Bunka Fashion College
Bunka Japanese Fashion College (Tokyo)

Sometimes it happens that on the Parisian catwalks among the well-established and already so beloved by Europeans (and not only) names, such names as Chanel, Dior, Givenchy, new ones make their way, completely not French, and not even Italian, and even completely not English names. The names are unusual, the names of those who came to conquer the capital of world fashion Paris from the far and mysterious East. From the land of the rising sun. And Paris fell at their feet, the world of fashion submitted to their creativity. It also happens. And vivid examples of this are Japanese designers who created clothing brands known to the whole world - Yoji Yamamoto and Takada Kenzo.

Back in 1958, at the very beginning of his journey, Takada Kenzo began his studies at Bunka College, Tokyo. The most prestigious fashion school in Japan. Today Bunka College is one of the ten best fashion schools in the world. And it is the only school in the top ten outside Europe and not in the United States. We can say that the Bunk school is the only fashion school included in the top ten abroad of European culture and European traditions. But at the same time, one should not forget the fact that Japan is one of the few, and perhaps the only one of the countries of the East, former colonies of the West, which managed to merge on equal terms into the very space of the West, both political and cultural.

Bunka Fashion College (Bunka Fukuso Gakuin) - https://www.bunka-fc.ac.jp/en/index.html - was founded in 1919 as a sewing school for girls and was originally called Namiki Dressmaking School. In 1923, the school was transformed into the first professional fashion college in Japan, and the college's activities, including the publication of books on fashion, contributed to the popularization of Western clothing in Japan, which, however, at that time was available mainly to the upper strata of society.

In 1936, the college acquired its current name - Bunka Fashion College, and in the same year it began publishing So-en, the first fashion magazine in Japan. Today, on the pages of So-en, you can read about new interesting trends in fashion, the work of Japanese and Western designers, as well as the fashionable districts of Tokyo - Harajuku, Aoyama and Daikanyama. So the Aoyama area is the area of ​​artists and writers, and there are numerous boutiques on the wide Aoyama-dori street. In the Aoyama area there are also antique and book stores, museums.

After World War II, Bunka College changed as rapidly as the entire Japanese society. In addition to sewing clothes, the college is beginning to pay attention to the training of professionals in the field of fashion business. In 1955, the first foreign student appears at the Bunka College of Fashion, and in 1957 it becomes the first fashion college in Japan to accept admission to young men. And such a young man in 1958 will be Takada Kenzo - the only young man in his group of girls.

In the 1970s, Bunk College celebrates its 50th anniversary, and the Costume Museum opens with it. Today, Bunka College is one of the best fashion schools not only in Japan but also in the world.