Hit or Miss in Harujuku

One of my fave sites is Tokyo street style, if you haven't noticed.
They send somebody out to pick the best outfits in Harujuku, Shibuya, etc. for the week.

Here are the two boys they showed from Harujuku this week.


I love the one on the left, but the guy on the right...

Is he really one of the best outfits they could find in Harujuku?

What is going on? Maybe he is going for a Western look of American Teenager pants and a 1970's Texas jacket? I don't like the accessories either.

Look at the back.


The jacket of Left Guy gives him broad shoulders and a sturdy but shapely waist.
The jacket of Right Guy with the T-shirt peeking out looks so sloppy.

What do you think?

Are these outfits a hit (^_^)? Or a miss (>_<)?

The Star Power of Samantha Thavasa

One of Japans major labels, Samantha Thavasa, has recruited several celebrity designers. The surprise is that the celebrities are mainly Western, including actress Penleope Cruz (with her sister Monica), heiress Nicky Hilton, tennis star Maria Sharapova (who appears in the likes of Vogue quite often recently), and fashion figure/author Victoria Beckham (a.k.a "Posh").

Out of all of them, my favorite are the last two. Maria Sharapova's bags are really cute, have lots of detail, and have very feminine shapes.


Meanwhile, Victoria Beckham's bags have a classic shape and come in amazing colors that I can see many a rich Tokyo teen falling in love with.


There is one more celeb lending out her artistry, and she's actually Japanese!!! Model/actress Yuri Ebihara designs for Thavasa's "DELUXE" label.


The bags seem kind of average, but the jewelry is pretty cute:

Love for Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood is one of the most praised designers of our time. The British artist's trademark orb-shaped jewery is popular all over the world - but it's Japan that has a very unique cult following for it.

If you search (in English text) for Vivienne Westwood communities on Mixi, the Japanese version of MySpace, there are over 280 results.

Perhaps the most famous Japanese Vivienne endorser is actually the fictional character Nana Osaka in the immensely popular anime Nana.

When Nana's roommate lists off the things Nana likes, the first thing she says is "Vivienne."

Nana O's style is either typical punk (leather chokers, plaid skirts, big boots) or complete Vivienne Westwood.

As you can see, the Westwood dress in the upper right corner became a focal point in episode 8 when Nana O. dressed to impress. The necklace is also a Vivienne Westwood-like design.


Like Nana, many Japanese girls who love Vivienne are followers of rock and punk style.


Tatsuya Ueda is a member of KAT-TUN, a glitzy Johnny's Entertainment pop group, but is known to have a very obvious love for J-rock and its style. As you can see in the picture on the left, he also wears a Vivienne necklace.






***Vivienne Westwood is also responsible for a fave quote among fashionistas - "You have a better life if you wear impressive clothes."

Style Her Famous: Drew Mitai

This post is dedicated to two girls. Actress Drew Barrymore and a normal girl in Japan with a similar flawless style.

Drew's current casual style is to almost always wear a short jacket, partly because it's flattering to her short stature, and a nice big scarf. She seems very attached to her purple Sir Alistair Rai scarf.

She even carried her jacket and scarf style into her recent movie, Music and Lyrics. Well, when you are your own producer, I guess you can wear whatever you want!


Another place this style popped up was Paris Fashion Week 07 in the Balenciaga collection.

Like the model on the far right, Drew also teamed her typical jacket style with stripes as you can see below.

So...on to the Japan part...

The girl below, spotted in Daikanyama, has used every cool little quirk previously mentioned - the short jacket, the scarf, the stripey shirt, the scarf - and it's a perfect outfit.


The splash of color created by the shoes and scarf is great. People shy away from yellow, but look at how cool it is if you do it right! And the bag completes the look perfectly.

Her bag was an excellent accessory as well. It has a similar style to the Dior lambskin bag.


Major points to you, Daikanyama Girl

Especially since you probably came up with it on your own, you didn't get tips from a professional stylist like Drew does. ::nods::

The High Ponytail

80's lovers rejoice, the high pony seems to be making a comeback! 笑。

The picture on the left is from Kera's March issue. Those are some wicked highlights!

Koda Kumi also modeled some super cute high ponies in a recent issue of Seventeen.

The one on the right is cute because I like the way the hair raps around the base. I also enjoy the giant Scorpio brooch on her shirt.

The one below is awesome too, because the blinged out pony holder seems to be another trend, and also the classic 80's neon plastic earrings are adorable!
Another place this trend was seen was...Harujuku!!! Ah, finally this blog is mentioning the famous grounds of uber-trendy Japanese fashion!

The below pic is from a girl in Harujuku in the last week of March.

As you can see, even after you've gotten the tail that freakin high, it's best to pull at it and give it a little height and bounce.

This trend seems easy and spunky...it'll be a fun way to get the hair out of the face for the hot days of summer!!

Japanese Inspired: Kimono Tops

What kind of fashion blog would this be if I didn't mention the H&M line by Madonna? (Although I'm mentioning it quite a few weeks late.)

It was a huge success - although people were wishing the designs had been more outrageous, items were flying off the shelf very quickly and were soon on ebay.com with highly embellished prices.

The kimono-inspired dress on the left is actually $69.95
Not bad for something designed by Madonna herself!!

Although, we all know a kimono would tuck those ta-tas away, not embellish them. Still, it's a great look.

Almost all the stores further down the fashion food chain have taken on Madonna's particular symmetrical pattern for their own "kimono shirts". (If you remember, the old "kimono-inspired" patterns were more heavy one side like actual kimonos.)

Here are two nice ones from Charlotte Russe...

I think this first one is just perfect. A little chic, a little trendy, and a little retro. I love it.


There's also this one, which is less chic but really brings to mind the image of a real kimono.

I also saw this next one online somewhere, and it looks a little cheap, but I thought it was interesting how the design brings together both the kimono trend AND the leopard print trend.

Ayu - and her style - mentioned in Shojo Beat

The American manga-focused young girls' magazine, Shojo Beat, has featured a full page article on Ayumi Hamasaki in their May 07 issue.

The magazine has had an increasing amount of j-pop and j-rock coverage, although it can be a bit biased at times.

(For example, they mention Mika Nakashima, the singer in the Nana movie, like she's the queen of j-pop. At the same time, they own all the American rights to Nana itself.)

Anyway, part of the article focused in on Ayu's style, and I'm going to include it here ^_^






If you are a not a native English speaker, I'm willing to type it up so you can run it through electronic translators and whatnot.

Sources Needed

In order to create a less biased fashion blog, I'm looking for more places to get:

-scans of Japanese mags
-photos of Japanese people
-links to Japanese stars blogs, especially ones with pictures
-and if you have the translation sites to these blogs, that helps too.
-etc.

If you know of forums or communities where I can find some, please help this blog out!

And just because I haven't posted in a while, here are two random pics from KERA magazine March 07

1) Anna Tsuchiya. Because I haven't mentioned her yet and she's kind of cool. :)

That is some amazing hair right there.
And that bracelet with the crown on it...I want one soooo bad!

2) Yay! More leapord print!!! It's going to be come the number one tag in this blog I think, lol.

Well, I think you'd have to be a Tokyo Fashionista to be wearing a coat like that...although I have an aunt who looks really cute in a similar coat despite being 50.