TOGA‘s Fall 2014 collection entitled “Crudity, Durability, Roughness” explores the American West in a very peculiar way. There’s a lot of buzz around Americana style lately, but fortunately there are also plenty of creative resources to be found in designers’ collections. Especially when we’re talking about Japan versus America (via Europe) the result might be even more interesting.

Japanese designer Yasuko Furata graduated from Esmod in Paris before going on to work as a freelance costume maker. She launched her label Toga back in 1997. In 2004, TOGA opened its first boutique in the Ebisu district of Tokyo. Today, TOGA has over 30 shops all around the world. Distinguished by its exclusive fabrics research and experimental volumes, the Toga silhouette is urban, deconstructed and avant-garde. Defining her design as “Toughness and unique sexiness, hidden in elegance that uses complex female images to evoke all the senses”  Yasuko likes contradictions “such as the combination of conflicting materials, interpretation of classic elements into casual styles, and the elegant presentation of sportswear elements.”

Indeed, these pieces are beautiful and provoking in terms of silhouettes, fabrics and associations, resulting in an efortless chic layerings of apparently contrastant elements. Addresing to a free-minded, contemporary, global woman, TOGA is a a label that certainly deserves un certain regard.

catwalk images via style.com