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What will Japan's fashion industry be buzzing about in 2023? - The

By A Mystery Man Writer

A new year has begun, and with it a new chapter in the history of Japan’s fashion industry. To think about where we are going, it helps to remember where we have been. So here is a look back at major developments in 2022 that will likely continue to shape the fashion landscape in 2023. Newsmakers include big-name designers, fast fashion companies and Japanese trading firm Itochu. The torch is passed The deaths in 2022 of Hanae Mori and Issey Miyake, two of the most iconic Japanese designers to have won international fame, were big losses for the fashion industry in Japan. But last year also saw Nigo, who got his start as a popular designer on Tokyo’s “Ura-Harajuku” (backstreet Harajuku) scene, present his first collection as the artistic director of Kenzo, a brand under LVMH, in Paris in January. I really felt the changes of the times as I saw Nigo become the first Japanese designer to win the artistic director post for a LVMH-managed brand as legends like Mori and Miyake passed into history. Looking abroad, Gucci announced in November that Alessandro Michele, who expanded Gucci to become a $10 billion brand, was stepping down as its creative director, a position he held since 2015. In the same month, Tom Ford, who established the position of artistic director of a luxury brand with Gucci in the 1990s, said he would sell his own brand, Tom Ford, to the licensee of its cosmetic brand, Estee Lauder. The deal was valued at $2.8 billion.