List of Cosplayer:

#1 Geoff & Kim [The Gear Project]
Gin [Ichimaru] and [Sousuke] Aizen - Bleach

#2 Samantha
Robin - Witch Hunter Robin

#3 Josh
Inuyasha - Inuyasha

#4 Alonzo
Greed - FullMetal Alchemist [FMA]

#5 Jason
Jojo [Jotaro Kujo] - Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

#6 Riona - Final Fantasy VIII (8)

#7 Sugar
Sasuke - Naruto

#8 Lina
Mai - King Of Fighters / Fatal Fury

#9 Alina
Sailor Saturn - Sailor Moon Stars

This for those of you who are into Cosplay. I found a particularly interesting video for you. Some of the costumes are quite awesome and rad. Check it out. Has anyone here participated in any cosplay before be it for an official cosplay function or mere fun around town?

Here you have it, you don’t need to just be scary, you can be scary sexy on Halloween. Gizmodo’s guide to the Top 10 Sexiest Halloween costumes. French maids aka gothic lolita styles are one of them. :P

Frankly, i like the gold digger costume very much even though it’s crosses the politically correct line for women :P

The Tokyo International Anime Fair is not just about the Animes but also the Cosplay dress up during the fair by throngs of fans. I’m talking girls dressing up as anime characters, huge costumes and what not. This is part of the Japanese culture, you see a less extreme version of it everyday in their hairstyles, dresses and overall make up.

Like this girl here…she has a halo above her head. Cute.

here’s a video taken from the Anime Fair 2007…notice the dress up and costumes…it’s quite cool:

Looks like the bug has caught on in Canadian waters. The maids are hard at work serving their masters in Canada’s first cosplay restaurant, iMaid. All the waitresses there are not called waitress but maids and are dress in french maid costumes. The interior of the cafe is black and white but that’s not why it’s hip, it’s obviously the girls that’s bringing in the customers :)

At the iMaid Café in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, the waitresses dress as French maids and address the clientele as “Shang-di” which translates as “highest lord.”

Oooh!

Owner Aaron Wang, 24, who opened the iMaid Cafe last summer, got the idea for the theme after seeing a piece about a maid cosplay restaurant on the television news in China. The restaurant’s “maids” are selected for their looks before they qualify to serve. Among the qualities they should posses, albeit physical, are big eyes, straight hair, young and generally a cute face like an anime character. Hmm… you won’t be seeing any caucasians serving you in there.

Here’s a Japanese version of a Cosplay cafe:

Source: The Star; Infomaniac

I’m going to try and focus on the fashion magazines and books that are common in Japan for the next few posts. This information may not be complete and accurate, because my Japanese is poor and a lot of the information I’m finiding is quite old. If there’s anything that I’ve said incorrectly or something that you want to add, please feel free to add to it in the comments.

While I was still in Japan, my housemate purchased the highly appropriately named Gothic & Lolita Bible. This thing was a tome. It was huge. And fairly hugely priced at a bit under 2000 yen. The Bible has many articles, interviews with Visual-kei artists that goth-lolis so often idolise, catalogues, photos, manga and even outfit designs for budding cosplayers and gothloli heads. In theory, it’s published quarterly but don’t bet on that. It seems to be pretty erratic.

The Bible is a huge success in Japan (and around the world as Gothic Lolita and EGL became popular outside of Japan) and has spawned some spin-off magazines. The Gothic & Lolita Extra Volume seems to be just a collection of things that couldn’t fit into previous volumes. It looks like there is only one of these, but more may appear in the future. The Gothic & Lolita Hair Make Bible focusses obviously on the hair and make-up techniques and trends followed by gothlolis and finally the Gothic Lolita & Punk Brand Book is basically just a catalogue of fashions available. It has photos of all the typical fashions you can find for sale along Takeshita-dori and Harajuku.

I’ve seen it available for sale in quite a few places, but you probably won’t find it at your local 7-Eleven store. Akihabara has stockists given that a few of the maids in the maid cafes also follow Goth Loli fashions. Our sponsors at JList will sell you subscriptions, no matter where in the world you live.

A few Sundays ago I spent the day in Harajuku. It was a great day, the weather was great and there were plenty of people around. As usual, the kids on Omotesando were dressed in their finest, although there were fewer than usual because the right side of the bridge (facing Meiji Shrine) seems to be getting re-paved, so it was all fenced off.

Netherless, I got plenty of photos - here are some of them. You can click on them to see the rest at my Flickr account.

This gaijin punk received a lot of attention from the usual locals.


It’s Decorer Stitch! Rawr!

A GothLoli Dress for sale at Body Line in Takeshita Street.

My favourite photo from the day. I don’t know why.

On a Sunday stroll through Harajuku…

That’s all for now! Hope you enjoyed them!

I made a trip to Harajuku on Saturday to show some tourist friends around, hoping we’d catch some of the kids in crazy fashions that you’d normally see in droves on Sundays. While they weren’t there in high numbers, they were still quite a few. Mind you, even without them, there’s still plenty to see in Harajuku.

FRUiTS is a monthly magazine published by photographer Shoichi Aoki in Japan. It started in 1997 after Aoki noticed a new trend in fashion among young people in Harajuku. Instead of a fashion trend that was dictated by designers, this was a trend started by the young people themselves.

Young people would mix traditional Japanese clothing such as kimonos or geta sandals, with Western or local Japanese designs, even with punk clothing. These people were not brand obsessed like most Japanese people are known to be. They developed a “Harajuku Free Style” fashion trend which Aoki wanted to document in FRUiTS.

Since the trend began in the mid-nineties, the street style has expanded to cover many sub-genres, like punk, Decorer, Gothic Lolita or just kawaii.

The trend has died down in recent years – probably due to the fact that Omotesando (the main street in Harajuku) isn’t closed to cars on Sundays anymore, so the FRUiTS kids no longer have anywhere to hang out. Aoki still manages to publish a magazine each month though, especially since the magazine has achieved cult status in both Japan and overseas.

FRUiTS is a great look into the minds and fashions of Harajuku youth and is available by subscription, or in two volumes of books from Phaidon Press.

Links:
The official website
Buy the first FRUiTS book from Amazon and support 3yen.com!
Buy the second FRUiTS book from Amazon and support 3yen.com!