PARIS — Poggy, also known as Poggy the Man, governmentally known as Motofumi Kogi, is familiar in image and plumage to those who follow men’s fashion, particularly the version of it that walks the streets, not the runway. Street-style photographers have been panting after him for years.
Mr. Kogi, the creative director of United Arrows & Sons, the men’s wear arm of one of the leading Japanese department stores, is based in Tokyo, but he cut a swath through Paris last week during the men’s wear shows. He had traded his customary wide-brimmed black hat for a more surprising tam-o’-shanter, the puff of which made a little beacon for Poggy-watching.
Upcycled shirts made from vintage bandanas and children’s bedsheets, part of the collection Poggy assembled for Poggy’s Box.CreditAlecio Ferrari
Already an ambassador for Japanese style nationwide, Poggy is set to become an ambassador for Japanese style globally. He has put together Poggy’s Box, a treasure chest of fashion from emerging Japanese designers, to entice retailers to carry little-known labels.
At Tomorrow’s Paris showroom, the box concept was made literal — clothes hung in and on a giant trunk, and piles of recycling boxes — to pique the imagination of store buyers. (Some interested stores have asked for the displays as well as the clothes.)
It is the first iteration of a new project organized by the Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro), Daisuke Gemma (an all-purpose connector and sounding board for Japanese brands) and the consulting arm of Tomorrow, which runs showrooms and offers business development services.
Mr. Kogi chose pieces from designers less known outside of Japan, including suiting by Auralee (he was wearing it himself, underneath a white leather Louis Vuitton harness as he showed visitors through the offerings); T-shirts by Midorikawa with stipple portraits of the minimalist avant-garde composer John Cage; and sweatshirts from Mr. Kogi’s own Poggy the Man collection embroidered with the letters L-O-V-E in a familiar-but-unplaceable bubbled logo.
“Do you know Devo?” he said. Ah, yes — there it is.
After Mr. Kogi, the organizers of the project plan to continue to spotlight and incubate young Japanese design talent and expand their reach worldwide.
The country has a record of nurturing its own talent before the rest of the world catches up. The Japan Fashion Awards gave the label Doublet a national prize in 2017, the year before it won the much covered LVMH Prize. Auralee took the Fashion Prize of Tokyo, for which Mr. Kogi is a juror, this year.
The brands he showed were largely new to this observer, though it wasn’t all unseen before. A rack of upcycled pieces included jackets by Nexusvii refashioned from old Burberry trench coats and vintage jeans with hand-drawn graphics by Jun Inagawa, a Japanese graffiti artist.
Some shirts, by Miyagi Hidetaka, were stitched together from bandannas; others, in soft, aged cotton featured characters from “Garfield” and “The Simpsons.” Were those …
“It’s coming from old bedsheets,” Mr. Kogi said. “Maybe from your home?”