For a man who has made a career making clothes for “real women,” it’s somewhat bewildering to hear Tadashi Shoji raving in admiration for another Japanese fashion designer whose aesthetic is the precise opposite of his own.
“Usually I don’t like Comme [des Garcons], but this fall season, that is unbelievably genius design,” he said, his eyes lighting up as he gushed about Rei Kawakubo’s felted paper-doll cutout collection for Fall 2012.
“Stuff like that don’t usually impress me, but that was so genius! When I saw that, [I thought] who could wear that shape? That structure? That idea? Unbelievable!”
Fall collection
Shoji was in Manila last week to present his Fall 2012 collection on the invitation of Rustan’s, where his line has been sold for the last 19 years. The Los Angeles-based designer auctioned three dresses during the visit to benefit the Philippine National Red Cross.
Shoji, 64, might not be a fan of Kawakubo, a few years his senior and famous for avant-garde, deconstructed designs. But the Sendai, Japan-born fashion designer, who gained a lot of the media attention in this year’s Hollywood awards season, did profess love for another Japanese designer: Issey Miyake. And it’s easy to understand why.
“I like designers who are attuned to women’s needs,” Shoji said. “[When I look at a designer’s clothes, I think] this guy’s hot, he understands women, the customer’s need. Or, this guy is lost, you can tell that. I hope I can see other designers objectively. So I ask my assistant, I hope I’m not lost like this designer. That’s the scariest part! ‘Tadashi is lost!’ Then I’m out of business!”
That doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon. Shoji, who set up his namesake label in Tinseltown in 1982, is still riding on the steam generated by the Oscar 2012 buzz: He dressed up Supporting Actress winner Octavia Spencer (“The Help”), who landed on every known best-dressed list.
Spencer, in fact, wore Shoji throughout the awards season, the plus-size actress getting nods each time from fashion pundits. She got the clothes off-the-rack; Tadashi Shoji is available in 4,000 outlets in 40 countries, including US department stores Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Most impact
“Before the Oscars, she was just buying off the rack,” Shoji said. “For the Golden Globe, that was the first custom-made dress. She made it on best-dressed lists. After that one, she began asking for different dresses. I sketched for her an Oscar dress and she loved it.
“But then they said she was probably going to wear a bigger name after she started winning. And then she wore us [to the Oscars] and she won again,” he added, beaming. (A more affordable replica of Spencer’s draped beaded ivory dress, about P24,000-plus, is sold at Rustan’s’; the original custom dress cost over $6,000. His clothes at Rustan’s retail from P12,000 to about P40,000.)
Spencer is, however, not the first actress to wear a Tadashi Shoji dress and bag an Oscar trophy. At the 82nd Academy Awards, another shapely actress, Mo’Nique, clutched her Supporting Actress Oscar (“Precious”) in a blue silk jersey dress by the Japanese designer.
That same year, Oscar Best Actress nominee Gabourey Sidibe also wore Tadashi Shoji throughout the awards season, including at the Oscars.
However, it was Spencer’s Oscar win that had the most impact on the Tadashi Shoji brand. “That helped a lot,” said the designer, who started showing at New York Fashion Week only in 2007.
But it has not been a conscious choice to dress up plus-size and curvier women, he said.
“I don’t know!” Shoji said, grinning. “I think maybe the market doesn’t have enough selection for plus-size women, so they tend to pick up our dresses.”
Proportion and cut
Tadashi Shoji’s dresses notably use materials that have a stretch, and employs strategic draping, ruching and pleating, to flatter the positive and hide the negative.
“I pay attention to the proportion and the cut. Can the woman move her arm? Can she move?” he said. “I think the uniqueness is in our cut, the fit, to make them comfortable. These movie stars, they’re smiling on the red carpet, and they cannot breathe. They sit for three hours in the award shows and the camera is moving, and then they can’t move in the dress, but they have to smile. That’s torture! When they wear our dresses they’re so comfortable. When they’re comfortable, they come back.”
Artistic temperament
Shoji was a painter who studied Fine Arts in Tokyo before moving to LA to study fashion in the ’70s.
“Details I pay attention to,” he said. “My temperament is that of an artist. It takes time to create a painting. After sketching, I teach the pattern maker how to make it. Before I started my own business, I made all of my own patterns. After two to three days, the dress will come out. My temperament is suited to this profession.”
Even as president of his own firm, Shoji has not yielded his sketchpad to underlings.
“I design, I do pattern sometimes, I supervise, and I do the research, all that stuff. Unlike other designers, I do everything. Others just sketch and give the work to others.”
To be clear, Tadashi Shoji doesn’t only sell to the Octavia Spencers and Kim Kardashians of the world; sample-size celebrities like Kate Beckinsale and Stacy Keibler (aka George Clooney’s current squeeze) have also been seen on the red carpet in Tadashi Shoji. In fact, the label is the official designer of the Miss USA and Miss Universe beauty pageants.
Showrooms
Shoji spends half of the year in Shanghai, where he’s expanding his China business (this year, it opened two boutiques, in Shanghai and in the capital; four more are set to open next year). Headquarters remain in LA, while he has showrooms in New York, Tokyo and Beijing.
In Japan, his clothes are sold in top department stores like Mitsukoshi and Isetan, and high-end boutiques. He travels throughout Southeast Asia frequently to visit stockists. His clothes are also sold in the Middle East, but he doesn’t adjust his design to cater to specific markets.
The clothes are made in the US and China.
“Everybody asks me that, what’s distinctly Japanese about me,” he said with a chuckle. “I think it’s the work ethic. I give value to the clothes. That’s maybe the Japanese-ness.”
He added, “My company policy is for the dress to be wearable. It’s not just for the critics and the press. It’s for every woman. Every woman can enjoy life for two to three hours in a beautiful dress. She can feel pretty and happy. If I can help her feel that way, then my mission is done.”
