London (UK) – British fashion retailer Topshop has just launched their fall/winter 2010 collections, High Performance, Out of the Wild, Dark Nouveau and Outsiders.

Continuing on from the summer's sportswear inspired craze, High Performance features paneling, clashing textures and high-tech fabrics. Giving sportswear a tougher feel for winter, styles are layered, worn under and over one another, while panels of aertex, mesh, lace, jersey and leather sit together to create a new look. Prints are at once tribal and technical - a car tyre print adorns a loose-fitting chiffon trouser while graphic prints decorate dresses which feature mesh panels.

Tapping into the colors of fall, the Out of the Wild collection is founded upon the elements. Faux fur, bondage-style strapping, disheveled fabrics and patchwork feature heavily, making textured knitwear and mixed materials central to this trend. With pieces that are knotted, laddered, and adorned with feathers and wild trims mixed with checks and tweed, the collection has an outdoors throw on feel.

As nights get longer and the days get darker earlier, the Dark Nouveau collection has an after-hours feel. Taking inspiration from the Art Nouveau movement - including Bardsley's illustrations for Oscar Wilde and the more recent Banshees created by Neville Page for Avatar - the line has a whimsical, fairytale feel. With tough, medieval-esque details used throughout, this collection provides a great opportunity to experiment with different make up. Dark lipsticks and heavy eye shadows will complement the clothing range which includes studded corsets and cage-like skirts with harness detailing.

Also tapping into the great outdoors, the Outsiders collection takes the best of Britain's heritage pieces and deconstructs them to create a modern feel. Elements of hunting, shooting, and fishing pervade the trend; the Jodhpur and the equestrian style jacket are key and prints take their inspiration from bird watching.   New York (USA) – The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT) will host in September "Japan Fashion Now," the first exhibition to explore contemporary Japanese fashion, from designer fashion to street style, including menswear.

"Japan continues to be on the cutting-edge – maybe even the bleeding edge – of fashion," says museum director and exhibition curator, Dr. Valerie Steele. "However, Japanese fashion today embraces not only the cerebral, avant-garde looks associated with the first wave of Japanese design in the 1980s but also a range of youth-oriented looks, such as Gothic Punk Lolita and Forest Girl styles."

The introductory gallery of this exhibition, devoted to the Japanese “fashion revolution” of the 1980s, will set the scene for today’s looks by featuring approximately two dozen iconic examples of asymmetrical, deconstructed garments by Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, as well as avant-garde styles by Issey Miyake, who combined innovative textile technologies with aspects of traditional Japanese dress. Both men’s and women’s styles by Matsuda will also be featured, as will “Orientalist” fashions by Kenzo and Hanae Mori, and pop-culture jumpsuits by Kansai Yamamoto.

The main gallery will reveal approximately 90 ensembles set within a dramatic setting evoking the iconic cityscape of 21st-century Tokyo and organized on different platforms. One of the platforms will illustrate how the work of pioneering avant-garde fashion designers has changed over the past 25 years. Ensembles by Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, Junya Watanabe, and Tao Kurihara, for example, will exemplify the evolution of deconstruction and reconstruction, as well as the influence of sub-cultural styles such as punk and the Japanese cult of cuteness.

Next will come a range of looks by Jun Takahashi of Undercover, described by journalist Suzy Menkes as “the essence of Japanese cool.” New designers featured include Hiroyuki Horihata and Makiko Sekiguchi of Matohu (who are inspired by Japanese aesthetics), and the flamboyant Toshikazu Iwaya of Iwaya33.

Because menswear is one of the most exciting categories within contemporary fashion, an entire platform will be devoted to some of Tokyo’s up-and-coming menswear designers. Former boxer Arashi Yanagawa of John Lawrence Sullivan, Yasuhiro Mihara of Miharayasuhiro , and Takeshi Osumi of Phenomenon - who just presented his first spectacular runway collection in Tokyo - will be among those featured.

'Japan Fashion Now' will be open to the public from September 17, 2010 until January 8, 2011.