Try recalling the last time you put on a two-piece suit for work. Whether it was for a Zoom conference or an important presentation at the office during pre-pandemic times, how did the outfit make you feel? Uneasy and uncomfortable? Or stylish and dignified?
For Japanese fashion designer Akiko Ogawa, the goal is to empower women to experience the latter every time they dress in her designs. Matter of fact, she often refers to her popular line of suits as “elegant armour” to inspire women to “confidently navigate male-dominated industries while looking undeniably feminine.”
Read on as Akiko reveals to us her feminine-meets-masculine approach towards design, the most common fashion conundrum that she hears from her clients every day, and the top three style essentials that every working woman ought to own in her wardrobe.
Japanese fashion designer Akiko Ogawa.
Man, I feel like a woman
A wool chambray blouse and skirt from the AKIKO OGAWA. Spring/Summer 2021 collection.
“I believe a woman’s complexity is what makes her alluring. My design identity aims to honour this by embracing both a woman’s femininity as well as her strength. I aspire to create beautiful amalgams of traditionally ‘masculine’ elements and feminine details in my designs,” Akiko mused.
As such, the designer taps into the power of contrasts — such as accentuating a woman’s curves through the use of sharp lines — to present silhouettes that not only look elegant and stylish but intelligent as well. “Think of the intensity that you feel when you’re sitting in silence and the beauty of light whenever you’re in darkness. There’s something fascinating about seemingly opposing elements and that’s why it’s important to me that women feel empowered yet still feminine in my designs,” she explained.
