Kicking off this season’s official Tokyo Fashion Week schedule was Telma, a semi-eponymous womenswear brand from designer Terumasa Nakajima. Some background to start: Nakajima, 42, studied interior design in Japan before switching to fashion, working in Antwerp as part of Dries Van Noten’s womenswear design team. He returned to Tokyo in 2014, where he spent six years at Issey Miyake, before founding his own brand in 2022.
It’s a CV with plenty of gloss and sparkle, and so hopes for Telma’s inaugural show were high. How did it unfold? There was a rich spread of color and texture, including jersey coated to look like leather, hot pink and orange sheer chiffon printed with geometric spirals, and pastel organza skirts that swished confidently above pointed pumps. Influences from Nakajima’s recently-retired Belgian senpai were clear, with a wealth of artsy floral prints and a sophisticated smattering of silver and gold.
Towards the middle of the show the pace began to drag a little, however, with a few too many repetitive moments: hadn’t we seen that white jacket, and that print, in a slightly different iteration already? The fabrics—60% of which were original textiles—were the highlight, but overall this show would have benefitted from some more editing and more cohesion to help Nakajima tell his story.
Nakajima’s approach to design begins with abstract feelings, and unlike many of his peers in Tokyo he purposefully doesn’t attach themes to his collections. “I like something that’s more like an atmosphere, it’s more intuitive. For me, creation is not about realizing a theme, it is more about making a starting point,” he said after the show. Today’s show was indeed a starting point; where it will go from here remains to be seen.
