Ashley Clarke

British fashion journalist and runway critic based in Japan 🍈 Mostly at Vogue Runway, Vogue Business & the Wall St Journal

Articles

ANNA SAWAI CONTAINS MULTITUDES──SHE IS REDEFINING THE STEREOTYPE OF A JAPANESE WOMAN

1 month ago | vogue.co.jp | Yui Sugiyama |Nick Yang |Ashley Clarke

How to describe Anna Sawai? The actress radiates a unique aura: strong and stoic, but with an undeniable warmth. Cast as the lead of musical Annie at age 11, she made her Hollywood debut in Ninja Assassin in 2009. Her teens were spent in an idol group based in Japan, but she moved to the US in her twenties seeking more freedom.
Loewe’s Crafted World: From Shanghai to Tokyo’s luxury market

Mar 28, 2025 | jingdaily.com | Ashley Clarke

Set in Harajuku, Loewe’s family-friendly Crafted World show highlights the maison’s Spanish roots, Japanese expansion, and Anderson-era moments ahead of a creative leadership shift.
Tao Tokyo Fall 2025 Collection

Mar 27, 2025 | vogue.com | Ashley Clarke

CoverageCollectionTake a walk around Omotesando early on a weekday morning and you’ll spot them. Dressed in their unmistakable finery—pouffy skirts, pearl-buttoned suits, and chunky sneakers—they slowly converge in the streets, totally distinct from the drearily dressed salarymen and women also on their way to work. The destination of these unique but uniformly stylish disciples is the same: the Comme des Garçons office in Aoyama. This is the comme-ute.
Hanging Out in The Bedrooms of the Coolest Tokyoites

Mar 26, 2025 | i-d.co | Ashley Clarke |Takashi Homma

This story appears in i-D 374, The Unknown Issue. Get yours now. written by ASHLEY OGAWA CLARKEphotography TAKASHI HOMMAstyling SHOTARO YAMAGUCHIAt first glance, Tokyo can seem like a place where everybody blends in. Yet stick around and you’ll clock the Tokyoites who don’t conform, who have a style richer and more meta in its references than any other place on earth.
Hidesign Tokyo Fall 2025 Collection

Mar 21, 2025 | vogue.com | Ashley Clarke

CoverageCollection“We would like to prepare humanity for the future to come.”A bold and foreboding statement from Hidesign in Tokyo today. The uniform manufacturer, which two seasons ago began selling its fashion-meets-hardcore-workwear designs to the public, hopes to revolutionize our wardrobes by offering technologically advanced clothing that is suitable for a diversity of environments and conditions.
Rainmaker Tokyo Fall 2025 Collection

Mar 20, 2025 | vogue.com | Ashley Clarke

Rainmaker’s signature is its ability to incorporate Japanese sartorial touchpoints (namely the kimono silhouette) into contemporary clothing. This season, designer Kohichi Watanabe focused on that cross-continental dialogue more explicitly, and based this collection on the interplay between Japanese aesthetics and Western elements.
Keisukeyoshida Tokyo Fall 2025 Collection

Mar 20, 2025 | vogue.com | Ashley Clarke

CoverageCollectionKeisuke Yoshida is his own psychotherapist. Each season he digs into his own psyche, examining his insecurities, emotions, and memories to the point of morbid narcissism. He grapples with these feelings by transforming them into darkly seductive womenswear that for the last few seasons has felt almost Oedipal. As such, the designer’s runway shows are always arrestingly personal and often take place in settings intimate to him (last year he took us to his alma mater).
Japanese fashion 2025: 5 designer brands leading the way

Mar 18, 2025 | jingdaily.com | Ashley Clarke

While legendary houses like Comme des Garçons defined Japanese fashion globally, these emerging designers are creating fresh narratives that honor tradition while pushing boundaries.
Yueqi Qi Tokyo Fall 2025 Collection

Mar 14, 2025 | vogue.com | Ashley Clarke

CoverageCollectionTokyo Fashion Week officially starts next week. Yueqi Qi’s show came early, and was held off-schedule night at the vast Yodobashi Church in a gritty area of Shinjuku. Inspired by cats, it provided a fun amuse bouche for the week ahead. “This collection we tried to explore the idea of identity. Who we are, and who we want to be when nobody’s watching us,” she explained.
Irenisa Tokyo Fall 2025 Collection

Mar 14, 2025 | vogue.com | Ashley Clarke

CoverageCollectionIrenisa may trade in stealthy beauty (sometimes to the point of being unassuming), but you can’t fault their prowess in cultivating comfort and tactility. That, they have down to an art. Even better, they evolve and improve upon it each season: trousers seem to billow with ever increasing gentility, and sweeping drop-shouldered coats shrug on with evermore ease.