Okinawa fashion: new style for tropical islands

Okinawa, the Japanese archipelago home to thousands of US troops and popular with scuba divers, is looking beyond its beach resorts and World War II battle sites to bag a spot in high fashion.

A two-and-a-half-hour flight from Tokyo, Okinawa couldn't be more different from the Japanese capital, where the fashion set reach for tights and tailored jackets on even a balmy autumn day and look down their noses at homespun "resort wear".

But rather than bend to Tokyo's will, two fashion houses on Okinawa have wider horizons: putting the sub-tropical island chain on the fashion map in its own style.