Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku Street Fashion - Tokyo

by Tiffany Godoy, Ivan Vartanian (Editor)

The Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo has become an international style mecca, a street-level fashion scene prowled by major designers looking for inspiration, and whose local, cutting-edge labels enjoy global cache. Style Deficit Disorder is the first book to explore this remixed, fast-forward fashion hotbed, profiling its most daring and influential designers, labels, stylists, and shops (including Comme des Garons, Hysteric Glamour, Super Lovers, A Bathing Ape, and Laforet). Featuring nearly 200 photos, essays by key Japanese fashion editors, and commentary by Edison Chen, Patricia Field, John Galliano, Shawn Stussy, Shu Uemura and others, this is a must-have, insider's look at an international fashion and pop culture epicenter, past, present, and future.

Genres: Fashion, Japan, Nonfiction, Art, Photography, Research

240 pages, Hardcover

First published December 13, 2007

Reviews

[Maya Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has been interested in all aspects of Japanese culture from a young age - from its art, its fashion, its cultural practices, its food, and history, to name a few - this book was a wonderful introspective look into the history of Harajuku as a fashion capital and Japanese fashion as a whole.

I felt it was a great introduction to many Japanese designers and subcultures, which have made me want to research them further and more in depth, as there were so many that I was unaware of. It touched upon some of the biggest, most notable artists, movements and magazines, such as FRUiTS, BAPE, Comme Des Garçons, Hysteric Glamour, Visual Kei and Lolita, along with some lesser known ones. If you enjoyed the street style photography featured in this book, I’d highly recommend following @tokyofashion - for the past decade or so, they’ve been one of the biggest Japanese street style publications, with a large percentage of their pictures taken in Harajuku and often interviewing the person photographed.

For me personally, I wish there was more interviews with people who worked in the fashion industry in Japan - I recall there being only one interview in the book and whilst that was great to read, I would have loved an array of opinions and experiences to read through. It would have been amazing to see personal, autobiographical accounts of how some designers got their start in the industry, the journey they’ve gone through to get where they are now and what they plan to do in the future / their goals.

However, I think this is a fantastic book for both those who know nothing about Japanese fashion and designers and those who have some knowledge about them alike. I also loved how it talked about how both Western and East Asian fashion were constantly influencing one another back and forth!

On another note, whilst I was a huge fan of how this book was laid out, certain pages were either quite straining to the eye or were hard to read (certain font and colour choices).

Overall, I’d definitely recommend this as a read to anyone interested in art, design, music and fashion - I found many of the pages to be very influential and inspiring towards my own artistic journey.

[Jamjars · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting information about different brands in Harajuku, especially about how Harajuku got started being a fashionable and creative district of Tokyo, however the layout of this book makes it almost unreadable at times. There are so many fonts used, most of them incredibly difficult to read, as well as coloured pages used that make the black text almost invisible.
I think Fruits magazine and the tokyofashion website are more useful reference resources about Harajuku fashion than this book.

[C. E. Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative read and some fun images. Though I've come across some frustrating misspellings and syntax which put me off a little. Would still recommend do fashion lovers and people who are admirers of Japanese culture. The book gives a good history of the Harajuku fashion scene, Western influences that inspired the East and Eastern designers which inspired the West.

[Grace M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and well documented. I learned a lot through this collection. Some of the fonts were a bit hard to discern but that’s literally the only thing I’d say about this. I’d read again and again I want to own this one

[Dani]

Checkpoint 1:

The easiest way to run Harajuku street fashion parallel with American culture is simply that the sudden influence of American fashion appearing in Japan in the 1960s and 70s inspired many of the new designers to step up and begin to release their new designs based off of the new styles appearing from overseas. The focus of these designers were the younger generations, those who were the most inspired by the new American styles. The immense differences from the original, traditional Japanese styles was highly evident, and the teenagers began to crave this new fashion. Designers popped up in small shops, offering new fashions to those interested.

One brand in particular started tiny and exploded, the designer now being called the Muse of Harajuku fashion. American Dream anyone? Hitomi Okawa opened her shop Milk in 1970. So tiny, "if [one] adjusted your sunglasses or blinked at the moment you walked by, [one'd] miss it." (37) But her styles began to catch on, and in no time, her clothes were flying off the racks. Inspired by both American and English fashion, she started a brand that still lives on today, along with a side brand for boys - Milk Boy.

More fashions, designers, and shops began to spring up across Harajuku as the original releases had more and more success in the fashion world. Cyber, grunge, kawaii, punk and more began to make its way off paper, onto shelves, then out into the streets on the teenage generation in Harajuku. The urge to be at the top, to be the most original flared within the spirits of the kids buying up the clothing, and a race to become the best and get put in magazines. The bold differences became the only way to remain 'cool' and 'in' on the fashion-crazed streets of Harajuku.

Checkpoint 2:

While I had done quite a bit of research on the styles before, I only looked at that, the styles. I didn't look as deep as the original creators, how this came around, who did what to bring more to these fashion senses. To know how it started is extremely interesting, as I knew the back story to some of the fashions, but generally without many details. Knowing the deeper parts, and how very few of the designers actually went to design schools, it's clear that these people went for a whole new look to give to the newer generations, based off the new kinds of fashion coming in from western countries.

The amount of work that went into creating the clothing, and how many of these now international brands started out in side alley shops, is truly incredible to me. It's as if there's just never-ending American Dream-like stories about how these brands started out so small. The vastly different styles crammed into one subsection of Tokyo are incredible. By being so original, and so limited, they create a craze to be entirely original and not look like anyone else, to not wear the same outfit as someone else. Harajuku is truly a sort of war ground for fashion, as the need to be one of a kind fills up many of the people walking the streets.

[Winifred]

"affluent refugees...curious complacency and an acceptance of deep disconnection...relish the new and can buy what they want...asy access to part-time work and expnading service economy ...not reliant on pparents...this generation has a new independence regardless of their maturity levels". p 217,8

This blurb needed to be at beginning to put what was coming in context. This clothing or actually - costuming - is not shocking due to overt sexuality - there is little of that or body mutilations that make you virtually unemployable in the straight world - again little of that.

Some costumes many times are duplicates of favorite band wear - may of which have been created just to sell clothing - if I understand correctly.

Other costumes are cartoons of girlishness - of perpetual 5 year olds; another one is the Lolita/Goth (minus the sexual overtones). These are examples of a coherent style - i can 'read' these and take away some inspiration as a designer.

i bought the book because i know that japan of all places is likely to be the bleeding edge of consumer culture - and I can see it in the cyper-fashion here , some of the cyber-punk we've already seen from Paris, and in the hairworks


But so many looks remind me of folks getting dressed in the dark at 4 different yardsales in 4 different neighborhoods. There is over-the-top american copies- expected.

"There is nothing new under the sun' so there must be some historical precedent for what this book is describing - and carnaby street it isn't - this is much more complex. I am not looking for a history lesson so much as a way to understand the source of these designs and what the take-aways are. What of this is/will make it overseas? I know there is childish clothing at raves and the baby doll in the form of the short empire dresses in vogue. More insight would be great.

[Koenjicalling · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really was surprised when I picked up this book as it looks like a cheap coffee table book on that scandalously wacky Japan, like so many of the recent pop-japan offerings that have come out in the US. I was VERY delighted to find it was accurate, well researched and offered a lot of content that has previously never been collected into such an English language resource.

I sometimes teach on Japanese subculture and really wanted to require this book for my students. I can't, however, and this also is why my rating is so low: the book suffers from an overzealous design person who really wanted to make everything look NEW and COOL and edgy, hence why I initially was repelled from the thing in the first place. Half of the book as a result is practically illegible unless you take quite some time to try to decipher the fonts and the wacky layouts the designer has concocted. I can't in good faith recommend students purchase it as a result because I myself as a student would not bother to read it.

It is a terrible shame. For those truly passionate and who want to learn the history of a district I grew up to some degree in, I highly recommend it. For those who want to retain our eyesight perhaps Seidensticker's Tokyo is a better resource.

[Allison Thurman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still digesting the information in this book. Visually it's wonderful fun, but the story of the evolution of Tokyo's Harajuku "scene" and the economy, marketing and (especially) consumption patterns are so separate from what goes on in the West that its a real eye-opener.

[Kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me this book was the perfect companion to The Tokyo Look Book, going more in-depth into the history and influence of Japanese designers. I would've liked more photos of the actual products though, as some brands only had their advertising art pictured (often rather attractive, but still...).

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sure the topic is cool, and the pictures are cool, but this book is truly a graphic designers dream. The composition of each page is fresh and original.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, interesting history of Tokyo's Harajuku area and its unique brand of fashion.

[Jorge · Rating 5 out of 5]

The info is fabulous.