Tokyo Skytree rises (2,080 ft) 634 m above the city from its base in East Tokyo near the Sumida River. East Tokyo is a vibrant shopping area.
Traffic stops entirely and pedestrians surge into the intersection from all sides at Tokyo’s famous “scramble crossing” in Shibuya, a vibrant shopping area known for its large department stores.
— Yoshiyo Abe, designer, Petite Robe Noire
Tokyo has been a major source of high fashion for decades, and the city’s presence on the world fashion stage seems to be more prominent each year. Following in the footsteps of Japanese fashion icons, such as Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, Junya Watanabe, Jun Takahashi, Chitose Abe, and Hiromichi Ochiai, new, up-and-coming Japanese designers continue to gain recognition both from the fashion establishment and among their devoted fans from around the world.
While you can catch a glimpse of Mount Fuji from the upper floors of tall buildings throughout the city, it’s nearly impossible to see the end of the urban sprawl that radiates from the shores of Tokyo Bay all the way to the outer suburbs and beyond. Walking through the streets here and watching people go by, it seems that the possibilities for individual style are equally infinite. Despite Tokyo’s large scale, however, the streets and neighborhoods retain individual character, with style to match.
Experiencing Tokyo can be overwhelming for first-time visitors, but those who spend time here can’t help but feel inspired by the creative dynamism and open, carefree approach to style on show amid the vibrant energy of the city—the endless landscape of tall buildings, flashing neon lights, and packed pedestrian crossings. Because people tend to observe traffic lights, there is a delicious anticipation just before the lights change and everyone moves together. There is also the surprising sight of hundreds of people boarding the crowded trains during the morning rush hour—sometimes forcibly crammed into the cars by gloved attendants. Observing so many people just going about their daily lives, visitors to Tokyo often remark on how great everyone looks, how well-dressed, stylish, and put together they seem, whether it’s in a suit or uniform for work, a school uniform, or a simple outfit for running errands. What’s sometimes even more surprising is the range of styles that can be seen on any given street corner.
— Shoichi Aoki, editor in chief, STREET magazine
— Naho Okamoto, founder and designer, SIRI SIRI
Your guides through this complex style mecca are two Tokyoites who have built successful careers in the fashion industry. Our author, Yoko Yagi, is a freelance fashion editor, writer, and a graduate of Tokyo’s renowned Bunka Fashion College, who has worked as a fashion editor for the magazine Soen (Bunka Publishing), which has been showcasing Japan’s most stylish women for more than eighty years. Through her work as a freelance fashion writer, fashion consultant, and marketing director, companies routinely seek Yagi’s advice on brand development. Our photographer, Tohru Yuasa, also a graduate of Bunka Fashion College, majored in styling for his degree before pursuing photography as a career after graduation. Yuasa’s sense of craft (he shoots using increasingly hard-to-find film in his spare time) and stylist’s eye for fashion and composition are evident in the shots you’ll see throughout the book.
— Mariko Hayashi, designer, jonnlynx
Our goal is to showcase a range of individual styles through photographs and interviews with Japanese fashion designers, editors, artists, photographers, and fashion influencers. Each of the individuals featured possess an instinct for original style and an independent, bold approach to fashion that allows them to wear the clothes that help them express their points of view.
In the pages that follow, we’ll hear from stylish individuals and learn what makes their approach unique and what their thoughts are on Tokyo fashion in general. We’ll take you on a treasure hunt through some of Tokyo’s best vintage stores, and hope you’ll be inspired by the ways in which Tokyo’s most stylish people incorporate vintage into their own looks. We’ll also explore the often misunderstood style concept of kawaii (which means “pretty,” “adorable,” or “cute”) by talking to fashion designers, shop owners, and other influential personalities who elevate Japan’s renowned “cute” culture to a more witty and sophisticated level. Their stores and clothes might seem soft and girly on the outside, but their razor-sharp take on kawaii has had a major influence on Tokyo street fashion and the designers and fashion labels defining Japanese style today.
We’ll move from superfeminine florals and frills to more androgynous, boundary-pushing looks, which Japanese designers have been producing for a generation and the rest of the world seems to be only just waking up to. It’s fairly common for women to wear men’s clothing and be called stylish, and Japanese designers like Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons (which, of course, literally translates to “like the boys”) have been pioneering genderless styles for more than forty years. But the ways that the designers, fashion brands, boutiques, and other influencers of street fashion featured in this book conceive of gender and gender-free clothing these days are truly revolutionary and are sure to play an important role in the years to come, as gender-free styles become more central to global fashion movements.
Akane Sasaki, fashion publicist (left) and Hitomi Nomura, director, and buyer, Marte (right), both have devoted followings on social media attracting the young women who are regulars at the vintage shop Marte and who are interested in street fashion in Tokyo, due to their individual charisma and distinctive personal style.
Masami Sato, staff member of the popular select shop Anatomica, is wearing a US Army–style military overcoat next to the Sumida River in Asakusabashi where the shop is located. The jacket worn underneath, along with jeans, and matching shoes are all original products by Anatomica. The men’s scarf is Drake’s.
— Hirofumi Kurino, senior adviser for creative direction, United Arrows
Then we’ll take a closer look at concept stores and select shops—Japan’s unique multilabel stores, each with its own curated concept and approach to styling—which have had tremendous influence on street fashion in Tokyo since their beginnings in the late 1980s. And since a book about Tokyo, a city famous for its world-class restaurants, wouldn’t be complete without a look at the food scene, we’ll explore the connection between fashion and food, to discover how food is a fundamental part of a completely stylish life.
If you are searching for sources of inspiration for your own style, pay close attention to the feature on hair, makeup, and nail art, as worn by some of Tokyo’s coolest people, and the profiles of up-and-coming brands that are influencing street style in Tokyo, many of which are shoppable overseas. And if you do make it to Tokyo, we’ve also included a detailed list of spots in our Tokyo Guide that attract some of the most devoted fans—or “maniacs,” as they’re called here—including recommended boutiques stocking the latest brands and some of the world’s best sources for vintage finds, along with our picks for the best areas for people watching, shopping, eating, and drinking that the city has to offer.
Whether you are a frequent visitor to Tokyo or you’re encountering the city and its stylish residents for the first time in the pages of this book, we hope you’ll get the impression of Tokyo as not just a city where anything goes, but also one that inspires you with its constant creative energy, as a place where true experimentation is possible.
We want to celebrate the way stylish Tokyoites take inspiration from around the world, always keeping an eye out for new and exciting influences wherever they might be found as they mix different elements together in each outfit they wear. We also hope you will adopt a very Tokyo attitude of indulging—completely guilt-free—in the beautiful clothes, delicious food, and unique treasures you can find throughout this vibrant, one-of-a-kind city.
Tokyo is divided into twenty-three wards. Here we focus in on the neighborhoods that are home to some of the best spots for observing street style and for shopping. See the Tokyo Guide (this page) for more detailed information.
SHIBUYA
One of the most popular shopping and entertainment districts of Tokyo, with large department stores, cosmetics retailers, and more. Perhaps best known for its neon lights and “scramble crossing” in front of JR Shibuya Station, which sees thousands of people crossing in all directions with each light change.
HARAJUKU
The center of Japanese youth culture, subculture, and street styles famous for its weekend gatherings of people dressed up in incredible outfits in a wide range of styles, as well as the variety of clothing stores, candy stores, fast-food restaurants, and so on that line the district’s main road, Takeshita Street.
OMOTESANDO
Harajuku’s grand older sister, a tree-lined avenue sometimes called Tokyo’s Champs-Élysées, full of high-end designer flagship stores and boutiques.
AOYAMA & NISHI-AZABU
Exclusive, wealthy, sophisticated adjacent residential neighborhoods. Aoyama is famous for its excellent bookstores, stylish boutiques, exquisite cafés and restaurants. Nishi-Azabu is known for its nightlife.
AZABU-JUBAN
Azabu-Juban is a residential area with a small village vibe in the middle of the big city. It's packed with cozy neighborhood cafés and bars frequented by the locals and intrepid travelers venturing away from more crowded and touristy Roppongi.
ROPPONGI
A bustling shopping and nightlife district popular with foreign tourists, which is full of interesting restaurants and clubs. Tokyo Midtown and Roppongi Hills shopping centers offer high-end luxury fashion alongside fast-fashion names like Zara.
EBISU
A beautiful, high-end residential and commercial neighborhood, featuring office buildings, luxury homes, shopping malls, and restaurants centered around Yebisu Garden Place, a popular date site and home of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, the Museum of Yebisu Beer, an extraordinary annual Christmas light display, and the Yebisu Marché, a French-inspired farmers’ market.
DAIKANYAMA
A cosmopolitan fashion district close to Shibuya, with many foreign embassies, art galleries, and bookstores, including the famous Tsutaya bookstore Daikanyama T-Site.
NAKAMEGURO
Many of Tokyo’s best vintage shops, restaurants, and laid-back cafés can be found in this bohemian shopping and residential area, centered around the cherry-blossom-lined Meguro River.
YOYOGI-UEHARA & YOYOGI-HACHIMAN
Close to Yoyogi Park, these extremely stylish adjacent neighborhoods, where fashion seems to fill the atmosphere, not just in the cosmopolitan mix of great restaurants and cafes, but also in the many different styles on the streets. It's becoming known as a birthplace for new concept stores.
SHIMOKITAZAWA
KOENJI
Known for excellent vintage shops, independent bookstores, cheap bars, and cafés, frequented by students from nearby universities.
SHINJUKU
Famous for its skyscrapers, electronics stores, and major department stores, as well as the world’s largest train station. Kabukicho is one of the liveliest nightlife districts in Tokyo.
GINZA
A stately, high-end shopping district full of world-famous fashion, cosmetics, and jewelry brands, along with Japan’s major department stores. Nearby Kyobashi is one of the oldest commercial districts in Tokyo, and includes the world’s first department store, Mitsukoshi, and other small shops selling Japanese food, traditional handcrafts, and more.
EAST TOKYO
Dominated by Tokyo Skytree tower, this area has a more “downtown” Old Tokyo feel about it. Lower rents encouraged many of the first select shops in Japan to open here in this favorite area for artists looking for cheap studio space, alongside traditional mom-and-pop shops and old-style Japanese inns and restaurants.
