Mori Hanae

I am going to pay tribute to Mori Hanae, the only Japanese female fashion designer to have achieved international recognition for her work. Her designs are always very feminine and gentle like a stroke of a caligraphy brush. Motives like kanji are no stranger to the designs of Mori.

She is considered a pioneer in the Japanese fashion industry as Japanese women were traditionally confined to the roles of wife, housewife and mother. She broke these contraints and build herself a fashion empire in New York.

Mori Hanae was born in Shimane Perfecture and was a student at the Tokyo Women’s Christian University until she was forced to help the war effort by working in a factory. After the war, she married into a family in the textile industry and attended design school. This is where she found her talents, love and flair in fashion design. It all started with a small clothing company aimed at private customers and theatrical companies. By a chance meeting, Mori met Coco Chanel in Paris in 1960 and the rest was history. Haute Couture, here she comes.

The Mori Hanae design has studios and boutiques in New York, Tokyo and Paris.

Here are some of her designs:

Mori 1

Mori 2

Mori 3

Mori 4

Mori 5

While certain fashion trends come and go like the wind, there are those that stay for a very looooong time. LIke for example jeans. Jeans are perhaps the most worn pants in the world because of its durability and comfort. Of course, we can forget its fashion. A pair of skinny jeans can flatter just about anyone if you get the right cut.

In Japan, Red Monkey Jeans seems to be doing perfectly great with its sales and popularity. It is the most searched jeans in Yahoo! surpassing Levi’s and Diesel.

Red Monkey Jeans are the brainchild of Martin Ksohoh from Hong Kong and are made from specially engineered cotton from China which is woven and dyed using the indigo rope dying method to produce high quality and unique denim. The jeans also carry a very distinctive embroidered Japanese influenced back pocket designs of geishas, crashing waves and dragons.

Made in China for the mass, just like everything branded in the world..:) Okay so why is it so fricking popular?? Well, we know why now. Big names in the music industry like P. Diddy and Jay-Z are wearing it…so of course, like monkeys see and monkey do, the mass follows. However, it is without a doubt that these jeans looks cool though. The westerners are suckers for oriental designs and prints, hence the dragons and phoenixes and chinese and japanese characters. The name Red Monkey is even mentioned in songs too – raps of course.

These jeans are made in very special and limited edition so getting them may be a fuss. Of course, it’s not exactly friendly to your pockets too. A pair of Red Monkey jeans, with its signature embroidered dragons and what not, could set you back £300 ($600) a pair! That’s some pretty expensive pair of jeans but you get the consolation that there are perhaps only 20 pairs in the whole wide world.

Beware of imitations in eBay though.

Source: Denimology

This little black grey dress is really cute and pretty. The designer of this dress is none other than Yohji Yamamoto, a name that is NO stranger to the fashionista’s world. Now the thing is, I don’t know if I can wear it everyday. I don’t live a life like those girls in Sex and The City where it’s all flamboyant and all that.

Now take a look at this dress and tell me if it’s not beautiful…it’s gorgeous!

Doesn’t it look like it’s swaying around even it’s evidently in a room with no window’s open? Yes, that’s Yohji-san for you. His designs have always been very artistically intune with nature and abstract. If you haven’t seen his designs, you’ll get extravagance, elegance and feminine all rolled into one. He loves the perspective of women being really feminine it seems. I don’t mind it, I think women should be feminine since we are females but should not be wimpy at the same time. :P

Source: Yohji Yamamoto; The Runway Scoop

…I would like to put up some cutesy pictures of babydoll dresses for all to see. I am surprised that there aren’t as many pink ones popping up in front of my face yet (i hate the color pink) but here they are. Oh some of the babydoll dresses have a bit of a bohemian feel to it, i think. Don’t you think so?

All images are taken from this really cool site called Handbag. The dresses comes from brands like Prada, Tara Jarmon, Margo London among a few, they are all UK designers too. Prices for these babydoll dresses range from BP105-BP290.

I really like the red one :)

Let’s go upmarket for a moment. Isaburo 1889 was established, as the name suggests, in 1889 by Isaburo Matsusaki. They specialise in high quality, custom leather luggage products. They have headquarters in the famously fashionable Omotesando.

The showroom doesn’t contain products for sale, but examples of leather and designs which, after you mix and match, are put together over a month. They use traditional leatherworking techniques along with modern day techniques.

It’s the kind of shop that has a philosophy, which, along with the Omotesando address, tells you that if you have to ask how much the bag is, you can’t afford it. The bags are high quality and very unique however. From their website:

One of the sources for our inspiration was a sea turtle. Sea turtles are known for their habit of continuous traveling. Some of them travel an enormous distance. They hatch in Okinawa, swim across the Pacific, stop by Hawaii, and finally reach California. They then travel the same course back to Okinawa for breeding. Their lives are repetition of such traveling, and for hundreds of centuries they have continued this process. Throughout this extremely long period of time, they have evolved into the current unique form, the soft body protected in the hard, round shell. It is not unnatural for us to associate the structure of the turtles with well-made luggage.

The rucksacks can be purchased outside of Japan from Dynamism, but you won’t be able to customise your purchase. Prices start from US$699. No news sadly on the beautful women’s handbags.

Link:
Isaburo 1889 (English and Japanese)

Shu Uemura is a cosmetics brand that has achieved international recognition. Their line of cosmetics ventures from lipstick to facial care…and it’s completely Japanese. It all started by a man name Shu Uemura, naturally. He is what we would call the inconventional man whose life is dedicated to making women beautiful. As Japanese women always love looking well made up and beautiful – Uemura-san took this as an opportunity to incorporate his sense of traditional and contemporary cosmetics to be introduced to the market in Japan. He who is a skin care specialist and make up artist created the brand Shu Uemura and has seen taken off to international heights wit his products.

You will see his products being used in fashion shows, by Hollywood artists, Hong Kong artists, Taiwan artists and the general public who can afford using Shu Uemura every other time. Their product is for serious fashionista and you won’t find giggly teenage hovering in any of their chains. With a make up brush that can cost up to USD250 each, you better be serious about making yourself up like a doll to get all the mileage u paid for that brush.

However, Shu Uemura’s line of product is known of its quality and awesome range. Going into one of their stores will have you propped up by one of their assistants with a lesson on how to make you, a more beautiful you with their line of products. I have a Shu Uemura eyeliner, given to me as a free gift in one of the departmental stores in Malaysia (I’m Malaysian). I’ve only used it once, like a minute ago before i came to write this post and it’s been sitting on the shelve for uhm…2 years? It still works and I don’t feel like my eyeballs are burning (yet) so shelf life wise, I think Shu Uemura’s pretty good. I’m gonna take a 15 minute interval to see if i have any bad reaction from this). BRB.

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Nope, nothing, I’m still fine and my eyes are still gorgeous *blinks* :D

This Japanese brand is definitely worth a try although, I don’t know if I am able to fork out 250 bucks for a brush. I’m not really big on making myself up like a doll unless it’s worth it :P

pictures courtesy of Shu Uemura Japan

Samantha Thavasa’s bags are everywhere in Japan. If you can’t afford the must have Louis Vuitton handbags, then Samantha Thavasa is your next choice. The stores are covered in photos of Beyonce, Paris Hilton, Posh Spice and other celebrities-by-definition holding her bags or wearing her jewellery.

So, naturally, I thought it was an American or English brand name.

Not so. Samantha Thavasa, despite the name, is a brand born in Japan. And an expensive brand too. You may as well go for Louis Vuitton for the amount that you pay.

While not in my style personally, it’s Japanese fashion that I’m supposed to write about, and Samantha Thavasa is definitely one of the big-name brands here. The label will be opening a store soon in New York too. When the posters of Beyonce and Paris Hilton get circulated around there, it’s sure to be a success. Buy now from Japan while the prices are only moderately extortionate!

Links:
Samantha Thavasa (only in Japanese)
Web Japan article

Couldn’t find if they are available elsewhere, but apparently they seem to be limited to the Japanese market. Star Wars Episode III was release two days ago in Japan, and there has been all kinds of Star Wars specials around lately. Last one I spotted in Shibuya yesterday is that Stormtrooper helmet themed flipflops. For 4,095 yen ($40), you get a big flat softish Stormtrooper rubber sheet that has the shapes of the slaps perforated for easy punch out. Of course, once you extracts the slaps, it doesn’t look like a Stormtrooper anymore and you’ll have to tell everyone that these are limited edition Converse because they will look like $2.95 ones you buy on at the beach shop…

Other special Star Wars models are the All Star Retro Star Wars Hi, All Star Star Wars Hi, and One Star Star Wars Ox, pictured below.

Official Converse Japan page (translated)

And if you visit their VERY HEAVY flash website (and you’re a UK resident), you could even win a trip to Tokyo.

On the very heavy flash site, you can also read a manga drawn by a 16 years old intern which explains you why “Japan is so coooool”, tells you all about manga, and concludes with “It’s his hair that really gives the manga hero its style”, enticing you to try it for yourself with the news Garnier Manga gel. All that with a midi faux-Japanese music in the background of course (you can turn it off, but I suggest you keep it loud so that it really feels like Shibuya). I just closed the window when I couldn’t take it anymore and my computer was getting all slow just because of that flash movie…

If you still think sandals are for german tourists, you might be surprised when you see the huge amount of young Japanese wearing Birkenstock (and various imitations) this Summer. Sandals are omnipresent in Japanese traditional culture, wooden ones (geta), rice hay/tatami-style ones (zori), Japanese people, rich and poor, young and old, have been wearing them since no one knows when. Birkenstock has been around since 1774, and it is quite natural it was discovered by some Japanese hipster at some stage and stayed in fashion from then on. Last Summer, Birkenstock suddenly had a trend burst throughout the world, European girls were all over the glossy colorful sandals, and it reflected on Japan of course, making the German sandal the must have item for this Summer.

Overall, it would be easy to think Birkenstock is somehow Japanese, and quite naturally, they are surfing the Japanese wave and putting aside their German-tourist image. Even the US homepage is playing the Asian/Japan card, with the little umbrellas and the soft colors. And one series is even called “Tatami“, and looks remotely Japanese…

Anyway, Birkenstock Japan’s marketing team have done their homework and opened a new shop in Shinjuku East — the original one being in Harajuku, at the bottom of the ultra-hip Takeshita Dori. I had a look at the models displayed and more than half of them had a “Japan Limited” mention on the tag, which proves that Birkenstock is now embracing Japan as one big beautiful market, with limited editions etc. So remember: if you want to be Japanese-cool this Summer, wear German import. (Scroll down for the pictures)