Tokyo Creative Salon 2023, upholding the theme of Fashion and Design Festival, will take place concurrently in six areas of Tokyo, filling indoor and outdoor venues with everything to do with fashion and design for 15 days from March 17 to 31.

The fourth installation of the event since 2020 will involve six areas this year: Shibuya, Harajuku, Ginza, Marunouchi-Yurakucho, Nihonbashi, and Haneda.

Each area will be marked by a 2-meter Landmark Installation cube at a key spot that best symbolizes the neighborhood until March 26. To know more about what is taking place and where to start depends on one’s interests, so visitors are advised to peruse the electronic display cubes to get information and inspiration.

The four vertical surfaces of the cube are rear-projection screens to lure people with light, sound, images and animation. The cubes will serve as both artworks and digital signage to display maps and information on events in each area. Tokyo Photographic Research, a group of photographers, will showcase their project titled “100 Windows” using the Landmark Installation cubes. Large installations made of scraps of cloth will also be exhibited at the cubes. Brochures will be handed out around the cubes, which mark the entrances to each TCS venue.

In Shibuya, the Landmark Installation cube will occupy a spot between JR Shibuya Station’s Hachiko Gate and the tourism information center on the station’s second basement floor. The location for Harajuku will be in front of Laforet Harajuku on Meiji-dori Avenue. In Ginza, the installation will be in the underground promenade at Ginza 1-chome, while in Marunouchi and Yurakucho, it will be outside the Marunouchi Building. The west entrance of Coredo Nihonbashi will be the site of the Nihonbashi installation. In Haneda, the cube will be set up in the indoor Flight Deck Tokyo at Terminal 2.

Venues showcase Tokyo's creativity

“Fashion, Tokyo, Design, Peace” is the key concept that cuts across all six areas, though each has its own concept and characteristics.

The area concept for Shibuya, which is internationally known as a fashion hot spot, is “Encounter,” hinting at a source of new culture. It refers to the colliding and mixing of opposing objects and concepts that happens daily in this neighborhood of diversity. The event venues are scattered around Shibuya Station, where the Landmark Installation cube is, offering a sense of being immersed into a microcosm of creation.

The Harajuku area is right next to Shibuya, stretching between Harajuku Station and Omotesando Station, but its atmosphere is somewhat different from Shibuya. It has a sense of accepting all types of fashion and an air of amusement for things that no one has ever thought of making or wearing. The relaxed vibrancy of Harajuku allows unique things and people to gather and transform into new values.

Ginza is known as a place where luxury fashion brands converge from around the world. The advancement of fashion and design in this area is driven by a passion for those brands and a sense of local style. Ginza’s area concept is “Ginza Loves Fashion,” with the various event venues scattered throughout its sophisticated streets. Visitors will witness the ever-changing balance of tradition and innovation in action here.

The adjacent business districts of Marunouchi and Yurakucho will combine to form another area for TCS. Downtown Tokyo is considered a place where everything “genuine” — whether it be fashion, cuisine or art — comes together to entertain people with an eye for high-quality things. This area’s concept will be “Passion for Passion — Keen Eyes on Talents That Create the Future.” Refined values are creating the city itself by nurturing genuine craftsmanship, allowing visitors to experience a moment in which a new trend begins.

The main venues in the Nihonbashi area will be concentrated around Mitsukoshimae Station. Nihonbashi has a long history as a cultural hub dating back to the Edo Period (1603 to 1868), when it was the starting point of the Gokaido (the Five Routes) that merchants and travelers took to go to different parts of Japan. Events in this area will include “That’s Fashion Weekend,” which consists of markets and discussions focusing on fashion, design and sustainability.

Haneda is participating in TCS for the first time. The concept for this area is “Fashion and Design Take off from Haneda.” As the entrance to Tokyo and a gateway to the world, this area will focus on encounters and journeys. Making use of the unique benefits of the venue, a trade show will be held at Flight Deck Tokyo in Terminal 2.

Fashion for all

There are signature events and shows as well as dozens of projects unique to each area. The Tokyo Peace Fashion Show, for example, will be held in Shibuya and Harajuku. This show will include a part of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo (formerly known as Japan Fashion Week), making content otherwise available only to Fashion Week invitees available to everyone. Some of the participating brands are Akikoaoki, Keisukeyoshida, Megmiura Wardrobe, Heaven Tanudiredja, me, Murral, Three Treasures and Yohei Ohno.

Tokyo Peace Fashion Show is scheduled to take place at various venues in Shibuya and Harajuku from March 15 to 19. The details will be announced at a later date.

During TCS, performers from Jean Paul Gaultier’s “Fashion Freak Show” will take to the runway in some areas. “Fashion Freak Show in TCS” is a musical depicting the life of Gaultier, one of the world’s most extraordinary fashion talents. The first performance in Paris in 2019 drew 250,000 people, and the production is currently in the midst of a world tour that will take it to Europe, Oceania and North America, with long-awaited performances scheduled in Japan in May and June. Ahead of the Japan tour, performers will hold special runway shows in some of the six areas, mesmerizing visitors with luxurious and gorgeous fashion entertainment featuring Gaultier’s haute couture.

These special 20-minute acts will be held on two days. The March 19 shows will take place at Marucube on the first floor of the Marunouchi Building at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and a yet-to-be-disclosed location in the Ginza area at 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The March 21 shows will be held on Nakadori Street in Nihonbashi at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., and outside the Shibuya 109 building in Shibuya at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The TCS secretariat will be posting information on its website as well as its Twitter and Instagram accounts before and during the event, but the Landmark Installations in each area will also be displaying the latest information, so be sure to visit.