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April 29, 2024
 

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Samuel Thomas

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Samuel Thomas
Samuel Thomas is a fashion writer and lecturer in fashion media at Bunka Gakuen University. He regularly contributes to The Japan Times, among other publications, and provides consultancy services to industry clients.
For Samuel Thomas's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jun 9, 2014
Young designer opportunities, plus new lines for older brands
Designers, get ready to get crazy
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
May 12, 2014
Harajuku and Omotesando: Where pop and luxury fashion are friendly neighbors
A Fashionable 'pearing'
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Apr 7, 2014
Anrealage and Christian Dada round up Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Tokyo
The Anrealage experiment continues Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Tokyo wrapped up with some off-schedule shows at the end of March, which included popular local brand Anrealage.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 29, 2014
Fashion Week Tokyo: menswear's mixed messages
Designers continue to break new ground
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 29, 2014
Fashion Week Tokyo: opening the floodgates
International brands are no longer shunning the country's biannual collections
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Mar 10, 2014
Fashion week is here again; see what the ordinary folk are invited to
Don't miss out on Tokyo Fashion Week
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Feb 10, 2014
Great collaborations — Etro x Ninagawa; sumo x Sasquatchfabrix; Common Sleeve x almost everyone — plus Valentine's tips
Mika Ninagawa updates Etro's paisley, sumo stable Kokonoe-beya branches out to street fashion, while Common Sleeve mix and matches with more than 30 brands.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jan 13, 2014
The avant-garde of old and new, plus a quick reminder that the 'real' sales are nigh
In November last year, Issey Miyake opened an extra-large Omotesando shop called "Reality Lab," which features his more experimental lines all under one roof. These include 132 5., a wearable line of origami-folded clothing cut from fabric derived from recycled PET bottles, and IN-EI, a line of pleated lamp shades and home decor following a similar concept.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 9, 2013
Otaku culture gets under the skin
Tattoos in Japan have long moved on from the kind often romanticized by the West — that imagery of flamboyant yakuza that so many seem reluctant to relinquish. But a brief glance at the policies of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto reveals a nation still unwilling to allow tattoos into mainstream society — no-matter how many end up on the bodies of the younger generations.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Dec 9, 2013
December offers Tokyo style and makeup shows, plus even more new high-end stores
Fashionably made up with Shiseido
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Nov 11, 2013
Huge headwear, film shorts and the fashion in between
Uniqlo gives the fleece a makeover
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 26, 2013
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: No longer an outsider
The last day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo coincided with the Shibuya Fashion Festival, a platform for designers feeling constrained by the limitations of the official venue at Hikarie. As it was, the only condition placed on the participating designers' means of presentation was that they be open to the public and take place in the leafy surroundings of Miyashita Park in central Shibuya to the accompaniment of the passing Yamanote Line trains.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 26, 2013
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: Walking the line
The menswear schedule looked somewhat lacking on paper this season at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo. The big names that would normally take the lead in international coverage — namely, Takeshi Osumi's post-Phenomenon project, Mr.Gentleman, or the internationally friendly Whiz Limited — were both absent from the runway or else content to broadcast their collections online. This may have deprived the week of the crop of brands that bounce off and refine that which has already proved palatable to international tastes, but instead left the stage wide open for an altogether more honest face of Tokyo and its fashion to emerge for the international fashion community to see.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 10, 2013
Fashion Week's side shows give the public a rare seat next to their runways
Next week is Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo but, chances are, you’re not invited. Before that teen trauma of being excluded sets in, don’t panic — there’s a ton of alternative events to get dolled up for.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 10, 2013
Etw.Vonneguet designer draws inspiration from Pina Bausch for new collection
Under the alias "Olga," the Japanese designer behind Etw.Vonneguet has long been part of the official Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo, all the while challenging the institution by opening public auditions for models and welcoming anyone to her shows. This time she will break away from the official event to show a collection as part of the Shibuya Fashion Festival (2:30 p.m. on Oct. 19th; Miyashita Park in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo). The Japan Times talked to the pioneering designer to learn more:
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON: FASHION
Oct 7, 2013
Madstore, Christian Dada, Alexander Wang make Tokyo debuts, while Parco pushes the envelope
Alexander Wang lands in Aoyama
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON: FASHION
Sep 9, 2013
Louis Vuitton celebrates its muses, while Control Bear heads its own store
Louis Vuitton is celebrating six of its designer's 'muses' in an interactive exhibition at the Tokyo Station Hotel. 'Timeless Muses' honors supermodel Kate Moss, film director Sofia Coppola, French actress Catherine Deneuve, novelist Franu00e7oise Sagan, architect Charlotte Perriand and, to bring the 'timeless' into context, 19th-century French Empress consort Eugu00e9nie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Aug 12, 2013
Color-changing fashion, Hedi Slimane's first Saint Laurent collection, 99%IS' unusual "macs" and newcomers to Harajuku
'A Color Un Color,' the second show in a 'Philosophical Fashion' series of exhibitions at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, is featuring one of the most exciting brands to come out of Japan in the past decade: Anrealage.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jul 8, 2013
This month's genuine pearls of fashion wisdom
Pearls of fashion win a Guinness World Record
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 2, 2013
Let's talk 100 percent kawaii!
Long before the mayor of Shibuya announced pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu as an official ambassador of kawaii culture, Sebastian Masuda, her art director, had been on a mission to spread "kawaii culture" across the world, advocating it as not only a potent source of Japan's emerging soft power, but also as a cultural revolution in its own right.
Number of homeless in Japan hits record low
Homeless people sleep on the street in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in August 2021.
Raising kids in Japan as a single parent? It takes a village.
Making things work as a foreign, single mother in Japan isn't easy, but these tips and tricks can help you through the hardest parts.
JAL cancels international flight after captain gets drunk at Dallas hotel
A Japan Airlines' flight from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled last week after its captain got drunk at a local hotel.
In Japan, regional revitalization fails to halt population decline
Sakiyama elementary school in Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, in March .Over the past decade, the government has directed efforts toward policies designed to give young people incentives to base themselves in rural areas.
Putin’s war will soon reach Russians’ tax bills
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting in St. Petersburg on Friday.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree
By Alex K.T. Martin

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