ssstein wins FASHION PRIZE OF TOKYO 2025

ssstein is the winner of this year’s FASHION PRIZE OF TOKYO 2025, a fashion prize project to promote the emergence of Japanese fashion designers on the world stage. Prize recipients are selected upon their potential to become an international brand that represents Tokyo in the future, increase their visibility in terms of design, number of items and price range and their ambitions to show overseas, with the structure to carry out this intention.

FASHION PRIZE OF TOKYO 2025 Jury: Yukari Negishi Executive Officer, Sotheby’s Little League Company and Ron Herman Women’s Creative Director, Yoshimi Nagao Creative Director, Motofumi “Poggy” Kogi Fashion Curator, Ryo Takashima Fashion Director

After ssstein wins FASHION PRIZE OF TOKYO 2025, To enhance international recognition, events will be held in Paris in January and June 2025. Additionally, an event will be held at Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo in March.

Previous Award-Winning Designers: Mame Kurogouchi Maiko Kurogouchi, AURALEE Ryota Iwai, TAAKK Takuya Morikawa, CFCL Yusuke Takahashi, TOMO KOIZUMI Tomoaki Koizumi, M A S U Shinpei Goto

About Kiichiro Asakawa, born in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan in 1986. A graduate of Tokyo Gakugei University, Asakawa started his career by working for the Japanese multi-brand store Naichichi for six years. Curious about a garment construction, he often took apart vintage pieces from the store. When Naichichi came to an end in 2016, he opened his own store Carol.

Besides selling edgy designer clothes, at CAROL, he offered pairs of vintage Levi’s 501 jeans that could be specially adapted to each customer’s unique morphology. This project’s success led him to launch ssstein in 2017 with three trouser designs. Two seasons later, tops and coats were added and the brand developed into a full collection.

The first ssstein runway show took place during Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo for the AW2023 season. The designer’s sharp aesthetic is recognizable in the scenography of his presentations as well as the lookbook images and the campaign videos.

About ssstein, on July 2016 brand launched with three trouser models. And sold exclusively in its own select shop CAROL until 2017. From the SS2018 season, the collection is presented in exhibition format. The brand is now being handled by various wholesalers and has started full-fledged activities.

BRAND CONCEPT, ‘From nothing to something. Expressing the space between the two.” With the concept of “From nothing to something”, we have been working to produce and deliver tranquil, strong and beautiful products. The drapes of the fabrics are made to a generous length, and the unique silhouette and balance are characterised by an awareness of the vertical impression when worn.

The brand’s strength lies in its commitment to using original textiles for almost all natural fibre fabrics, original synthetic fibres or textiles from the Italian companies Olmetex and LIMONTA. The brand also focuses on visuals and video production to convey the brand’s world view, and collaborates with various creators in Japan and abroad to delve into various ways of expressing the brand’s world view each season.

BRAND POSITIONING, From nothing to something.” We hope to express the in-between part of that, we hope to deliver our products to people who like mode, traditional, vintage, street, and various other styles, with a brand-specific approach and expression.

The clothes of stein are based on menswear, and patterns are made only by pattern makers who are familiar with menswear classics, and the silhouette and details are balanced and the essence of excess is removed. The silhouettes are completed by balancing the silhouettes and details, and then cutting out the essence of excess. We have been working with an emphasis on the creation of universal movements and values that do not change in value over time (seasons), such as vintage furniture, clothes and products. We hope to continue to work on activities that will enable us to make continuous efforts to gradually build up value.