Toga Archives

Toga was founded in 1997 in Tokyo by Japanese designer Yasuko Furuta as a contemporary womenswear brand specifically focused on what Furuta described as 'a deliberately-romantic, deliberately-eccentric Japanese-feminine vocabulary.' The Toga Archives sub-line was launched in 2006 as the brand's higher-tier flagship-collection sub-brand, with the main Toga line serving as the broader contemporary-luxury offering. The brand has been one of the defining post-1997 Japanese-feminine contemporary womenswear brands, with the deliberately-Western-classical-meets-Japanese-tradition visual culture anchoring the broader brand position. The Toga / Toga Archives vocabulary settled around several recurring elements: deconstructed Japanese-cotton-and-wool tailored separates with deliberate-Western-classical proportional references, hand-printed silk-and-cotton dresses with deliberately-romantic floral motif references, the brand's iconic Western-cowboy-derived boot programme (a recurring product category since 2008), hand-knitted Japanese-cotton sweaters, and a colour palette anchored to deep navy, oxblood, washed-cream, soft-pink, washed-charcoal, plus the brand's recurring use of saturated red and traditional-Japanese-dye natural-indigo tones. The brand has presented at the Tokyo, Paris, and London women's-fashion-week calendars across the past two decades. The brand is independent and held by Furuta. Toga operates flagship retail in Tokyo (Shibuya Parco — the brand's home flagship; Aoyama), Osaka, Paris (Le Marais, the long-running Toga Paris store), London (Soho), New York (Soho), plus international wholesale through SSENSE, MATCHES, Net-a-Porter, Mytheresa, Dover Street Market, Lane Crawford, Boontheshop, and a curated set of contemporary-luxury-womenswear specialty retailers globally. The brand has been one of the most quietly disciplined post-1997 Japanese-feminine contemporary womenswear brands.