Face Of The Day

Thomas Card photographed unique styles on the streets of Tokyo:

Since the early 1990s, fashion tribes—from ganguro to Lolita—have united people interested in developing hyperstylized looks. Initially intrigued by an article describing makeup trends among Japan’s nightlife crowd, New York–based photographer Thomas C. Card spent several months in Tokyo in spring 2012 creating portraits of the city’s most striking citizens for his book Tokyo Adorned. Although many of the people he photographed showed characteristics of various fashion tribes, Card noted the fierce individualism his subjects expressed in describing their style.

“The thing I found absolutely amazing once I was on the ground in Tokyo was that the fashions were very much centered around the individual and less around the tribe,” Card said. “In the early part of our production process, we were thinking of this as different tribes and groups that were very close and defined. I was thrilled when I got there to find that nearly all the girls really view this as an expression of themselves.”

See more photos from the series here.