Bunka Fashion College: A timeline of Japanese fashion

The beginnings of Bunka Fashion College can be traced back to 1919, around the time of the end of the First World War. It started with Isaburo Namiki opening a small establishment called Namiki Women's and Children's Dressmaking Shop, which included a school for women's and children's dressmaking, in Aoyama, Akasaka-ku, Tokyo. After working many years as a tailor of women’s and children’s clothing, Namiki struck out on his own and opened this sewing school. But the sudden popularity of children’s clothing meant that there were not enough skilled sewers to meet demand. Namiki paved the way for the teaching of dressmaking, believing that it should be taught in a shorter period of time, and as a basic part of the skills of a housewife, rather than by initiating people into the art of dressmaking through long-term apprenticeships.

This pattern dates back to when Isaburo Namiki founded the school, devised according to his own unique system for teaching sewing skills. Incorporating techniques from cutting experts, he made patterns that expressed body dimensions and characteristics in two-dimensional form. Dress patterns made on this basis could be easily applied to a large range of garments. This thinking has been passed down to the present, with patterns being researched and produced for each period in order to match changing body shapes.

In 1934, the Publishing Department was established in the Bunka Sewing School for Women, the precursor of today’s Bunka Publishing Bureau. In addition to the fact that publishing books that could be used as textbooks was a more effective way of educating the increasing number of students, the school also aimed to popularize fashion education and enhance fashion culture.

It became commonplace for Japanese to wear Western clothing after the First World War. Stores selling clothes for women and children could be found throughout town, and demand for children’s clothing in particular increased rapidly. As a result, there was a lack of skilled dressmakers, and dressmaking schools began to pop up everywhere. Bunka Fashion College became Japan’s first full-fledged, accredited dressmaking trade school in 1923, right around the time when the wearing of Western clothing in Japan was becoming more popular than ever. There was also a marked increase in women wearing Western clothing after the Great Kanto earthquake, which struck in September of the same year, and highlighted the need for improvements in clothing. It was the golden age of the Western clothing industry in Japan, and saw an increase in the number of dressmaking schoo

During the occupation after the Second World War, American fashion and culture flowed into Japan. Young women adopted made-over dresses with a military look, using shoulder pads with blouses and sweaters. Soon after it came back into publication, Soen gave extensive coverage to these American styles, and the College studied these new lines. In 1947, a new designer, Christian Dior, made a spectacular debut in Paris, and Parisian fashion became the focus of global attention—a new look with gentle shoulder lines and long, flowing flared skirts. News from Paris also became an important source for fashion designs.

The first male students entered the College in 1957. The fact that 23 of 7,000 new students were men made the headlines. The head of the college, Seijiro Endo, expressed the following sentiment: “The world’s top designers and pattern cutters are men. It is my hope that you become active at the forefront as teachers and designers.” Many of the male students were aspiring designers, and are said to have clearly stated on their applications that they wanted to make lifelong careers as designers. Kenzo Takada and Mitsuhiro Matsuda, who were male students who entered the College the following year, and many others thereafter went on to become designers active in global fashion.

In the 1970s, a growing number of Japanese travelled to Paris, which was the mecca of fashion, including many graduates from Bunka Fashion College, who worked hard in Paris in the midst of harsh social circumstances. Of them, Kenzo Takada (fashion design) became one of the most well-known Japanese at the time. He opened a store in the key Fashion district, and became a great success, on a par with Yves Saint Laurent and Sonia Rykiel.

In 1956, the Soen Award was established in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the magazine Soen. Created with the aim of fostering new designers, it was conceived as a gateway to success that would send new young talent into the fashion world.

In 2015, Bunka Fashion College was ranked second in the world in the Global Ranking of Fashion Schools published by UK fashion information website The Business of Fashion. The fact that it receives such high acclaim from outside Japan demonstrates the global industry's confidence in Bunka Fashion College’s history and educational policies, as well as high expectations for its future.