All stories about "Harajuku"

Girly Harajuku-style fashions are known the world over. Although a few American knockoff brands have popped up, there is still only one way to get to the true source, and that's by coming to Japan and checking out the shops. Shopping department Marui (OIOI) has always been a friend to the girl in need, and luckily for the rest of the world, this past weekend saw the launch of their new international online store. If you have brands such as Super Lovers, Sexy Dynamite London, or Baby, The Stars Shine Bright on your shopping list, rejoice -- they're now but a credit card order away. Japanese pop culture guru Patrick Macias (of Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Subculture Handbook fame) is one of their consultants, and he'll be contributing original content to the site as well.

MARUIONE.JP [Official site]

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When pawing through the depressing mounds of Halloween costumes at my local Ricky's in New York, I was amused to discover this "Harajuku Pop" costume. Dress up like those Tokyo girls who dress up in that Gwen Stefani song, kids! Where's the "Akihabara Otaku" cosplaying as Naruto costume? (Not to be confused with actual Naruto costume.)

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Care to try some Japanese products for free? That's the sole purpose of the Sample Lab, a product testing space that opened in late July at the Audi Forum Tokyo building in Harajuku (6-12-18 Jingumae, 03-5464-7200). It's not entirely free, but close enough -- registration is 300 yen, followed by an annual membership fee of 1,000 yen -- and that gives you access to all the products on show, plus a license to bring up to five items back with you per visit. Souvenir gathering has never been so cheap; and no worries, no one back home will ever know these are just samples. I have a Flickr photoset with a few shots of the Audi building. It attracted a lot of attention -- and still does -- during construction, with its distinct shape and exterior, resulting in the often used "Iceberg Building" nickname.

Sample Lab [Official site]

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Since I cover design for a few publications, and with my love for cafes being no secret at all, you can bet that I got excited when I heard of the just-opened Sunshine Studio cafe in Harajuku. Billing itself as a "designers cafe," it's run by the Design Works Project unit with the hope of serving as a gathering space for designers from the world over. One of the ways they hope to accomplish this is by hosting exhibitions, and they're off to a great start with the inaugural show: works and furnishings by Geoff McFetridge. For designers and fans of design alike.

Sunshine Studio [Official site]
Sunday in the Sunshine [Boicozine]

-- Jean Snow

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Roaming the streets of Tokyo -- particularly youth-oriented districts such as Harajuku or Shibuya -- can often cause acute fashion shock. Can you tell your yamamba (literally mountain witch, or those girls in blackface with the white hair) from your gyaru-o? In comes your otaku guide to all things fashion: Mr. Patrick "I live and breath Japanese trash culture" Macias, with his just-released Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbook. The cover-to-cover illustrative guide (see some scans from the interior here) runs through pretty much every teen trend you could imagine, from pink maids to black lolitas, with some you probably never dared conceive. Be ready, be prepared, and above all, don't be afraid.

Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno [Amazon]

-- Jean Snow

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First, Japanese casual clothing brand Uniqlo tries to up its street/style cred with a high-profile global flagship store in New York. What's next? The launch of UT, which sees the company finally give a proper name to its ever-expanding t-shirt collections. The new line, set to launch April 28, will have its own store in Tokyo's fashionable Harajuku district (6-10-8 Jingumae, 03-5468-7313), to be joined by an online store, of course. At the brick and mortar incarnation, standard shelving will be replaced by t-shirt vending machines, with the tees themselves packaged in tubes. Beams T better watch out!

UT [Official site]

-- Jean Snow

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This past Sunday, I was invited to participate in a shoot for Discovery's Travel Channel. It was for the show Not Your Average Travel Guide, and I acted as a guide to parts of Harajuku. The idea was to present a fun walk in the area, and here's what we ended up doing. Since it was a Sunday, all the kids in lolita-goth costumes were on the bridge by Harajuku station. After hanging there for a bit, we went to a nearby entrance to Yoyogi park to have a look at the rockabilly dancers -- for years these guys in full rockabilly gear, and especially with the appropriate hairstyle, get together dance with music blasting. Then, it was off to Takeshita street, which is well stocked in all the fashions -- dark yet cute gothwear -- that you see near the station. As we got to the end of the street, we crossed Meiji street, and then found ourselves in Ura-Hara, land of streetwear, where things suddenly get more hip. Walking through those back streets, we eventually connected with Omotesando, which is where we ended the walk with a look inside the Tadao Ando-designed Omotesando Hills shopping complex.

-- Jean Snow

[Photo: Jean Snow]

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