"Korean International Style Show (KISS)" marked the first joint fashion event by Korea and Japan, held in Tokyo's Yoyogi National Gym near Shibuya.
Drawing a crowd of 33,000 fans, the three-day fashion shows from Jan. 25 and concerts featured a variety of Korean singers and models, as well as over 60 Japanese models.
KISS consisted of live performances by 15 K-POP frontrunners, and fashion shows given by 14 Korean and 5 Japanese brands.
Performances included K-Pop artists on the rise such as KARA, SNSD, Beast, RaNia, SISTAR, CN BLUE, Infinite, AfterSchool.
Quite expectedly, the media coverage zoomed into the K-POP stars instead of the runways. With the international surge of Korean wave, however, the coming days may see Korean fashion's full bloom.
KISS is the first attempt to spread the Korean wave that has centered on dramas and music toward fashion," explained MBC, Korea's TV station that hosted the event.
Themes of the show started with "Korean Ism" on the first day, moving onto "Style" and "Street" for the rest, bringing a rich collection of Korean and Japanese brands onto the runways.