Jenny Fax is the most enigma of a brand you will find in the entire world. On the one hand, you have something that is truly incredible and creating an entirely new movement of fashion starting from Japan. Finally! Something imaginative, and exciting to observe. On the other hand, that fashion is rooted in “otaku” culture so…
… can’t have your cake and eat it too, fashion bitches.
Jenny has come a long way from establishing her own brand outside of her husband Mikio Sakabe, even though they share studios and, as both self-professed otaku, probably a brain.
Jenny’s designs aren’t “anti-fashion” for showman’s sake. It’s all an amalgam of who she is as a person; nostalgia for her past, a self-conscious woman in a “looks are everything” society, her culture as Taiwanese via Europe (fashion school) via Tokyo (now), and her interest in fashion but not the fashion establishment.
Her models were dirty, with greasy hair and brown makeup streaks. They weren’t interested in growing up either, as seen in the Cabbage Patch Doll motifs (an extension from last season) and other girlie patterns like the embroidered heart crying rivers of tears.
There were some “moments” on this runway, like the gun-shots from the MIA “Paper Planes” soundtrack, the Cabbage Patch Doll in blackface, and the giant plastic work suits from an 80s music video.
Also, the finale happened in the middle of the show, then it kept going. I couldn’t tell if it was a different collection or different models or why that was happening. “Are we supposed to know what’s going on?” I asked my WWD seat mate as she shook her head.
The show closed with a model in a hat growing Chinese cabbage.
I wish I could have spoken to the designer afterward because it seems she is BURSTING with things to say. The schedule was too tight though, so it will have to wait until later.
4 replies on “Cabbage Patch Dolls, Chinese Idols of the 80s, Karaoke, and a Totally Straight Face. Subversive “Otaku” Jenny Fax SS 2014 Tokyo”
ミーシャさん初めましてこんにちは。
私はジェニーファックスのフィッターを務めたものです。
あれは実はキャベツではなく白菜なのです。
あまり大差はないかもしれませんが、お伝えさせていただきました。
アドバイスありがとうございます!修正しました
面白いことに、白菜を英語でいうと「チャイニーズキャベツ」です^^
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One of my favorite collections!