Gender-bending fashion hits the runway in Tokyo

Tokyo

IF gender-bending fashion is suddenly all the rage in the West, think Pharrell Williams promoting Chanel's new unisex handbag, then nowhere has the look excelled more than in Tokyo. Japan, for decades a pioneer of the androgynous look in the style of Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto and Kenzo, is spawning young designers blurring the lines expertly between masculine and feminine.

Genderless-looking boys are gaining traction in fashion circles and on the streets of Tokyo - gay but mostly straight men who dye their hair and wear make-up - not in an effort to pass themselves off as women but to create a new standard of beauty. "Our big theme has always been 'unisex'," says Takeshi Kitazawa, one half of the design duo behind trendy label Dressedundressed, sold by dozens of stockists in Japan and abroad.