Japan Fashion Industry
 

Hey

I am a fashion designer in Sydney and I am considering relocating to Japan. I am interested to find out if anyone here works in or has had any experience with the Japanese fashion industry and if it is common for foreigners to work in this type of industry.

Besides fashion I have a graphic design background but not a very extensive one. I have been in fashion design for about 4 years. Mostly menswear but I am also interested in womens. I would be interested in anything creative based I suppose. I don't think i would be accepted in non creative roles not only due to my lack of experience in that type of thing but i dont have a very corporate appearance (tattoos etc).

Any advice or shared experiences would be great, or if there is anything online catered to this type of thing that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

You're a little late, but you could contact the people who run Japan Fashion Week.

Do you belong to any associations ?

Here's the list for Japan.

Here's the list for Oz.

Those are the people to ask.

In the fashion industry it is common practice for people of different countries to work together. It's not about having skills that natives don't have as such - it's more about exploring different aesthetics and the collaboration of different creatives.

I'm not looking to become 'successful' in Japan, I'm looking to work with designers i look up to and respect and to have a wider scope to design in since Australian fashion is boring and quite limiting.

Thats actually a good idea. I have worked with sydney fashion in some capacity for about 4 years. Sydney fashion week isn't very exciting however.

I assume you have no experience with those sites? They are utter crap.

I think he means that Australian fashion isn't big like NY, London, Paris and Milan etc. Talent from all over the world heads to these places, and recently as Asia is growing, Tokyo has gotten big!

Saying that you're only limited by your own lack of creativity is all nice and poetic, but the world doesn't work like that... You could be the most gifted person in the world in a certain field, and you may never get as far as someone that is less talented with more opportunities! There are too many people in the world now, originality is a rarity and usually means are more important than talent!

Your main issue in working in the Japan fashion industry will be language- unless you can speak very good Japanese, you are not going to be able to communicate with many people in the industry as not many people here speak English at a communicative level. Because of this it is going to be very hard to find a company to hire you. If you speak/write Japanese well you have a better shot, but without any contacts in the industry it is still going to be hard to land a job, especially in this economy.

In short, I mean i don't like any existing* brands in Australia and I am not in a position to start my own label. I would like some more experience first, preferably from a range of countries/labels/people etc. And it just so happens that i get a lot of creative inspiration from Japan, not just from the fashion available there but the culture, people and music.


*there actually some smaller independant brands that i admire but wouldn't work for.

very impressive. i've made the assumption from you pic that you are a photographer, is that correct or are you a designer?

yeah language is definately my priority at the moment. I am in the process of enrolling into some classes. I have holidayed in japan a few times so i am aware of language barrier. I can only assume when liaising with makers and suppliers etc that barrier can be even more overwhelming.

at this stage i am merely making enquires. growing tired of my current company and looking at future opportunities.

I don't agree with that at all! A LOT of people from all over the world move to those places to LIVE! Some of the biggest names in fashion live in those places, so unless you're telling me they were all born there, then they moved there! And to top it off, these places don't get their names from one week events once a year!

Why are you stating the obvious in that second paragraph? Of course you need to have a certain amount of talent to stay alive in any industry. The "not what you know, it's who you know" thing talks about the initial opening the door!