The Fashionista Bible

Japan did not simply wear the world’s fashion. It studied it, took it apart and rebuilt it, and then sent its own ideas back out: the black cloth of Paris in 1981, the Ivy blazer of Ginza in 1964, the embroidered satin of Yokosuka, the selvedge denim of Okayama, the ape head of Ura-Harajuku. The Fashionista Bible is the reading room for that whole story, kept inside the Japonista Universe so that every chapter leads to something you can hold.

It is built in four parts. Read the essays in order and you have a history. Look at the Visual Glossary and you can name every garment on a rail. Use the A to Z Index to find any label, designer or term in seconds, and the Encyclopedia for dated entries on designers, retailers and eras.

Begin here

The Reference Shelf

One question at a time, each with a dated record and a thesis discussion. See the full Reference Shelf.

The story in order

  1. The History of Amekaji: from the Ginza Ivy boys of 1964 to Heavy Duty, Shibuya and the reproduction makers.
  2. Ametora: how American trad style was learned, kept and improved.
  3. Popular Amekaji Brands: a dated directory of the shops, makers and mills.
  4. Japanese Fashion as Design Philosophy: the ideas under the clothes.
  5. The Pop Cool-ture Timeline: Takenoko, Harajuku, Shibuya and the Y2K street.
  6. Ura-Harajuku: the back lanes behind Harajuku, nineteen labels in the order of their beginnings.
  7. Contemporary Designers and Brands: the generation after the founders.

The Paris generation

Five designers carried Japanese fashion to Paris between 1970 and 1981, each with a different answer to the same question: what is a garment for?

The arrivals in order, from New York in 1965 to the Paris generation of the 1990s, are set out in Japan in Paris: A Chronology.

For the founders together, begin with Japanese Designer Archives. Kansai Yamamoto, who dressed Bowie and reached Louis Vuitton in 2018, has his own chapter in Basara, Bowie and the Cruise Collection and room, Kansai Yamamoto.

Tokyo’s second wave

In the 1990s and 2000s a younger circle opened small shops behind Omotesando and made scarcity into a method. Their symbols are now studied alongside the Paris generation.

The wider streetwear picture is in Japanese Streetwear: A Field Guide, and the era itself in the 2000s pop cool-ture room.

Ura-Harajuku and the back lanes

Behind Harajuku’s famous street lay lanes too narrow to be famous. From the early 1990s they became the address of a small circle of friends and of the labels they made. This chapter sets nineteen names in the order of their beginnings, then follows them in clusters, each ending in a room of the archive.

The district itself, and its neighbours across Tokyo and Osaka, are described in Harajuku: A Forest, a Station and the Invention of Youth and The Tokyo Atlas: A Reader’s Guide to the Capital and Its Counterpoint.

Every date is set out in the Encyclopedia and every name in the A to Z Index.

Americana, rebuilt

Amekaji is the Japanese study of American clothing, pursued until the copy was better than the original. It runs through denim, flight jackets, workwear and the Ivy wardrobe.

In the archive now: Amekaji and Wagara · Flight jackets and nose art · Evisu · Levi’s · Avirex · Alpha Industries · Schott · Lewis Leathers.

Subcultures in thread

Three Japanese subcultures put their beliefs on the back of a jacket. Each has its own shelf in the archive.

When the houses came to Tokyo

From 2002 the great houses began to borrow Japan: Louis Vuitton with Takashi Murakami, then Kansai Yamamoto and Nigo, Comme des Garçons with Lewis Leathers, Raf Simons with Prada. These collaborations are the easiest way into designer archives.

The new generation

The founders are now in museums. The generation after them works with technology, hybrid construction and a quieter Tokyo.

Collections by label

From reading to collecting

Every essay here ends in the archive. Browse the full Luxury Archive, the Designer Jackets room and the Designer Leather Jackets room, or read the Collector Guides for condition, sizing and import advice. Pieces can be reserved through the Layaway Privilege Program.

Looking for a particular label, season or size that is not on the rail today? Our Hunting Salon™ searches across Japan’s private collector circles on your behalf.

This volume belongs to the Japonista Universe, Volume VII.

Index terms: louis vuitton documentary · louis vuitton and japan · y-3 yohji yamamoto adidas · japan in paris chronology · japanese fashion history · amekaji · ametora · ivy style japan · japanese designers · comme des garcons · yohji yamamoto · issey miyake · kenzo · hanae mori · undercover · mastermind japan · visvim · a bathing ape · sacai · junya watanabe · sukajan · wagara · bosozoku · kimono remake · japanese denim · japanese fashion glossary · japanese fashion encyclopedia · maison margiela · jil sander · marni · julius · helmut lang · dries van noten · dolce and gabbana · armani · christian dior · limi feu · saint laurent · balenciaga · ura-harajuku · urahara · nowhere · goodenough · affa · neighborhood · wtaps · sophnet · n.hoolywood · wacko maria · stüssy · supreme japan · ron herman

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