Fabulously out of step with the fashion world
Ikuko Kitagawa
The Daily Yomiuri
Publication Date : 31-07-2008




Seventeen years after Tae Ashida's line first appeared at her father's Paris boutique, the Japanese women's wear designer finally presented a large-scale runway show in Paris.
In mid-June, Ashida--daughter of pret-a-porter pioneer Jun Ashida--held her first fashion show in the city. It wasn't a runway spectacular show, but a private show to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Ashida boutique in Paris.
There's good reason why Tae Ashida held off on presenting a show for so long, as well as why she timed it as she did--avoiding Paris Fashion Week.
"Something is always happening in Paris. We checked the calender and found mid-June was the only time nothing was going on," Ashida says with a laugh. The show was held just between the Cannes Film Festival and the presentations of the haute couture collections.
The idea was to give the audience enough time and ease to enjoy her show, in contrast to the busy fashion week in which media and buyers dash from show to show.
Although she doesn't deny the possibility of joining the Paris show someday, participating in Paris Fashion Week is not her priority.
In 1977 and '78, her father gave four Paris Fashion Week shows. At that time, he became disillusioned by the realisation that the European fashion establishment expected him to pursue Japonisme, which is far cry from his signature style of "luxurious pret-a-porter". He withdrew from the Paris week and instead opened his shop in the high-fashion Faubourg St Honore area in Paris, targeting ordinary Parisians rather than show audiences.
While boutiques around their shop have come and gone with the successive waves of fashion, the father-and-daughter's lines have survived for two decades.
Tae Ashida says her recent show is meant to express her appreciation to Parisians who have supported her and her father's brands.
But why did it take so long for her to present a show in Paris?
"I was determined to present exactly the same show that I had in Tokyo when I showed in Paris," Ashida says.
She says this firm determination came from her father's experience of being relegated to a Japonisme pigeonhole. She didn't think it's right to tailor her lines to fit European preconceptions. Rather, she thinks she should show an original Tae Ashida line that is accepted in her own home country.
"In order to realise this, I needed a trusted staff and assurances that I can present my Tokyo show in Paris with the same spirit," she says.
She says support from her French staff and advisers, with whom she had built up trust over two decades, also helped her to open the show with confidence.
For her recent 2008-09 autumn/winter show--exactly the same as the one she held in Tokyo in March--she invited 400 guests to Musee Galliera in Paris, following the event with a cocktail party at which her 18 archived collections were displayed.
She says she