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The Tokyo Look Book
Stylish to Spectacular, Goth to Gyaru, Sidewalk to Catwalk
Philomena Keet
Photographs by Yuri Manabe
Paperback 224 pages
190 x 235mm
ISBN : 978-4-7700-3061-0 / 4-7700-3061-4
Publish : Nov, 2007
Price : $29.95 |
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[ About the Book ]
| What's your TLQ (Tokyo Look Quotient)? |
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS.
AND THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED!
Question 1) What is Shibuya 109?
Answer: b. a famous Tokyo shopping mall
Question 2) On a Sunday afternoon on Jingubashi bridge, you're most likely to see
Answer: c. Lolita
Question 3) Who of the following has no connection to Tokyo fashion:
Answer: c. Jenna Bush
Question 4) What is "cosplay?"
Answer: d. dressing like a manga or anime character
To find out more about The Tokyo Look Book, please see the exclusive interview with Philomena Keet below:
Philomena Keet is a student of both anthropology and Tokyo street fashion. In fact, she penned her PhD dissertation on the wild and wacky fashion happenings on the streets of Japan. She even worked in a popular boutique as part of her research.
In this Question and Answer session, Keet discusses how her interest in and extensive research on Tokyo fashion led her to write her new book The Tokyo Look Book.
Question:You chose to complete your doctorate in anthropology with a study on Tokyo Fashion. Why did you choose that particular subject? How did your interest come about?
Philomena Keet: My interest in Japanese fashion arose when I was living in Osaka. On one hand I was amazed by the prevalence of luxury brand bags and on the other, intrigued by the spectacular and sometimes shocking assemblages of clothes that could be seen around the city.
My fascination was also stimulated by the FRUiTS book, which I had in England and would pore over. One day in Osaka I went to a 'visual kei' ('visual style' rock) concert out of curiosity and was bowled over by the sight that greeted me upon approaching the venue: apart from gothic and lolita kids in all shapes, sizes, colors and configurations there were scores of men and women alike dressed up like the star of the show, the androgynous singer Gackt. It was like stepping into another world.
When I came to think about my PhD in anthropology whilst finishing off my MA in Japanese studies, I wanted to study some aspect of Japanese fashion, not least because the anthropology of consumption and material culture was of particular interest to me, and it seemed that within that 'clothing' had not yet been given the prominence which it perhaps deserved.
Once I embarked on the PhD, I realized that 'cosplay' (costume play, like the fans dressing up as the rock star), gothic lolita and FRUiTS style fashion were actually completely different modes of dressing with different implications depending on the degree to which they were bound up in the wearer's identity. For me, FRUiTS? the array of looks that were most individualistic, creative and authentic to the wearer's identity, and also the most connected to the realm of 'high fashion'?became the one that posed the most interesting questions. That's how I came to study FRUiTS!
Q: How did you go about doing your research on Tokyo fashion?
PK: At first I set out to do comparative research on the types of styles seen in the magazine FRUiTS and Tune, and Gothic Lolita. Any anthropology PhD is based on intensive 'fieldwork' where you integrate to a degree in the lives of the people you are studying.
For a few months I spent a lot of time going to the bridge in Harajuku where the fashion tribes hang out, chatting to them and the old men whose hobby is to gather there and, along with the tourists take photographs of gaggles of cosplaying and lolita kids.
The people who are photographed for FRUiTS and Tune magazine are predominantly young people involved in some way in the fashion industry. Most are at fashion school or hairdressing college (a far more fashionable occupation than it is elsewhere), work in a boutique, are stylists or designers. There are exceptions of course.
They crucially have an original and creative outfit that they look good in, which involves some high fashion avant-garde brand of the moment, and possibly some customized stuff or second hand clothes.
Not everyone appreciates these fashions, but for many fashion students they are a source of fashion inspiration.
I also went to a 'gothic lolita' tea party, photo shoots and more. Whilst doing this I was gradually negotiating access to FRUiTS and Tune magazine. Eventually I started to pound the streets with one of the few photographers for the magazines, to attend fashion events and so on with her.
It became clear that it was too much to try to study both styles, and...I much preferred hanging out with the FRUiTS people than the Goths! So I continued to go 'hunting' with the FRUiTS and Tune photographers, gradually making the acquaintance of lots of fashionable Harajuku people.
Part of my fieldwork plan was to work in a shop, and eventually I managed this. It was an amazing shop, and I was dressed up in the most weird and wonderful things every day, but it burnt down before I left Japan!
Q: Discuss your work in a Tokyo boutique as research for your PhD dissertation.
PK: The shop I was working for was literally and figuratively underground. It was in a backstreet in Shibuya, and it stocked the most eccentric stuff. There were life-jackets with shark repellent still attached, ex-US army gear for the snow and parachute suits. There were glass cases with jewelry nestled between phials containing (what looked like) rat fetuses.
I remember on my first trip noticing a necklace made of teeth (fake I was assured). Amongst all the strange second-hand clothes and re-made objects were also new clothes from local and international avant-garde designers, for example shoes with heels made from screws and bolts by Kei Kagami, and jackets with puffy skulls on each shoulder by Marjan Perjoski.
The first day I got there one of the staff picked out an orange and green designer dress, some green secondhand denim and snakeskin trousers and an old belt with a strap that went through the legs as well as around the waist. I had absolute hysterics in the changing room putting this stuff on, not least because the trousers didn't fit so I had to shuffle around for the rest of the day.
Anyway they all thought it looked great? I even wore my own pink and green floral welly boots to top off the look. Every day I worked there I wore some such outfit, although gradually I wore more of my own stuff and chose some things from the shop to wear myself.
When customers came I was very keen on serving, but sometimes people just dropped in for chats. All sorts came to the shop, including a drag queen carrying a tarantula in a box. Another part of the job was drawing on the paper bags that were given to the customers ? being terrible at drawing I just wrote a whole load of English on one. I later did the same to a white lab coat, which sold in a few days.
Stylists and people I often saw in magazines and other shops often dropped in, and through interacting with them I got to know more about the workings of that fashion scene in Tokyo. It became clear as well how influential the regular staff of the shop were: not only did they advise customers, but they made or customized a lot of the stuff themselves and often featured in magazines.
Q: Are there social, economic or cultural factors unique to Tokyo or Japan that have nurtured the fashion scene?
PK: In Japan of course there is no one 'fashion scene' and the social, cultural and economic factors that draw someone to gothic lolita and a conservative look are very different. Much has been written about the importance of the group in Japanese society and embarrassment about standing out, but whilst gyaru groups can be very rigidly defined with 'interviews' to join etc., for other styles like the fashionistas often in FRUiTS, its hard to make out any recognizable 'group' at all.
One of the characteristics of fashion itself is its ambiguous nature in anchoring the individual into some kind of group as well as representing a desire for individuality. Hence, the gothic lolita who looks like she is standing out and rebelling against society is actually dressing in a recognized style with thousands of adherents, but at the same time within any seeming group there are always people striving to stand out, be the most fashionable or extreme.
Economic factors may have contributed to the 'second-hand' clothing boom, which are now sold everywhere from supermarket-like chains to exclusive and vintage boutiques. But on the other hand, people buy Louis Vuitton bags regardless of whether it's a recession or they earn very little.
Culturally, there may be something in the Japanese ability to have fun with clothes and enjoy them for what they are rather than perceiving them as some meaningless frivolity which detracts from the 'inner self'. There is a lot of importance placed on 'surfaces' in Japan: masking one's inner feelings can be positively valued for example.
Q: What does Tokyo street fashion say about the Japanese culture as a whole?
PK: Despite the stereotype of pressure to conform, in a sense there's a lot more tolerance in Japanese culture to styles that deviate from the norm. Perhaps people just refrain from saying what they really think, but people wearing the strangest things do not get openly jeered or heckled as they would do in England.
This attitude of (feigned?) apathy may be one of the reasons that Tokyo is such a hotbed of spectacular styles. Tokyo street style provides one example of how Japanese society is not full of groupist conformists. Also it shows how good Japan is at absorbing elements from other cultures and importing them with a Japanese twist, but also in some cases highlights the complex that some Japanese may feel with regard to the 'West', especially with luxury brands (Japanese luxury brand bags are not nearly as successful).
But again, street fashion in Tokyo has so much variation, and also by virtue of being in Tokyo, it is not always representative of Japanese culture as a whole. While a handful of major cities, including Osaka may show similarities in the richness of their street fashion, take a trip to any one of the medium sized cities in Japan, even more so the countryside, and it becomes evident that there is no one 'Japanese culture' that can be explained by what's happening on the Tokyo streets.
Q: What do you think drives people to take fashion to the extreme?
PK: Again it depends on who you are talking about. The yamamba, with their dark skins, white rimmed panda eyes and fluorescent hair are certainly the most extreme form of Shibuya gyaru. They have taken the kogyaru look before them one step further, who in turn exaggerated the sassy 'gyaru' style. In this case, by creating more extreme looks, they are automatically requiring a greater devotion to the style and therefore lifestyle, and in a sense the creation of their own parallel world.
Other charismatic individuals may push a style which then every one copies, and then to stand out again the style has to be pushed further, in an escalating spiral of 'extremeness'.
Q: What role has music and particular bands and artists played in the development of the different fashion "tribes"?
PK: As in many subcultures, fashion and music in Japan can be intricately linked. Gothic Lolita for example is credited with having been invented by 'visual style' rock star Mana when he was in band Malice Mizer. Lolita was already a style co-opted by visual kei bands, but Mana crossed it with the existing goth style. At the other end of the musical spectrum, Nigo's the Bathing Ape is very tied up with hip-hop music, with Nigo producing hip-hop collective Teriyaki Boyz as well as teaming up with Pharrell on the Billionaire Boy's Club clothes brand. Ayumi Hamasaki, the Japanese pop star, has influenced the gyaru fashion scene a lot.
Q: In Japan, very specific fashion circles with distinct sub-cultures have evolved. What are the most influential of those groups, or "tribes," today? How would you describe those tribes' fashions?
PK: One of the tribes that holds most fascination for non-Japanese is gothic lolita. The basic image is of a Victorian doll crossed with a goth, but there are myriad variations and sub-classifications. However these youngsters hold little influence to those outside their social world with Japan so don't expect the look to go mainstream at any point. They are generally ignored or dismissed as 'weird' by those outside the 'visual style' scene. Not being overtly rebellious, they don't have the cachet that punks for example once held.
The gyaru look, centerring in Shibuya is immensely influential and is found throughout the country as well as in various offshoots such as the more mature 'older sister style' and the more extreme 'yamamba'. It has always been a sassy and brash look, often colorful although recently a lot of black, gold and denim has been 'in'.
The people who appear in FRUiTS are definitely trendsetters in a sense, not least because they often wear high fashion brands such as Japanese Undercover, American Jeremy Scott and so on. But again, something that is seen often in FRUiTS would not make it into the gyaru world. They are quite uninfluenced by each other.
Q: What does it take to create a fashion "tribe"?
PK: Sometimes a charismatic leader with a particular style of dress, can precipitate a trend of wearing a certain look which may evolve into a tribe given the development of
enough specific consumption opportunities (i.e. the growth of an industry around that tribe). I'm not sure how helpful the word 'tribe' is since I'm not sure how many of the individual members of various stylistic groups would identify themselves as belonging to a 'tribe' and lifestyle as for example the yamamba do.
Many, for example the fashionistas who often appear in FRUiTS, just proclaim that they are 'normal' even though to outsiders they may seem like members of a tribe.
Q: Why do Western cultures find Tokyo styles so fascinating?
PK: I think for the same reason that many people from the West become captivated with Japan in general: there are enough elements for it to be recognizable and for us to be comfortable with, but there are also elements that feel completely unexpected and 'exotic.' For example, we can identify the maid-like pinafores worn by some Lolita, but for them to be worn out of their original historical context, and to be teamed with plastic accessories and macabre teddy bears is even more bizarre and fascinating to us than seeing something that is completely 'foreign' perhaps, like a kimono.
Q: How would you describe the relationship between American and Tokyo styles?
PK: Well, there's a lot of love flowing both ways! Even cosplay and gothic lolita has a following in America, albeit a minority one. American fashions have dominated much of the global fashion scene anyway, so it is no surprise that they continue to do so in Japan, especially with imported hip-hop gear at the moment. But I'm afraid I don't know so much about American fashion – maybe that will have to be the next project!
Q: Lastly, the general impression among many Westerners is that the Japanese are very restrained and conservative -- and tend to conform in their dress and behavior -- so it's somewhat startling to see the fashions that are featured in The Tokyo Look Book. Will you discuss?
PK: One way to explain that is by saying that they may not be conservatively dressed, but they don't stand out amongst their peers. Most of the spectacular fashions in Tokyo have many adherents who spend relatively more time with each other than with differently dressed people. The style is conservative in a way in that it is conserving the group consensus of what looks good, even if that looks crazy to many other people. But also the image of Japanese as restrained and conservative has never been an entirely accurate one. Salaryman may look restrained, but when they go out drinking they are notoriously raucous, and images of salaryman propping up or dragging each other along at the end of a drunken night are very common. Pornographic images and services are readily accessible in Japan and not especially restrained. Part of the image of 'restrained and conservative' also comes from schoolchildren in their immaculate uniforms, studying diligently without a word in class. This is true for the elite, high-level schools, but at average schools it can be hard to keep a class quiet and 'bad schools' are bursting with rebellious kids. Many of these rebellious kids may be the ones to form their own extravagant styles like the panda-eyed yamamba. Or ones who don' feel they 'fit in' may find solidarity in cosplaying for example.
Reviews
The Tokyo Look Book "showcases full-color photographs of the stylish set, but also interviews designers such as Naoyuki Ohira and members of the Goth rock band Moi-même-Moitié." —Women's Wear Daily
"From Goth to Gyaru, Japan's groundbreaking street fashion is rounded up in The Tokyo Look Book." —Elle
"The beautifully photographed book is notable not only for the great variety of looks it documents, but also for providing insight and background into the root of Tokyo street style and the individuals who constantly reinvent it." —Fashion Wire Daily
"The Tokyo Look Book offers a colorful peek at what the kids are wearing these days on the sidewalks and catwalks of the capital city. Not only does [Philomena Keet] profile specific youth subcultures concentrated in a few celebrated districts, but she also turns a lens on the rest of Tokyo society." —Budget Travel (online)
About the Authors
Philomena Keet is a British anthropologist whose PhD is on Tokyo street fashion. She splits her time between her native London and Tokyo. The Tokyo Look Book is her first book.
Visit Author's blog
Yuri Manabe is a Tokyo-based photographer whose distinctive portraits have appeared in a variety of prestigious music and fashion magazines, including Marie-Claire, GQ, Rockin'on, Coyote, and Switch.
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