French designer Olympia Le Tan lights up Japanese women’s wrestling games

Originally used to refer to gangs of delinquent teenage girls in Japan, the word “Sukeban” is making a comeback today with the creation of the Sukeban League, a Japanese female pro-wrestling league.

First presented in New York City and Miami, attracting over 2,000 fans to each show and 1.3 million more watching live on TikTok and Twitch to see the crowning of Commander Nakajima as the inaugural World Champion, the League held its first show in Los Angeles at the end of May with an event at The Trinity in Downtown Los Angeles. 
 
The event began with a Japanese-style street fair featuring local Los Angeles vendors and exclusive merchandise, followed by five matches featuring dozens of female wrestlers in teams around the Cherry Bomb Girls, Dangerous Liaisons or Harajuku Stars, all dressed in extraordinary outfits, make-up and ready for battle.

To glamorize these modern-day wrestlers, the League called on French designer Olympia Le Tan, best known for her highly creative handbag and clutches collections.

“It was my brother-in-law’s idea to create the League and bring it to the United States,” said Le Tan. “He asked me to design the costumes. It was one of the most interesting and fun jobs I’ve ever had, because it was totally free and strange, apart from a few technical aspects, and they needed to fight in those costumes. I approached each of them individually as a character and worked with extraordinary designers like Softskin Latex in the UK and Dawnamatrix.”

Dressing the wrestlers according to their character, villains, good guys and a few misfits, the Frenchwoman began with conversations with each wrestler, to find out more about their personalities, backgrounds, tastes, by watching them fight.

“I’ve seen classic gang films like ‘The Warriors’ many times and imagined them as superheroines in Japanese girl gangs,” said Le Tan. “I watched early Galliano and Vivienne Westwood shows for a bit of fashion theatricality and also a lot of anime, then ran it all through my magic blender.”

Alongside Le Tan, other artists were also involved, including Marc Newson, who created the champion’s belt, Stephen Jones, who made the hats, and Softskin Latex and Dawnamatrix, who produced all the latex pieces.
 
Launched in the early 50s in Japan, with the foundation of the first sexy and burlesque shows, women’s wrestling became a real craze in 1954 with the arrival of American wrestler Mildred Burke, who presented a show in Tokyo for the American armed forces. 

A real cultural phenomenon in Japan, women’s wrestling remained popular until the late 90s. “The phenomenon was huge with stars like Bull Nakano and the Crush Gals being real icons for young girls,” continued Le Tan. “Now, it’s having a comeback and there a lot of fans of this particular genre of wrestling here in the U.S.”

Further U.S. dates are due to be announced shortly.