Bunka Fukusou Gakuin

Japanese: 文化服装学院
field: apparel
region: Tokyo
url: Bunka Fukusou Gakuin official site

Bunka Fukusou Gakuin (Bunka Fashion College) is without doubt the most respected fashion design school in Japan. Name a well-known Japanese designer and the chance is pretty big that this school’s name is on the resume. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, it is known for a strict curriculum and a relentless workload.

The college was founded as Namiki Dressmaking School in 1919 by Isaburo Namiki at a time when western-style clothes for women were ultra modern and expensive. In 1923, it became the first authorized vocational college of fashion. It contributed to popularizing western style garments in Japan through education and publication of books on dressmaking and fashion.

The school’s name was changed to Bunka Fashion College in 1936 when it also started publishing the now prestigious fashion magazine So-en, actually Japan’s first fashion magazine.

After WWII, Bunka shifted from tailoring to educating its students as commercial-oriented fashion professionals. Starting in the 1960s, many Bunka graduates entered the Paris Collections. Among the first to make their mark internationally were Kenzo Takada and Yohji Yamamoto. They paved the way for such promising new talents as Atsuro Tayama and Keita Maruyama.

In 2000,the Bunka Body Structure and Function Lab in collaboration with the Digital Human Body Lab, a national institute of advanced industrial science and technology, created a new female body-form that reflects precisely the body shape and proportions of today’s Japanese women. The body-form was hailed by fashion industries and schools. The Lab is presently developing a new male body-form.

Bunka established Japan’s first graduate school of fashion business and design in 2003.

It has over 70 branches all over Japan and has exchange programs with Central Saint Martins in London and Parsons in New York.

It is now part of Educational Foundation Bunka Gakuen

departments
General Fashion Department
Fashion Technology Department
Fashion Communication & Distribution Department
Fashion Craft Department

selected alumni
Cabaret Aki
Tamae Hirokawa
Toshikazu Iwaya
Chie Koike
Hiroko Koshino
Tokio Kumagai
Kenzo Kuroda
Keita Maruyama
Tetsuya Miwa (from the band Spitz)
Yuko Murata
Nigo
Naomi Nishida (actress)
Hiroaki Ohya
Yusuke Takeyama
Limi Yamamoto
Yohji Yamamoto

address:

3-22-1 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 151-8522

phone: (81) 03-3299-2057

Taiwan office
address:
Full Building 4 floor
No.57, Sec.1, Chongcing S. Rd.
Taipei City 100, TAIWAN (R.O.C)

phone: (88) 06-2-2375-1951

Korea office
address:
Rm1715, Champselysees Center Bldg
Adong 889-5, Daechi Dong Kangnam-ku
Seoul, KOREA

phone: (82) 02-561-6708

related links:
Review in Japanese at Open-Clothes

Last updated on 08-13-2007 06:16 (Viewed 2647 times)

Review Bunka Fukusou Gakuin