Fun, food & fashion at Shibuya Fashion Festival

TOKYO - As part of the week-long fashion extravaganza that was Tokyo's Japan Fashion Week in October, the Tokyo Council of Fashion Designers helped organise an additional event to take fashion from the rarified runway to the streets of super-cool suburb Shibuya.

Although Harajuku is probably better known as the centre of Japanese street fashion, Shibuya is also home to Tokyo's fashion-savvy natives as well as a number of emerging and established fashion labels, fashion PR companies, hair and makeup studios and some of the city's best multi-label boutiques.

So, on October 19, 2013, these fashion fans came together to host a one-off event, the Shibuya Fashion Festival at the very underground (although technically it was over-the-ground) space of Miyashita Park, a public space that like the Highline in New York, is located on a now-defunct railway line that travels above the roads below.

From around midday, a series of booths selling everything from fusion food - turkey rice for example - to cute character things - not entirely sure but we think they might have been smartphone charms? - as well as a flea market of fashionable items - some from emerging designers, others from some of Tokyo's top fashionistas - and a number of runway shows held outdoors for the first time including Etw.Vonneguet SS14, Jenny Fax SS14, The Dress & Co. Hideaki Sakaguchi SS14 and a multi-label show from cult store Candy that included some of the coolest-of-the-cool Tokyo fashionistas in the front row; really a who's who of the Tokyo fashion crowd.

On the same day there was a bit of "underground" performance art going on too as the famous statue of "Hachiko" at Shibuya train station underwent a fashion makeover, much to the delight, and bemusement, of visiting tourists.

Check out our photos below and watch the videos created by the Tokyo Fashion Film team - the official film-makers of Japan Fashion Week.

Taiwanese-born designer Sheh Jen-Fang sent a series of looks inspired by her childhood watching Hong Kong movies and TV shows "around" the skatepark catwalk of her Jenny Fax Spring Summer 2014 show. The dirty faces of her "real girl" models were inspired by that same girlhood memory, "not very clean, nor very ugly, a so-called normal girl". The over-sized shapes of her PVC pants and jumpsuits echoed the "column" legs of old-school anime characters, while the barely there knit tops were based on a young girl's idea of what a grown woman would wear. Overall the collection was fun, flirty and despite the styling of enormous cartoon bows and headwear, actually quite wearable when broken down into separates. For more information about Jenny Fax, go to jennyfax.com.

For The Dress & Co. Hideaki Sakaguchi SS14 collection the designer, Hideaki Sakaguchi, looked at combining the concepts of the "bourgeoisie and classic" to dress women with a certain sex appeal. The collection of mainly separates is mostly "smart casual" with the emphasis on minimalist, but wearable, femininity. For more information about the brand, go to www.thedress.jp.

The Candy Show featured pieces from some of Japan's hottest emerging labels like Christian Dada, Dressedundressed, Ambush and 99 per centIS, as well as global up-and-coming streetstyle brands like House of Malakai, Moonspoon Saloon, Maria Ke Fisherman, Long Clothing, Dissborn, Sibling, Unif, Matthew Miller, KTZ, runurunu, Martine Rose, Kenzo, Katie Eary, Balmung, W.I.A., Kye, Sasu Kauppi, D.TT.K, Asger Juel Larsen, Nadi Studio, Bitching and Junkfood, Sam Mc London, Stampd x G-Dragon, Henrik Vibskov, Egr, Komankino and Underground. For more information, and to shop Candy online, go to www.faketokyo.com.

For more information about the Shibuya Fashion Festival, go to www.shibuyafashionfestival.com; to watch more fashion films from Japan Fashion Week, go to www.tokyofashionfilm.com. For more information about Japan Fashion Week, go to tokyo-mbfashionweek.com.

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