Japan's fashion matriarch inspires daughters to world stage

Shingo Ito

FASHION: In this desolate town in western Japan, everything-for-a-coin discount stores and a McDonald's now dot the streets that bustled with life in the 1960s and 1970s.

But amid the gloom, one item has yet to rust: the sewing machine - and the spirit - of 93-year-old Ayako Koshino.

The descendant of a kimono merchant has watched Japan switch from traditional clothing to utilitarian attire during the turmoil of World War II and to the sophisticated designs that now make the country a fashion hub.

She continues to quietly produce her couture in this town outside Osaka as she has for decades, but her most famous products are far away: her three daughters, raised without a father, who have all become world-renowned designers.

"I'm telling myself that Hiroko, Junko and Michiko are not supposed to be my daughters but my rivals," Koshino says with a grin.

"We are just like four sisters always competing, fighting and encouraging one another," she says in her modern studio renovated last year to blend a Western structure with a modern Japanese wooden interior.

Wearing a brown leather suit and a sequin-studded blouse, both of which she designed herself, Koshino is in no mood to be overshadowed by her daughters.

"I'm trying to make something better than my daughters' work," said the sprightly Koshino, who looks far younger than her age.

"I'm always telling them, 'Come on, sis. You'll never beat me."

Modern fashion is 'at a standstill'

Even as her daughters have launched international labels, Ayako Koshino insists her aspirations go no further than dressing the women of her mid-sized hometown.

And even though she stays creative, she is perplexed by the trends that have taken over modern fashion. Unlike her British-based youngest daughter, whose flowing and sometimes revealing outfits sold under the label Michiko London have proven a favorite in the club-music scene, the kimono merchant's daughter is repelled by scant attire.

"Fashion should not be fluid but somehow eternal. Fashion is something which springs from inside your heart naturally. So it is supposed to be stable and solid, not flip-flop. We should not be cornered by others' fashion," she says firmly.

"And clothes are something to cover your body, but the trend is just less fabric," she continues.

"Models are nearly naked on the runway at any fashon show these days," she says. "Who wants to wear such clothes? At least I don't. You have to design clothes considering who wears them. The mode appears to be at a standstill."

Koshino still makes clothes aiming at local customers in this former castle town turned industrial hub. The designer - whose name Ayako means child of weaving - was born to a family that traded in kimonos, the tightly wrapped robes that were once Japan's main attire but in the 21st century have become only ceremonial wear.

But she wanted to try something else.

"I wanted to release Japanese women from traditional, tight kimonos by producing western style clothes," Koshino says.

But since there were few dressmakers for women in Japan, she instead had her start, at age 16, as a men's underwear maker.

Before and during World War II, Japanese women had few choices in fashion. The wartime government ordered women's clothing to be monotone working pants and dark kimono jackets due to the lack of fabric and other resources.

With clothing firms sharing materials to survive, Koshino barely managed to make ends meet during the war as her husband, Takeichi, was drafted and went to the front. He never came back.

"After the war, nothing but a sewing machine was left, which was like a magic wand letting our dream come true," she recalls.

Passing on the 'fashion genes'

As the economy swiftly recovered from the aftermath of the war, Japanese women could begin to afford to take care of their appearance, with Western clothes such as skirts and blouses growing more and more popular.

Koshino saw her own career finally become profitable, as her shop became one of the most famous local outlets with customers from around the area queuing up for annual bargain sales.

Koshino never remarried, raising alone her three daughters who lost their father when they were all under 10 years old. She says she never advised her daughters to follow her profession.

"Each of them had first told me the same thing - dressmaking is the one thing they would never be engaged in," the widow says.

"But in the end all three decided to follow my job," she says.

"I guess that's because they had only one experience - watching my back while I was cutting and sewing cloth at home all day long when they were little kids," she says.

Even after her daughters became independent, Koshino cheered them up by reminding them of the remarkable living environment in their childhood.

"When my daughters were in a slump, I often said, 'You should have confidence. You have listened to the sound of a sewing machine since you were in my womb, and you were raised with various colors and designs. You should never be beaten by any other designers in fashion sense.

"Or maybe some type of fashion gene I inherited from my ancestors was also carried by my three daughters," Koshino jokes, sitting back in a chair against an abstract painting by Hiroko on the wall.

Both Hiroko and Junko went to Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo and were thrown into the fads of the 1960s.

"The other day, Hiroko told me that she didn't know why she chose the job," Koshino says. "But then she quietly said that's probably because she couldn't remove from her mind the memories of my silhouette at work."

Hiroko made her sensational debut in Rome in 1978 and in Paris in 1982 with her trademark fluid lines. She runs studios in Osaka, Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong under the label Hiroshi Koshino.

Junko, a classmate of famed Japanese designer Kenzo Takada at the Bunka school, also held her first showing in 1978 in Paris, causing a sensation by using see-through fabric with an Asian flavor.

Junko, whose namebrand is Junko Koshino, has since shown her collections in New York, Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi, Seoul and Warsaw.

In the 1980s, Japanese fashion came under the limelight in Paris. Along with Hiroko and Junko, leading Japanese designers such as Issey Miyake, and Kansai Yamamoto were torchbearers of the "Japan boom".

The most internationally successful, Michiko, entered the industry last. She chose London as her homeground to differentiate herself from her elder sisters and focused on younger, more casual designs.

"I thought Michiko was making really wild things but her clothes are attracting a lot of people in younger generations. The times are catching up with her now," her mother says.

A return to the kimono

Koshino had first regarded the kimono as an obstacle to women's liberation. But today, she thinks the underlying concept of the kimono is largely what led to her daughters' success.

"Hiroko, Junko and Michiko are Japanese no matter how they work in the global arena. Like me, they have consciously or unconsciously been influenced by the environment of the traditional Japanese lifestyle," she says in a hushed voice.

"Some concepts like the kimono must be rooted deeply in their minds, which makes them different from other designers in the world," she says. The 93-year-old is now focusing on making clothes for older women.

"Women are always women no matter how old they are," says Koshino. Despite suffering from shingles, Koshino is still making some 30 designs a year.

"While a number of fashionable clothes are made for young people, old ladies are somehow discarded in terms of fashion," she says. "So I want to make dresses for them," she says firmly.

"The tip to stay young is to wear good clothes and feel good when you're in love.

"Hey, look at me. I'm putting on a cool jacket and enjoying days and nights with my 90 boyfriends," Koshino says with a smile.

Koshino, who has three grandchildren and one great-grandchild, says she wants to continue her work for the rest of her life - and has no desire to leave the city where she was born."I want to die as a designer. I have done and will do whatever I want to do. If I have a chance to be born again, I bet I will choose this job."

(AFP)