A CHANEL of the East?
FETICO Spring/Summer 2025: A Collection Review from Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo by Ali Khan.
At Fetico, Designer Emi Funayama broadens the language of design that has come to define Japanese Fashion.
No matter how attuned we are to Japanese culture, when it comes to fashion it is hard not to recall Comme Des Garçon, Yohji Yamamoto, or Issey Miyake first from the top of our head. Such has been their impact. And although over the years, Japanese fashion has garnered a much larger following around the world, the Avant-Garde (Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto) and Streetwear (Jun Takahashi, Nigo) are still the words of choice that are commonly used to describe Japanese fashion in a global context.
Enter Fetico—a label that wants to bring the Western sensibilities of sensuality, sexuality, and femininity to Japanese women albeit with a strong dose of Japanese craftsmanship and functionality that is a quintessential part of the Japanese design language. Emi Funayama’s rise has been astonishing: being the winner of both, the influential Tokyo Fashion Award, and the JWF Next Brand Award as recently as 2023, to find her brand on the shelves of Japan’s hippest independent boutiques while simultaneously being a favorite of the big Departmental Stores catering to the ‘ladies who lunch’. But to call this another fashion success story would be a disservice.
Those of us who work in fashion know how hard it is to break out of the carefully siloed world wholesale and retail insist on putting designers in. And not without reason as mixing them up only confuses the customer, not to mention fatally damages the carefully curated ‘cool factor’ of most fashion brands. Yet Emi’s creations seem equally at ease in both settings (a rare phenomenon) - the cool factor undiminished and hence transcending her style into the esteemed company of fellow Japanese designers like Sacai’s Chitose Abe.
However, look deeper into the Japanese industry and you will realize that this success is not that surprising. Japanese fashion has long avoided the sexuality-driven Western fashion language. Even in their most experimental state, skin-showing and figure-hugging designs are of little interest, speaking to the surprisingly modest, structured, and rules-based dress codes and traditional cultural values. In Fetico, Emi Funayama has found that sweet spot – sexual and liberating but somehow with the modesty of Japanese culture, making it a darling amongst women who thronged to attend this runway presentation.Â
For this season, Emi chose a nondescript studio under the looming shadow of Tokyo Tower (perhaps a subtle homage to Chitose Abe and Sacai’s outstanding S/S ’22 show?) making even the journey to the show filled with so much more excitement and anticipation of what’s to come. Inside, the walls were covered in floor-to-ceiling white fabric which was to become the live video projections of the show as it would happen.
As the models trickled through the runway one by one, and their video projection worked in sync with them in the background, one couldn’t help but draw comparisons to Chanel, the venerable French Luxury house, and their panache to put up amazing fashion show experiences. While the comparison of the show production may be unfair (considering the drastic difference in the budgets of the two brands), there is no doubting the ambition of Emi Funayama and where she would like to see Fetico one day, in the not-so-distant future.Â
The collection itself was titled ‘Secrets’ and in the designer’s world an exploration of the hidden and masked side of women that is rare to see in Japanese society. In the show notes, Emi references Alaia and Mugler as perennial influences on her work and it is not hard to see that in the designs – delicate knitwear with pointelle, lace, and eyelet details, jumpsuits with eighties influences all loudly paying homage to the masters. But to simply call them as derivatives of Alaia does not do justice either.Â
There is clearly more here – the same practicality and functionality that exudes Japanese design and architecture also forms the soul of the Fetico collection. Alaia was notorious for being uncompromising in his vision to bother catering to the comfort of the wearer. In Fetico, Emi Funayama has created a language that gives the once exclusively Western aesthetic a much more global flavor and a vision that is truly born from the lived experiences of the female designer. And though the designs reference the European greats, it is clear the woman she is after is Coco Chanel’s fiercely independent and unbound of any traditional ‘restraints’ archetype.Â
Like her previous collections, which have referenced Lisa Minelli, and Helena Bonham Carter, this season it was Veronica Webb and the eighties - strong, independent, and modern femininity of a very Western lens. Within the collection there was enough to please everyone from the media to the buyers, but most of all the clientele who I assume could easily envision themselves wearing most of those garments anywhere from a Sunday lunch, to an evening party or while on their vacations on the Riviera. In fact, if there could be one criticism, it would be that everything was too polished and ready to sell.Â
Absurd as that might sound, one must remember that at the heart of truly exceptional designer wear there always exists a tension between the creator and the viewer that gives originality and uniqueness to the work and elevates it above the ranks of the many high-quality masstige brands that exist today. It would be great to see Emi dig deeper into her personal psyche and dare to show us the vulnerability that no doubt exists in her as she feels more confident and in control of her brand’s future.Â
As the show closed with the dramatic finale of a black ball gown with a sheer torso bustier and off-shoulders ruffles, and the Japanese celebrities occupying the front row applauded with full approval, you can be sure that somewhere up in the sky Coco is also applauding with the same approval of the woman Emi has embraced with her brand.
Note: Ali Khan is a Doha-based artist and fashion consultant specializing in luxury design. He moonlights as a fashion writer highlighting critical viewpoints that are under-represented in the mainstream fashion media. Aligned with our mission to amplify deserving voices in the fashion industry, we’re excited to share Ali’s fresh and insightful perspective with our community.
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