Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Style & Design | ON: DESIGN Oct 30, 2012
Tokyo Designers Week: Say hello to the best again
by Jean Snow
Something old, something new Halloween is here, which means Tokyo Designers Week is, too. The latter is, of course, what we’re particularly interested in, and since you are reading this on the day it kicks off, we forego our regular product-recommendation format and instead ...
Style & Design Oct 28, 2012
Menswear looks hot to trot
by Samuel Thomas
Men were quick to put their best feet forward at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo, with a heavy concentration of light and minimalist sportswear that proved popular on the catwalks. The menswear element of this Oct. 13-20 event may have opened with the Facetasm show ...
Style & Design Oct 28, 2012
Fashion Week Tokyo powers ahead
by Misha Janette
From start to finish, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo’s 2013 spring/summer collections hit new heights, literally, as the catwalk parades were staged way up in the event’s new home at the Hikarie shopping tower in city center Shibuya. It’s now seven years since the inaugural ...
Style & Design Oct 28, 2012
Context the key at alt fashion fest
by Samuel Thomas
Watching the Fashion Week Tokyo models pounding polished catwalks in the glitzy Hikarie building in shopping-central Shibuya, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in Paris. However, since Mercedes-Benz’s debut as a major sponsor this time last year, now three seasons ago, designers ...
Style & Design | ON: FASHION Oct 9, 2012
Parco puts the spotlight on Shibuya's evolving youth culture
by Misha Janette and Samuel Thomas
Department store Parco is aiming to fill the vacuum created by the rapidly declining gyaru (gal) culture that used to define the Shibuya area of Tokyo. By taking aspects of the otaku (geek) culture of Akihabara and re-imagining them through art and fashion in ...
Style & Design | ON: DESIGN Sep 25, 2012
15.0% keeps ice cream cool
by Jean Snow
15.0%’s ice-cream spoons have already been featured in this column, and now they’re being complemented by Naoki Terada’s new Ice-Cream Cup. Made of porcelain, this container takes on the form of a flat-based ice-cream cone, which is not just a fun design but one ...
Style & Design | ON: FASHION Sep 11, 2012
Louis Vuitton still going dotty
by Misha Janette and Samuel Thomas
Fans of French luxury brand Louis Vuitton are still seeing spots before their eyes. The brand’s latest collection with Yayoi Kusama comes after a string of highly successful artist collaborations that began in 2002 with Takashi Murakami. It really was only a matter of ...
Style & Design | ON: DESIGN Aug 28, 2012
Purifying plant power
by Jean Snow
The Airleaf Mini is an interesting product that makes use of your fan or air conditioner. It contains little beads filled with oils extracted from fir trees, which purifies air as it’s blown through by cutting down the carbon dioxide and restricting production of ...
Style & Design | ON: FASHION Aug 14, 2012
Parisienne cool reaches Tokyo
by Misha Janette and Samuel Thomas
Isabel Marant, the queen of French haute-casual wear, has finally opened her first shop in Japan, right off of Tokyo’s Omotesando promenade. When it comes to French style, chic and sleek uniforms of black usually come to mind. Parisian designer Marant’s collections, however, are ...
Style & Design | ON: DESIGN Jul 31, 2012
Creative thinking inside the box: the Koloro Desk, FeltFelt folders and matching stationery
by Jean Snow
Personalized cubicle There’s nothing enticing about working in a cubicle space, aside from a sense of privacy, but Torafu Architects have somehow made the cubicle a desired option for the home. At first glance, the Koloro Desk might look like a voting booth, but ...
Style & Design | ON: FASHION Jul 10, 2012
The beautiful future of fashion
by Misha Janette and Samuel Thomas
The “Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion” exhibition first showed at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 2010 and traveled to the Haus der Kunst in Munich in 2011. Highly acclaimed by art critics and fashion fans, the show is finally making ...
Style & Design | ON: FASHION Jun 12, 2012
Totally wrapped in Joy
by Misha Janette and Samuel Thomas
Asked to name a seminal New York City-born musician with an intrepid preference for over-the-top fashion, and Lady Gaga would surely the first name to roll off the tongue. But there’s another female musician from the city who influenced global fashion with her unique ...