Product Description

Tokyo is one of the most fashion-conscious places in the world, and The Tokyo Look Book takes us on a dazzling journey through the streets, clubs and boutiques of this trendsetting city, to introduce us to the people who wear the latest fashions and the people who make them. Crammed with cool full-colour photographs of Tokyo's trendy teens and twenty-somethings captured candidly as they work and play, this is a comprehensive look at the richly varied fashion scenes that thrive in Japan's capital city, from the gal mecca of Shibuya, to the Goths and Cosplayers who hang out on Jingubashi bridge on Sundays, through the cutting-edge kids on the Harajuku backstreets, to the stylish young working men and women on Omotesando Boulevard.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14764 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-31
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
Philomena Keet is a British writer, researcher and anthropologist, who is currently undertaking postgraduate research at S.O.A.S., London University. She has an in-depth knowledge of current fashion trends and of the background that underpins them. She splits her time between London and Tokyo.

Customer Reviews

Intriguing and original: a technicolour odyssey through the spectrum of Tokyo style
This is an excellent book on Japanese fashion as a whole.

Many different groups are lovingly described and photographed, from the most theatrical goths to the smartest office girls. The sheer variety of looks and genres will come as a surprise to many.

Philomena Keet's background in anthropology gives her descriptions and interviews real substance, while the photographs by Yuri Manabe are a delight.

Highly recommended.

amazing
This really is the one of the best Japanese fashion books I have read. Not only does it have lovely pictures of some of the citizens of Tokyo, it has wonderfully descriptive paragraphs about where they got their clothes and accessories from, and sometimes information about the people themselves. There is even a section at the back with the addresses, phone numbers and web sites of the shops where the clothes came from.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has a passion for modern Japan, fashion and culture. ^^

This book goes brilliantly with FRUiTS and FRESH FRUiTS.

Fashion as shock
"It's like an attack on the brain": so speaks Kai Satake about his Boutique Dog. The same might be said of much of these Tokyo fashions. Supposedly the Japanese fashion scene was dull in the 1980's: they've made up a lot of ground since then. Being far from Europe may have led to the movement to extremes.

Upon first looking through this book, the photos dominated. Not that they seem that flattering, many are not, but they are eye-catching. Many are of "ordinary" youth found on the streets: few if any are of fashion models.

Once I settled into the text by Philomena Keet, I was surprised just how complex this entire scene is: worthy of an anthropologist with a PhD in "Tokyo street fashion". Let's hope it does not go out of fashion, what will Philomena do then? As it is, there is a lot of reading here which goes along with the photos: the text is not a formal presentation at all nor is there much explicit social science in it but it is informative.

Much derives from music, much of that having come from the West although the Japanese now make their own contribution such as with their "visual kei" rock bands. One remarkable fashion designer (and visual kei performer which perform in costume) is Mana whose androgynous look was one of the more attractive in this book.

Gothic, Lolita, Gothic Lolita, Princess Lolita: lots of subcultures and tribes. Lots of money spent on clothes and many magazines(the amounts seem to be in yen) by youths who want to be "in". Lots of time as well, it seems, shopping and hanging out at well-known places where they can be seen and photographed (sometimes at a price). "Charisma girls" have become well known and apparently well paid, helpful workers in the fashion shops some of whom have gained a national reputation and even been launched in a career as a fashion designer.

A number of fashion designers are presented. One organizes photo shoots at which amateurs gather at various locations. Many fashion shops are covered. There is truly a lot here both in the photos and, to my surprise, in the text. I can only wonder, were I to go to Tokyo, how many youth I would see in such fashions: I'd be disappointed after "The Tokyo Look Book" if the percentage was too small. This kind of fun and freedom seems a good thing so long as the spending doesn't become overdone. But it is not my kids so I enjoyed this book considerably.