Tenbo Spotlights Models With Disabilities at Tokyo Fashion Week

By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd | March 18, 2015 | 4:55pm

Entertainment

Tokyo Fashion Week is in full swing, and as ever it’s already more interesting and creative than the majority of the corpo garb that dominated New York, Paris, and Milan (London was fine). Case in point: on Wednesday at Tenbo, designer Takafumi Tsuruta showed bright, dotty skirts and ties, the label’s cartoon-cute skull logo, and prints comprised of braille-as-design element. He also chose several models with disabilities to take the runway, inadvertently making the point that diverse model casting is like, not that fucking hard!

Takafumi Tsuruta is dedicated to inclusivity, particularly designing for people with disabilities, and he’s always chosen models who use wheelchairs or wear prosthetics for Tenbo, formerly known as Ha ha. Many of the models are Paralympic athletes, including Sayaka Murakami (below right) snowboarder Mika Abe (middle), and gold medal swimmer Rina Akiyama (above left). In Tenbo’s brand statement, Tsuruta writes that the skull logo is “YOMI chan,” and that by thinking of “death, we also hope to continue to represent the brand generosity accepted all.” His collection of super-bright, loose, easy-to-wear looks reflect the heart and optimism of his philosophy, and the fact that the clothes are generally “genderless” shouldn’t go unnoticed, either. I would wear most of this. Check the rest of the collection, which includes bright yellow, sheep-inspired wigs and pajamas-y frocks, at Tokyo Fashion Week’s site.