Anyone with an elementary knowledge of clothes knows that the Japanese have a serious penchant for bizarre, innovative, and shocking fashion. That’s why being “big in Japan” isn’t just some hoary cliché for all those Central Saint Martins graduates basing collections on, say, anal rape in the steampunk era—it’s a vital economic lifeline: the citizens of Tokyo and Osaka genuinely buy the nuttiest gear and many young British designers regularly sell the bulk of their collections to Japan.

Such a fertile and progressive domestic market means that Japan is inevitably the first place to look when seeking designers who will totally blow your mind. Trouble is, Tokyo is a long way from the rest of the world’s fashion capitals and the language barrier still means Japan’s designers, journalists, and fashion industry are as reluctant to communicate in English as New York and London are to get to grips with Japanese.

Beyond the coterie of designers who show in Paris every season, foremost among them Comme des Garçons, Issey Miyake, and Yohji Yamamoto, many amazing Japanese designers barely register abroad, bar those making the odd appearance on a forum having once collaborated on a sharkskin tea cosy with Eastpak. In order to right this informational injustice, Junsuke Yamasaki, editor of Vogue Hommes Japan and founder and editor of foremost new-fashion talent zine Untitled, speaks to three Tokyo designers whose work, we feel, should be better appreciated overseas.

MIKIO SAKABE

Mikio Sakabe’s AW11-12 collection.

The Tokyo district of Akihabara is well known to be geek central and the spiritual home of cosplay. Here the scene is divided between the star karaoke singers and performers who make up the Akihabara idols and the otaku, the geeky followers of the idols and mega-fans of all things anime. It’s no coincidence that designer Mikio Sakabe’s latest show took place at Akihabara Fashion Week.

During Mikio’s show the idols replaced the usual fashion models and the otaku sat in the front row seats normally reserved for the glitterati. Several other designers also showed, each of whom are loosely aligned with what the Japanese call “the 2D aesthetic”—that’s style based on all things comic book, manga, and gaming.

VICE: What made you want to work with the Akihabara?
Mikio Sakabe: I wanted to do something that reflects something current. Obviously, most new movements come from subculture, not from high fashion, and Akihabara has been important in Japan for a long time now.

Most people in Japan see Akihabara culture as something that’s totally unfashionable in general—why base a collection on that scene?
The older generations do think that Akihabara is just about the otaku. However, go into the fashion schools and people don’t draw any boundaries between high fashion, street fashion, the gyaru Mecca that is Tokyo’s 109 department store, manga, anime, or cosplay. Everything is allowed.

What is it about the otaku that fuels your obsession with them?
The dynamic at the Akihabara idol concerts between the otaku and their idols is very pure. During the concerts the otaku and their idols become as one soul—they get closer than any audience and band I’ve ever seen at any punk rock concert. And on a fashion level, even though they have such a strong look, the otaku aren’t really thinking about fashion or trends. It’s a special world.

So you’re trying to tap into whatever it is that motivates people to get involved in cosplay?
Yeah, cosplay is such an interesting thing. Traditionally western fashion has always been concerned with making yourself look better, whatever that means, but on the other hand cosplay is for people who want to transform themselves.

Would you say you are making fashion or costume?
I’m trying to make fashion that’s freer, more enjoyable, and more open, but we are making real fashion. We sell a lot of t-shirts and sweaters.

YUIMA NAKAZATO

The third way: a look from Yuima Nakazato’s spring/summer 2012 collection. Photo by Yuima Nakazato.

After Yuima Nakazato graduated from the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts he started a womenswear label, but he soon realized his real fascination lay in menswear and androgyny. Yuima now says his collections are for a missing third gender, which isn’t that unusual in the world of fashion. But what is unusual is Yumia’s penchant for using highly non-fashion materials like wood, foil, and obscure industrial components, such as the film used in the manufacturing of TV screens. Even better, the wildly sculpted and metallic clothes suggest some mad collision between a samurai warrior and 70s disco fruit Sylvester. Yuima also recently collaborated with self-styled “art shaman” Matthew Stone on The Body Beyond, a book based on the inspiration behind Yuima’s latest collection.

VICE: Why fashion design?
Yuima Nakazato: Even as a very little kid I was always making things and by the time I was in high school I was customizing second-hand womenswear to wear myself and even organizing fashion shows at school. An aspiring architect friend did the lighting and special effects, a wannabe hair stylist did the hair and make-up, a friend in art class did the body painting, and I played the music.

Another look from his SS12 collection.

Where do you think your obsession with using wood and metal comes from?
My parents were artists and my father always had a lot of very dangerous heavy machinery around in order to cut the metal he built his sculptures with. Unsurprisingly, you can definitely see the hours I put in shaving, cutting, and polishing metal in the work I do now. I just try to never miss an opportunity to be as imaginative as possible. I remember seeing the samurai armor at the National Museum in Tokyo and being fascinated by the way harder materials were combined with softer materials to make something super-tough but also flexible. That still inspires a lot of the functionality in my own clothing designs.

You once said you spent your college years learning to peel away your design fears—what fears?
I was constantly designing these huge silhouettes because I was unaware that I had a fear of the human body. I also used to fear color, which resulted in a lot of very monotone looks.

You design menswear, but why are you also trying to design something representative of a new third gender?
Even as a kid I didn’t want to be the typical macho guy that most men have an image of in their head. I just design from the point of view of never wanting to gender-limit myself. If you look back at mystic Japanese culture there are lots of examples of transcending gender in a very modern way. I think ideally you should be completely free to choose and build your gender however you see fit.

WRITTENAFTERWARDS

A powerful look from Writtenafterwards’ “The Fashion Show of the Gods” collection. Photo by Daniel Sannwald.

Yoshikazu Yamagata is the mastermind behind Writtenafterwards, a truly insane Tokyo label that designs collections based on themes such as crime and punishment or god. Because he’s the ultimate creative, Yoshikazu’s fashion output is so out-there he rarely makes much money from it. Instead he subsidises himself by art directing for various ad agencies and freelance illustrating. He also runs his own fashion school, Coconogacco.

VICE: Did you always want to be a fashion designer?
Yoshikazu Yamagata: Definitely, and not just because it’s a fun thing to do, but because my fashion skills are the only thing people have ever praised me for. Really, there was no other choice.

How do you alight on rubbish, god, and freemasonry as collection themes? 
You know, I don’t really think of that stuff as crazy, I think my design sensibility deals with stuff that’s quite normal. Maybe it’s normal, but an exaggerated normal, or normal’s extremes. If I’m thinking about fashion, I just naturally think about garbage or god or whatever. Or my ideas come from personal experience—I’ll often work my memories and dreams into my creations. For example, I wrote a story called “I Am 0 Points” for my fourth collection. I used to constantly score a 0 for most exams when I was a student in Japan, so I based a collection on a character drawn from that time.

Your fashion shows seem to be about so much more than the commercial imperative to make the clothes look good. What are you trying to do?
People are always telling me fashion is business, but every single thing is a business in this world—commerce is a part of every field, not just fashion. Fashion is a very natural part of humanity, but people make too much of the connection to business and money, which is something I’m not sure about. My aim is always to elevate the level of creativity in fashion, unfortunately that takes a lot of effort and a strong spirit.

Is money wrecking fashion?
I love money and actually want more of it. We can’t live without it. My new collection is called “0 Written” and is focused on fashion and money. I wanted to honor the history of fashion and money. In the past, there was always a strong link between cloth and money.

What did you learn from your time assisting John Galliano?
Fashion is life and death, it has infinite appeal and power, but it is dangerous. Being creative can make people depressed and crazy. Geniuses like John Galliano and Lee McQueen broke apart which is sad. I was always moved by what they did, but with that very rare level of 100 percent self-sacrifice, you could always see the possibility of mental destruction at the same time. Personally, I’ve never had the courage to reach that level.

What do you teach at your fashion school, Coconogacco?
Previously I’d been asked to teach at many schools, but in Japan, fashion education is really conservative and based on making clothes, so I decided to create a place where people can connect to fashion in various ways. I teach students to be themselves and in their own way make something relevant to now. Because creating fashion means creating a new human viewpoint, we educate them in fashion, but not focused solely on making clothes.

Wouldn’t it be nice to just make some simple, wearable clothes?
I really want to in time, but there’s so much more I want to say right now.