We’ve speculated before on the spread of kawaii as an aesthetic sensibility. Others are thinking about it too.

The second annual Japan Fashion Week wraps up soon; the event was created to rival similar pow-wows in Milan, New York, London and Paris. A few interesting tidbits have slipped out of the (minimal) coverage.

Suzy Menkes, who is the Fashion Editor for the International Herald Tribune, attended Japan Fashion Week, which is a pretty big deal for those in the fashion world. She said:

The definition of creative fashion is simple, Menkes said.
“(It’s) inventing something that people never knew they wanted until they saw it.”
Trousers for women. Issey Miyake’s wind coat. Prada’s nylon backpack. Stretchy pantyhose, even zippers. People take these items for granted, but their impact has been enormous, Menkes said.

What does Japan have to offer the world that it did not know it wanted or needed? Well, for one thing, there’s the whole kawaii aesthetic.

Jean-Marie Bouissou, a research director at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris, who attended a panel with Menkes had this to say:

Bouissou agreed that Japan has it right–on everything from manga and kawaii (cute) to food and fashion. In his view, Japan’s success in the international market stems from a sense of contrast and balance. The country’s cultural icons, he said, embody force and fragility, masculinity and femininity.
Sushi, which took the United States and Europe by storm beginning in the 1980s, attests to this balance, Bouissou said. It’s exotic but proper, ecological in its rawness, yet artificial in its meticulous arrangement. This absence of absolutes, he said, is what makes it so enticing.
The same goes for the concept of kawaii. Why is manga so popular, even though it often belittles women? Because it’s cute, Bouissou said.

The Japanese themselves know that aspects of their culture have spread into the global pop-culture stream. It’s going to be interesting to see if they are able to find a way to serve up manga and anime inspired clothing.

It is not simple to absorb current influences, according to Naoki Takizawa, who shows in Paris as a designer for Issey Miyake. Takizawa is convinced that Manga is the country’s most powerful cultural source, but he does not think it easy to embrace.
“It is very complicated. Manga has always been something hidden,” he says, referring to parental and societal disapproval.
Takizawa has used Manga-inspired images on the inside, following a traditional Japanese aesthetic, as seen in kimono linings. He has also worked with Takashi Murakami, whose unsettling flat-plane art pops up in many prints.

So, it is not just Gwen Stefani who has noticed the power of kawaii clothing. We’ll see how far Japan is able to take its fashion.