brad-t
from Number (N)ine’s s/s 07 “About A Boy”
Buffalo Bobs Crystal — Neo Spiral Boots — ¥16,800
Posting this because it’s interesting how they’ve addressed one of the biggest problems of synthetic leather shoes — toe scuffs. They’ve used real leather for the toe cap only, increasing durability while keeping the price low!
Men’s Non-no, Eyescream, and Warp Magazine
Fantastic write-up about three popular Japanese menswear magazines.
Men’s Non-no, Eyescream, and Warp are all publications with focused communities, ideals, and a large readership. Each are focused on what brands they represent, the people they cover and interview, and models they utilize. They all in many ways question gender constructions of masculinity and femininity and as a whole are extremely sensitive to social change.
First, two really big terms I want to discuss are dokusha (reader) models and charisma clerks. Dokusha models are usually scouted on the street or chosen from readers who submit themselves. They’re cheaper and because they’re not managed are easier to work with. On the other hand, charisma clerks are literally store staff who become popular and famous. It’s usually used when discussing the Shibuya 109 staff, but a current example would be the staff in Koenji or clerks at FAKETOKYO. Undoubtedly an important aspect of Japanese menswear magazines are the people who are depicted wearing the clothing. For their readers these celebrities, models, store staff, and others are idols to relate to and project themselves onto. These “everyday” celebrity models make these magazines’ messages easier to send directly to their target audience. In this way their readers are able to potentially meet, in person relate to, and legitimize these “celebrities”. Therefore it is essential to pin-point who is popular and a trendsetter. By using people who embody their featured styles these magazines create a community who keep the magazine alive and within their target audience.
Men’s Non-no was originally launched by publisher Shueisha in 1987. While its target consists of male high school and university students a large percentage of their readership are actual female. Men’s Non-no is broken down in that it’s divided by boutiques, Japanese brands and designers, then global brands. Common brands featured are often Factotum, LAD MUSICIAN. N.Hoolywood, MIHARAYASUHIRO, Paul Smith, White Mountaineering, Dior Homme, nonnative, Comme des Garcons, and others with similar aesthetics. A big thing about this magazine is that most of the models are Japanese or a person of mixed ethnicity. Often times in men’s fashion-focused Japanese magazines a large majority of models are Western. In many ways Western models can convey American values and ideas. Yet this imagery is more about the “imagined West” rather than the reality. Ex: Think Nakamura’s Visvim skewed ideal of American style. Men’s Non-no has a great street snap section and is big on coordinates. There are usually more than one advice section on how to wear a garment, or numerous garments more than one way. Weekly, day to night, seasonal, and day 1 to day 2 are all big coordinate features within Non-no. http://www.mensnonno.jp/
Eyescream is all about how artists and designers work along with their progression. It’s a much more personal and behind-the-scenes type of magazine which switches the focus from the product to the people who create them. Eyescream is all about Hiroshi Fujiwara, Jun Takahashi, Nigo, Takeshi Osumi, Kitamura Nobuhiko (Hysteric Glamour), Takahiro Miyashita (The Soloist), Hiroki Nakamura (Visvim), Nishiyama Tetsu (Wtaps), Shinsuke Takizawa (Neighborhood), and many more like them. Eyescream also features creative news, music and movie reviews, gallery openings, parties and events, among more lifestyle features.
http://www.eyescream.jp/
Warp is more of a lifestyle magazine without a doubt. Rather than focusing on fashion or product, Warp is more about being stylish and living a life which reflects that. Warp is also really big on giving free gift cds and usually asks people who are featured to create a mixtape for the magazine, which is obviously a huge plus. Overall its really street focused with interests ranging from graffiti to skateboarding, music, movies, parties and events, global culture, artists, designers, and often times does specific features on a group of people or creative persons within a country. The brands that are covered are usually like Supreme, Wtaps, BOUNTY HUNTER, Stussy, Neighborhood, SWAGGER, and others of the like. Warp has a pretty professional do-it-yourself feel to it and is much more communal. There aren’t really a lot of models so most of the magazine really consists of musicians, djs, store staff, celebrities, and et cetera. Some nameable people featured a lot are like Verbal and Yoon, RIP SLYME, Jon-E, Takeshi Osumi (Big O), DJ DARUMA, DJ MAAR, Jommy, Chaki, DABO, U of Faline Tokyo, and others within that scene.
http://www.warpweb.jp/index.html
King of details and layering Takahiro Miyashita of former number (n)ine fame delivers another home run for the AW12 collection of his namesake brand, TAKAHIROMIYASHITATheSoloIst. (You can just call it “The Soloist” if you want — sheesh.)
galism
Responses to our “Fashion at Anime Conventions” Exchange
LOL SO TRUE. Japanese don’t really wear lolita and stuff…very few of us do.
Well, that’s not really what I was getting at. Whether or not it’s mainstream has very little to do with whether it’s legitimate or not. If anything, the nicheness of styles like this is what makes them especially appealing to foreigners — there’s just something very uniquely Japanese about particularly subversive Harajuku fashion trends. However, even if a show was to be completely populated by subversive styles, it would be nice to see more than two or three.
As someone who goes to Anime North, I’d like to tell you that year by year AN has been getting more and more fashion oriented people at the con. The lolita community has notice a steady increase of better and better Lolita outfit. And personally I have been trying to push fashion oriented things at Anime North, this year Im bringing 4 panels on lolita, 1 on mori girl, a swap meet and helping in the fashion show. I think you should really consider coming to this convention :) It not going to happen overnight off course. My non-lolita panels usually have poor attendance but I really want to see this take off :)
Thanks for your response. With regards to Anime North, I’m not really convinced — I was there last year and while there was certainly a solid lolita presence there was nothing particularly new or interesting. I sat in on a few general Japanese fashion panels and they were abysmal. There was one in particular where people openly talked about experiences while wearing Japanese fashion, but it was largely a bunch of saccharine “be yourself!” stuff. One guy was sharing his experiences about wearing a jester hat in high school. I guess that certainly is subversive, though.
This isn’t to rag on anime or anything like it — I watch a lot of anime and otherwise nerdy Japanese shit — but I just don’t think the atmosphere of an anime convention is generally very interesting to people who are into fashion. There are exceptions, of course. Sakuracon is having shows for h.NAOTO, Chantilly and Atelier Pierrot. But serious fashion people are likely not going to be hanging around furries and hardcore otaku. In the end, I decided that just because these are Japanese culture conventions doesn’t mean they really align with the realities of Japanese fashion. Still, I wish you luck in your events.
The new fashion show coordinator of Otakuthon has sent me a response to this editorial.
Otakuthon is proud to present the Fashion Show! It is a fashion parade that brings together three different categories: Lolita, J-Pop/J-Rock/Visual-Kei and Traditional.
This is the message that is presented when you visit Otakuthon’s — the Montréal anime and manga convention — page about their fashion show. They were also accepting cosplay entries.
———————
Hello,
I’m Lysandra, the new Fashion Show manager. Last year I was the assistant. I would like to tell you that even though you’ve written this editorial a long time ago, it just recently got my attention. I will not take it in consideration though. Why? Not because I think the show is flawless but because you seem to have missed the point of the fashion show and if I recall, you did not even attend the show itself.
I understand the presentation text might have been a little sloppy, it’s being changed this year because it wasn’t very clear. Plus, you have to know we do not refuse any entry due to the structure nature of the show. It isn’t a competition and even though we try to keep the main focus of the show around Japanese/Japanese inspired fashion and the registered participants must follow certain rules, there will always be a section of the show where the audience is invited to come on the stage to experience the feeling of being under the spotlight.
I understand it may not please certain ”fashion otaku” as you call them but we are aiming toward a more general audience.
Thank you,
Lyly
Hi Lyly,
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to respond to our article. I hope you don’t mind that I will be delivering my response publicly — after all, I consider this something of a public interest rather than a private conversation between you and I.
Firstly, no, I did not attend the show. But you know, there are a lot of things in life that I have not personally experienced but have been able to form an opinion on. I have never gone parachuting because I think it seems pretty scary, for example. That said, I did see photos from the show and got opinions from others. I’ve also been to fashion shows at a multitude of other conventions (the original editorial, while inspired by Otakuthon, was a look at convention attitudes towards Japanese fashion in general). Largely, these things strengthened my viewpoint on the matter.
Perhaps you are right, though. Perhaps I did miss the point of the show. You see, I was under the impression that the point of a fashion show was to present styles of clothes for public perusal. In the case of a convention fashion show, I would hope the point would be to expose the incredibly interesting and diverse world of Japanese fashion to an audience who might otherwise never have the chance to experience these garments firsthand. Is that correct?
If it is not correct, then what is the purpose? I’m all for people feeling good about themselves, but just because something is for a general audience doesn’t mean you need to reduce it to pointless circle-jerking. If anything, the fact that it is for a general audience should re-enforce the need to have a laser focus. A general audience might be experience Japanese fashion for the first time. They deserve to be shown more than just lolita and decora and whathaveyou. There is more to Japanese fashion than bright colours and over-accessorizing. In fact, if you actually look at what was shown at Japan Fashion Week, you’ll find very little of that.
That’s not to delegitimize these styles; ultimately they have their well-earned place in the melange of Japanese street fashion. But this is an audience that has paid to go to a convention and used their presumably precious time to sit down and see what this Japanese fashion thing is all about. In my opinion, they deserve more.
If you would like to discuss what can be done to give a more true-to-life presentation of Japanese fashion, I’d be more than happy to do so.
