sketches of the Bunka Fashion College students on display

Textiles division with a well stocked library of every textile imaginable.

Taito Designer Village-an incubator programme where promising designers are given business support and workshop space.

Creative accesories display at one of the designer's workshop in Taito Design Village

Fabric library at Taito Design Village.

Taken with magazine editor Takano-san

Welcoming speech by Managing Director of Parco Japan

Talk by visual merchandising expert Mr Noguchi on promoting products in your shop.

The venue of ROOMS- a trade fair for budding designers to showcase and sell their works. This place is also called Yoyogi National Stadium