TokyoScope: We’ve talked a lot about how the pandemic changed things and how technology is changing things, but what about Lolita fashion? Has it evolved at all recently?
RinRinDoll: I think the whole subculture fashion genre went down in Japan, especially during the pandemic. We saw that same phenomenon after the earthquake too. It felt, in general, inappropriate to dress up in such sad times and it was the same unconsciously too for me, too. I dyed my hair black after almost always having colored hair. I stopped wearing makeup for a while, too. I forgot how to put it on because I hadn’t worn it in so long. I didn’t buy new clothes and pretty much stayed monotone.
You can still see it on my Instagram where I am pretty much black most of the time. But I mean, it’s coming back. The color is coming back.
During the pandemic, more people also started to take photos at rental studios, instead of going to events like tea parties, and you can see wearing lolita fashion became a form of fantasy or escapism art as well.
TokyoScope:Lolita fashion has been around for a long time now. Why do you think it has such durability whereas other Japanese fashion styles, like Gyaru or Decora for example, have come and gone outside of a few holdouts?
RinRInDoll: Those styles come with a high level of makeup artistry and dedication. You can’t work a regular job in Japan if you dye your hair a certain color. Actually, there’s been a renewal in Gyaru fashion and Decora fashion in Japan, but you’ll see more people who are not tanned or who have black hair dressing in those styles now. With the previous versions of Gyaru and Decora, the styles were so extreme that they put limits on people being able to work an office job. People needed to choose either the fashion or a full-time office job, but with Lolita fashion, it’s more about the styling.
Lolita fashion can be an item in your closet that allows you to transform into another side of yourself. Maybe you can’t wear Lolita to work, of course, but you can still enjoy that side of yourself in your free time.
The last day of Tokyo Fashion Week for this season featured shows by two brands that usually bring out great guests for street style - Yohei Ohno and Viviano.
Designer Viviano Sue presented a collection inspired by the movie “The Young Girls of Rochefort”. While Catherine Deneuve didn’t show up (this isn’t Paris, or even New York), we did get snaps of famous Japanese makeup artist Zutti Mattia and Korean makeup/beauty influencer Gyutae, as well as a lot of people wearing colorful ruffles from previous Viviano collections.
The Yohei Ohno show earlier in the day brought out Vogue editors, stylists, upcoming Japanese designers Asagiinyo and Nori Enomoto, Nick Wooster, and other well-dressed fashion industry insiders.
On the last day of Fashion Week, we also ran into next generation Japanese icon Nishimoto The Mouth, known for his growing international celebrity fan base. Nishimoto fans include no less than Drake, who has been photographed more than once wearing t-shirts featuring pictures of Nishimoto’s tattooed face.
All photos were shot by TokyoFashion exclusively for TokyoScope.
Tokyo Fashion Week is almost over, and that means we’ll be able to sleep again soon. For now, though, we’re back with street snaps from day five. Most of the runway shows take place in a building adjacent to Shibuya Station - and Friday nights in Shibuya are always crazy - so we probably could have shot plenty of street style with or without Fashion Week. The best show location of the day, though, was a rooftop in Tokyo’s Otemachi district not far from the royal palace. Guests were treated to a nice view of the city on a beautiful clear day, in addition to the fashion show. The street style photographers remained, as always, many floors below on the actual street.
Another moment of excitement on day five was one of the popular Harajuku kids celebrating his birthday with friends outside a nighttime runway show. His birthday brought a lot of fun younger fashion fans to Shibuya in the evening. You might be able to pick him out in the middle of the huge group photo in this street style set.
Tomorrow is the final day of Tokyo Fashion Week for this season. If we survive, we’ll have one more set of street style photos to share with you then!
All photos were shot by TokyoFashion exclusively for TokyoScope.
The fourth day of Tokyo Fashion Week was all about A Bathing Ape (BAPE). Legendary Japanese streetwear brand BAPE - most famous for inventing the current “drop” culture we all live in - is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Fashion Week head sponsor Rakuten pulled out all the stops to get the brand to do a runway show (billed as the first ever BAPE runway show in Tokyo).
While BAPE is one of the most famous Japanese fashion brands in the world, founder NIGO (now the head designer of another legendary Japanese brand, KENZO) sold the brand several years ago, and it’s currently run by a Hong Kong company. The fact that NIGO isn’t the designer anymore means that we didn’t see some of the super a-list 1990s Harajuku/Urahara luminaries, but the show was still packed with Japanese celebs, rappers, influencers, top industry executives, and swarms of BAPE fans.
The BAPE 30th anniversary fashion show was held at the 1964 Japanese Olympic Stadium (Yoyogi National 2nd Gymnasium) designed by Kenzo Tange, one of the most beautiful modern buildings in all of Japan. As it was the last runway show of the night, it was held after dark with the entire front of the Olympic Stadium illuminated in A Bathing Ape’s iconic color camouflage pattern, creating a party-like atmosphere for the guests entering the show. There were also special unannounced performances by K-Pop stars and others during the runway show, which was a rare non-live-streamed TFW event. Most Tokyo Fashion Week shows are available to watch live on Instagram, but for BAPE you had to be there or miss out on the fun.
The lighting at the Yoyogi National 2nd Gymnasium isn’t the best for photography, and the party-like atmosphere and large crowd added to the challenge - but we were able to get quite a few BAPE street snaps in front of the illuminated stadium. A super moon also lit up the skies of Tokyo after the sun went down (helping to illuminate our street snaps).
All photos were shot by TokyoFashion exclusively for TokyoScope.
Tokyo Fashion Week day three was another busy one. We shot street snaps outside of no less than five shows, two of which featured multiple designers. Today was the “Global Fashion Collective” day where designers from Mexico, Africa, and various other countries come together to present collections one after another in a single runway show. Most of the runway shows on day three were in Omotesando and Shibuya as usual, but the final show of the night was at Tokyo’s new Olympic Stadium, a beautiful wooden building in Sendagaya designed by famed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.
One of today’s runway shows was by a popular Filipino fashion brand, bringing out Filipino influencers as well as Misuru, a popular Japanese Harajuku model who’s been living in the Philippines for part of this year. We were happy for the opportunity to see her (and to photograph her colorful hair and fashion) for the first time in several months. One of the fun things about shooting Tokyo Fashion Week is that twice a year it forces IRL contact between all of the Japanese fashion industry people who might only talk to each other via social media, email, or phone otherwise.
Guests of note who we shot today include Tokyo-based Korean makeup artist Gyutae, Japanese kawaii cyber gyaru Dede, Japanese fashion photographer/writer Rei Shito, one of Japan’s top male runway models, and even Drag Race Sweden contestant Endigo.
Japanese underground fashion brand Pays Des Fees known for collaborations with indie artists/musicians, and for being possibly the only fashion brand whose main boutique is inside of Nakano Broadway - held their Tokyo Fashion Week show at a historic former sewage plant today. The brand allowed us to shoot snaps of guests inside of the plant after the show, so you can see a bit of the industrial interiors. Most of the other brands today played it a little safer, having shows in the usual areas around Shibuya and Harajuku. Even though it was another extremely hot day in Tokyo, fashionable people were out and we were able to get quite a few street snaps to share with you.
All photos were shot by TokyoFashion exclusively for TokyoScope.
