If there’s one thing TOGA can do, it’s lots of things at once.
Eclectic tailoring experiments, alluring forms, and conceptual design have become house codes for the brand, as it converses with its Japanese roots within a Western fashion scene. TOGA’s binary stems from this sense of place and mood rather than gender – opting for fluidity here instead – as designer Yasuko Furuta re-situates Japanese craftsmanship within the context of British street and eveningwear.
The SS25 collection found a home in this hybridity. The Labor, Order, Humour title aptly summarises the polarising vibes of the clothes but also draws attention to the largely unseen process of creating and then displaying a fashion collection.
After a four-year hiatus and a two-season stint at Paris Fashion Week, TOGA was warmly welcomed back to London’s agile and animated fashion scene, where the runway was met with a cinematic collection.
Naming the film Beau Travail by Claire Denis, the performance piece Paradox of Praxis: Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing by Franci Alÿs, and the novel A Hora da Estrela by Clarice Lispector as sources of inspiration, Yasuko Furuta visually narrated a comedic tale of work and life for SS25.
And so, just as London Fashion Week is starting to wrap up, we were left with lots to think about – and look forward to.
The East Wing of the grand, Renaissance-designed Somerset House – a fashion week favourite – accommodated TOGA’s SS25 show. Inside, paired-back wooden flooring met panels of reflective gold plating, splitting the runway into parallel ideas like the collection itself.
The salon setting permitted clothes to be seen and also see themselves in a new gold-tinged light, as an evanescent vie en or glared onto both the utility jumpsuits, indigo denim sets, and the voluminous metallic evening wear. Gold metallic toes on the slingback shoes matching the runway added cohesion and allowed an extra humorous glisten to reverberate through the collection.
The garments playfully caricatured British sensibilities including plaid shirting repurposed as neckerchiefs, trench coats with gaping lapels, and enlarged tartan-like print in the suiting – each finding an exaggerated, poetic flair of English Romantic exuberance.
Pleated, wide and draping sleeves also nodded to the Japanese style of ‘swinging sleeves’.The looks oscillated between workwear staples and dainty dresses, some with regency-style pillowing backs. Hardy materials like denim and leather flirted with sensual spring sheers, as the clothes flitted between the raw and the romantic, all the while maintaining a clear focus on high-quality fabrics. Thick braided leather rope-like belting cinched waistlines and united many of the looks.
Plenty of plumage peacocked down the runway with unusual placements including around the knees, low on the hips, and across the chest breaking up the eye-line and also drawing attention to unique choices of cuts in the trousers and bodices. The level of detail in each look through form, mixed materials, and colour also made it difficult to forget the labour-intensive work behind each piece.
From the utilitarian to the frivolous, TOGA’s SS25 collection found merit in a harmonious hybrid of place, labour, and the cheek of creativity.
by Ella Mansell