Harajuku is real place: it's a one-square mile section of Tokyo. After WW II it was where much of the occupying military and their families resided and it was packed with American Stores catering to the military. Naturally, those same stores attracted the young Japanese who wished to see what was the style in America and the western world. Over the years the tables have turned and now fashion designers and fashionistas including pop musicians and television on movie stars flock to Harajuku in search of the latest fashion outbreaks.
This reviewer is not a big fan of fashion and he prefers to look at fashion from the viewpoint of a sociologist, anthropologist and photojournalist. I have the same fascination with colorful birds, brightly colored tropical fish, painted, tattooed Amazonian Indians, brightly feathered New Guinea Headhunters and African Tribes and of course, Fetish Fashions. That said Japanese fashion is like a giant buffet of pleasures for my eyes. Japanese street fashion is like a flash of colorful tulips in a dark New England winter landscape.
The only real criticism I have of this book was the font used in the type. It's difficult to read especially on something like the subway map of the Harajuku district. Sometimes it almost seems like it's written in a foreign language. I suspect that the typeface is an echo of some of the type fonts used in some of the Japanese fashions.
"In the scene's frenetic jump from style to style to style, there is a consistent lack of complacence--a style deficit disorder driving the relentless hunt for the new. Trends appear in a flash and disappear just as quickly. Kids move in and out of styles with amazing agility."
The designs that pepper Harajuku are an amalgamation of all existing styles with an occasional spark of the genuinely new. The book is filled with photographs illustrating some of the latest fashions. David Bowie is shown wearing a wonderful optical illusion patterned, full-length body suit that reminds the viewer of ancient Mayan or Aztec pottery. On page 204 is a woman dressed in a sexy Burka that covers her entire body except for a narrow eye slit. How could a Burka be sexy, you ask? Simple, make much of it out of transparent colored lace. It then looks more like a belly dancer's seven veils. Another picture a few pages further along in the book reminds the viewer of fully wrapped mummy. In fact many of he fashions appear to include various full face masks that resemble bird and/or animal heads, a medieval knight with complete head and facial armor, Tuareg head dresses (tagelmusts), and the S&M submissive's leather, hoods/masks with no eye holes. Page 101 is a full-page profile photo of a woman with her face completely covered with netting that hints at Audrey Hepburn's hats and eye lace. She has green lipstick, triangle eye make-up, green hair and a blue cap and appears elf-like. That pictures is used through the book as a kind of icon. She epitomizes Japanese Fashion. She is beautiful and so is her makeup and head covering.
This could easily be called a designer's bible to Harajuka fashions although it is already out of date as far as the newest fashion fads are concerned. "Even the kids who buy the latest trends can have their moment in the sun. Teams of photographers from street-snap magazines like FRUiTS, and TUNE are regularly stationed along Harajuku's main drag, capturing the kids and turning them, at least for an issue, into fashion celebrities and innovators. Where else can you walk down the street expecting to be scouted by camera crews?"
These street snapshots are turning up regularly as separate picture books on Tokyo fashion including "Gothic & Lolita," "Harajuku Girls," "The Tokyo Look Book" and "J-Rock Groupies" to name only a few. This book, along with "The Tokyo Look Book," includes excellent text that actually helps explain these rapidly changing fresh, fashion flashes. If you can only afford one, this should be that Fashion Bible.
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