Ahead of Fashion Week in Tokyo next month, we’re turning our eye to a pair of rising Japanese talents that at first glance, could scarcely be more different; one rooted in a lean utilitarianism, the other one taking aesthetic cues from traditional Japanese craftsmanship. The names, Hyke and Mame, may not be familiar stateside, but with a little help from Stella Ishii, we’d venture that they soon will be. After all, Ishii, the founder of The News showroom (and 6397, to boot) worked under Rei Kawakubo and helped to foster support stateside for the likes of Margiela and Westwood during her tenure at pre–Renzo Rosso Staff International. When she strikes upon a young talent, you can bet a score or two of industry insiders will sit up and take notice. “I visit Japan at least twice a year and always check out the work of the new generation of Japanese designers,” Ishii tells Vogue.com of how the duo initially caught her attention. We’d humbly wager that big things are in the works for both Hyke and Mame; consider this your cheat sheet.
The Label: Hyke
Designers: Husband-and-wife team Hideaki Yoshihara and Yukiko Ode
Year Founded: 2013
Need to Know: From the designers behind hyper-culty Japanese brand Green (shuttered when the couple took time off to have a family) comes a beautifully spare range informed by a love of traditional American workwear. Hyke–immaculately produced in Japan except for a handful of no less immaculate knits–offers up elegant, urbane reworkings of iconic pieces: sailor pants, bombers, oxford shirts, and what is perhaps the perfect trench. Yoshihara and Ode are also professed denimheads, so you’ll find lush raw indigo shirts that put your old chambray to shame. Indeed, blue, white, and black comprise almost the entirety of Hyke’s Spring offering; there’s a powerful grace to the asymmetry and graphic lines of these clothes. We’re especially smitten with the brand’s lineup of crisp white button-downs, whose mock necks and bandana-like collars riff on old-school men’s shirting. If musing on “the modern classics” at this point feels a touch hackneyed, then Hyke offers the real deal, heritage styles through a 21st-century lens.
The Label: Mame
Designer: Maiko Kurogouchi
Year Founded: 2010
Need to Know: Like Hyke, Mame is a label hard at work reinterpreting time-honored traditions in novel ways–albeit to quite a different effect. Exquisitely-crafted pieces embrace a modern, multifaceted take on femininity and what it is to be a woman. Kurogouchi, who cut her teeth at Issey Miyake, speaks about traveling to the remote Japanese countryside for inspiration, but also to work with artisans, like kimono and denim factories where age-old methods are still in play. Her rich Spring lineup also took cues from a trip to New Mexico, and Georgia O’Keeffe’s storied Ghost Ranch: The rounded neckline on a gown was inspired by rock formations, while dusty green dresses nodded to the state’s proliferation of scrubby sage. All of Mame’s pieces come up strong on polish, but one of the season’s most stellar looks was Kurogouchi’s take on denim: a patchworked jean shirt, the sleeves of which were distressed to an almost chenille-like quality by one 80-year-old man and one machine. Still, ladylike styles like cream-colored separates in a fils coupe jacquard and a kimono-tinged gown in an exquisite botanical lace are sure to win a lot of hearts, too.
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