Royal Cheese: Tokyo

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

BEAMS beyond TOKYO

"The first look at Japanese fashion brand BEAMS and its evolution into one of the most significant arbiters of streetwear style and contemporary cool.
BEAMS, which started as a small shop in the Harajuku district of Tokyo in 1976, has since grown into an influential fashion brand and an arbiter of style in Japan and beyond. To best serve the ever changing patterns of life for new generations of consumers setting trends in fashion and streetwear for over four decades, BEAMS puts collaboration at the core of its philosophy, helping it to become a magnet for young designers with crisp and dynamic ideas.

BEAMS offers readers an exclusive look at the inner workings of one Japan’s most innovative fashion brands. Highlighted within are key collaborations between BEAMS and brands including Adidas, Nike, Reebok, and Levi’s and renowned photographers such as Mark Borthwick and Terry Richardson. Complete with photographs, sketches, and in-depth essays by curators and collaborators, this book presents a detailed look into BEAMS and its four decades of bringing together the best emerging talent with international designers."

the book will be released on February 14, get it from Rizzoli or from BEAMS if you're living in Japan.
source: Rizzoli, BEAMS

Saturday, July 09, 2016

More Than a Cult Designer: Hiroki Nakamura Goes Big

"The moment was primed for kitsch or magic; it could have gone either way. On a warm summer morning in Florence, Italy — the air narcotic with the scent of blooming camellia — guests of the men’s wear trade fair Pitti Uomo made their way through tunnels of clipped greenery at the Renaissance Boboli Gardens to a fashion show mounted by the Japanese designer Hiroki Nakamura.
Stopping first at a kiosk just inside the Porta Romana gate, they donned chevron-patterned kimono jackets that Mr. Nakamura, 45, had ordered from a traditional Kyoto craftsman. Thus attired, they moved as a group toward a Zanobi del Rosso 18th-century “Lemon House”, looking like nothing so much as members of a diplomatic legation to the Medici court in a woodblock print by Hiroshige.

In reality, it was just buyers and press and other personnel from the extended fashion posse. And yet, fashion without storytelling is just sewing. It is his shrewd understanding of this precept that has helped vault Mr. Nakamura’s label, Visvim, from the status of Tokyo indie to a business with a reported $100 million in sales..."

for the full feature head over to the NY Times.

source: NY Times