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Fashion

Jun 12 2019 8 Comments

An almost chameleon-like Tokyo commuter?

The yellow and black coordination was one thing, but the addition of white lines and subtle dashes of red meant this woman’s outfit matched the environment magnificently.

A chameleon-like Tokyo commuter

Categorized: Fashion, Photography

May 10 2019 8 Comments

Tokyo graffiti glamour

The graffiti wasn’t a surprise — it’s what I was there for. The view looking up towards the lift, on the other hand, most definitely was.

tokyo graffiti glamour model

Categorized: Fashion, Photography

Mar 20 2019 14 Comments

A unique old clothes shop on a shuttered Japanese high street

Away from Japan’s big cities, the combination of a shrinking population and urban migration are having a visibly devastating effect. Once thriving towns are now all too often little more than sad reminders of the past, with shops shuttered up and former essentials such as train services slowly disappearing. A phenomenon I documented just recently in this photo essay: Looking for the lost.

Of course not everything closes, and life does go on for the generally older residents who remain, meaning amidst the shutters and abandoned buildings, some businesses do struggle on. Like this large and rather unusual clothes shop.

an old and strange Japanese clothes shop

Back in the day, it was clearly where the town’s more style conscious residents did their shopping. Those with a fair bit of money too considering the faded but still expensive price tags. A place where foreign brands and faces abound, although the latter are rather unsettlingly all mannequins.

an old and strange Japanese clothes shop

an old and strange Japanese clothes shop

an old and strange Japanese clothes shop

Surrounded by these unusual figures, not to mention the general disarray, was the owner. Now badly bent over and really quite deaf, she nonetheless still opens up everyday. With good humour, she was also happy for a couple of strange foreigners to enjoy photographing the similarly strange mannequins. At the same time, however, she very matter of factly kept lamenting that while we were obviously fascinated, nobody ever actually goes there to shop anymore.

an old and strange Japanese clothes shop

And so now, after 70 years in operation, the shop, and almost certainly its last proprietor, patiently wait as closure quietly beckons.

an old and strange Japanese clothes shop

Categorized: Fashion, Photography

Feb 25 2019 10 Comments

A Japanese man in his Sunday best miniskirt

Or considering his rather bedraggled state, it could well have been a Saturday night outfit that dragged on into Sunday.

a Japanese man in drag in Tokyo

Categorized: Fashion, Photography

Feb 11 2019 11 Comments

Portrait of a Tokyo shopper

The intriguingly indecipherable expression of a young Tokyoite out shopping.

Portrait of a Tokyo shopper

Categorized: Fashion, Photography

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