In the 1970s and 1980s, the avant-garde movement of Japonisme swept through the Western fashion scene, which saw designers like Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Kenzo Takada, and Issey Miyake spreading their inlfuence. Today, Japan, as a fashion hub in Asia, places great importance on heritage. Founded by the Ueda Anko School of Fashion, the UEDA Fashion Lab launched UCF in 2014, a brand helmed by talented design students. CENTRESTAGE has invited them to be this year's emerging designers, allowing new forces in Asian fashion to shine in their own right.

What inspired the creation of a youth talent-driven brand in 2014 when UEDA Fashion Lab founded UCF?

There are many young and talented designers in my college. We established UCF to enable the young designer to make a leap to the world.

What do you think is the most crucial element in nurturing new local designers and fashion practitioners?

The ability to reflect Japanese characteristics in fashion, the ability to reflect local textiles in fashion.

Why are black and white significant to your brand? How do your designers push the boundaries of fashion beyond these "safe" colors?

The elements that make up clothes are shape, textiles, and colour. The colours of our brand are only white and black. Our brand is a brand that features the form of clothes, the details of clothes, and Japanese textiles. Our brand does not dare to incorporate colours.

With a brand composed of emerging student designers, how do you ensure coherence in style and creative objectives?

Japanese historic textiles are important for our brand. We regularly visit the factory where the materials are made. We are consistently learning how to reflect that textile in fashion. In that way, we maintain consistency.

How does your brand integrate traditional Japanese textiles and clothing techniques with contemporary aesthetics? In your view, what defines "Contemporary Japanese Fashion"?

We are learning the history of Western clothing. We believe that combining that historic Western clothing with Japanese textiles and the latest Japanese technology is a design. Japanese fashion is a combination of tradition and innovation.

What’s next for UCF?

We hope to hold a solo UCF show at Paris Fashion Week in the near future.