Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

Fashion

3 Comments

Maiko bra

The tasteful piece of clothing pictured below, cleverly depicts traditional Japanese culture. The bra shows a dancing girl (Maiko), and the panties a castle.

The brassiere in question was made using a high-level lace technique known as stick embroidery, along with….

Ahh, who cares? I certainly don’t. And I’m pretty sure you don’t either. Plus I’m probably not fooling anybody with this desperate attempt to justify the picture of a pretty young girl wearing next to nothing.

So here’s the picture.

maikobra.jpg

But who would have thought that embroidery could be so much fun? I feel a new hobby coming on.

3 Comments

Kimono kitsch?

This picture was recently posted on the Mainichi Daily News webpage.

22geisha340.jpg

Now admittedly this photograph isn’t all that bad (or indeed very interesting), but for some reason I always feel awkward when I see gaijin in a kimono. Certainly a western gaijin anyway.

Maybe I’m old fashioned, or simply downright miserable, but for me a foreign face and a kimono are simply not the best combination. As outfits go, the kimono takes some beating, with its delicate beauty and ultra feminine style. But this somehow gets lost on a gaijin. Ending up looking more like a party costume than anything else. Which is a shame.

2 Comments

Cool as f**ck

At the end of last year, The Washington Post published an article on Japan. Declaring it the coolest country on earth no less. It would seem that as far as the writer of the piece was concerned, Japan is the now the world’s number one trendsetter. Unfortunately the feature is now archived, and has to be paid for, but here is a short extract which gives you the gist of the article.

“Even as this country of 127 million has lost its status as a global economic superpower and the national confidence has been sapped by a 13-year economic slump, Japan is reinventing itself–this time as the coolest nation on Earth. Analysts are marveling at the breadth of a recent explosion in cultural exports, and many argue that the international embrace of Japan’s pop culture, film, food, style and arts is second only to that of the United States.”

If this all sounds a bit over the top. Think again. As one look at these hipsters pictured in Osaka over the weekend will surely dispel any doubts.

cool-as.jpg

Pretty cool eh?