Two decades later, those avant garde Japanese designers are the Establishment. On the streets of Tokyo, slim-hipped sylphs favour stiletto-heeled Prada sandals, demure Agnes B pencil skirts, a Hermes jacket and a Louis Vuitton handbag.

But tucked away in Tokyo's sidestreet stalls and increasingly on the catwalks are creations from a new generation of designers eager to challenge the conventions of Chanel and usher in a new style revolution.

Rei Kawakubo - the force behind Comme des Garcons - Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake hit the headlines in the early 1980s with clothes that challenged tradition.

Their mono-chrome, monastic designs were labelled "Hiroshima chic," and guaranteed the trio a place in design history.

Their stunning success has yet to be repeated and the country that once looked set to dictate the future of fashion retreated into the shadow of traditional rivals Paris, Milan and London.

The problem is hardly lack of interest among consumers, in a country that is arguably the most fashion-obsessed in the world.

"Fashion truly exists here, in a way I have not seen in other places," said Gene Krell, US-born fashion director in Asia for magazine publisher Conde Nast. "Women here use their bodies like an artist uses canvas."

But many Japanese women make no secret of their preference for foreign designers, descending in hordes on designer boutiques throughout Europe, as well the scores of plate-glass temples to European design in Japan.

"So many Japanese brands just seem to imitate Chanel or Gucci. They just look like copies," said Kikumi Kiritani, a 37-year-old former boutique worker and fan of European brands such as Chanel, Hermes and Joseph.

Locals left behind

Magazines tend to give precedence to foreign design.

Anyone hoping to learn about the local fashion scene by flicking through a copy of the Japanese edition of Vogue would be disappointed. Unlike its sister magazines from Seoul to London, it largely steers clear of local designers and models and surveys show that is the way its Japanese readers prefer it.

Nevertheless, Tokyo is bursting with design talent that is simply not properly exploited, said Shoko Hisada, head of Tokyo's Council of Fashion Designers (CFD).

"Tokyo has so many creative designers, but it is very difficult for those designers to find support," Hisada said.

Backing from conglomerates such as LVMH has enabled European design houses to sew up the market, Hisada said.

The big fashion houses snap up the hottest young designers to update their image and can afford to use actresses and models with global appeal in their advertising campaigns.

Japanese designers, on the other hand, have made a point of going it alone, preferring freedom to expansion, Hisada said. "They are less commercially successful because they are more creative, I think," she said.

"The European way is not entirely a good thing," Hisada said, pointing out the problems individual designers may encounter in asserting their creative authority within a large corporation.

Young Japanese designers perhaps lack the hunger for success that marked the older generation who grew up in poverty after World War II, Hisada said.

"They rushed off to study and work in Paris, because fashion only had a very short history in Japan at that time," she said.

Now that Japan is relatively wealthy and influences from all over the world are at hand in Tokyo, fewer designers feel the need to move abroad, she said.

(Shanghai Star August 29, 2002)