Trends in Japan - CScout Japan Blog » Tokyo Girls Collection: As cute as it gets

Tokyo Girls Collection: As cute as it gets

Written by: Rebecca Milner on March 18, 2008 at 12:58 am | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION |

An estimated 20,000 girls attended the Girls’ Walker Magazine celebration of all things cute, the Tokyo Girls Collection. The twice-annual extravaganza, held at Yoyogi National Stadium on Saturday, is billed as a “fashion festival for Japanese real clothes.”

“Real clothes” is the term used to describe the fashion forward and affordable domestic labels favored by teens who patronize the likes of Shibuya 109. In true democratic fashion, anyone who can afford the ¥3,000 entry fee can attend (in contrast to typical fashion industry invitation only events); for ¥5,000 you can get a seat in the stands and for ¥10,000 a VIP seat next to the stage.

Popular models from trend-setting girls’ magazines, such as Vivi’s Jun Hasegawa (right) and Lena Fujii (left) and Ray’s Karina, pranced down the 45-meter LED catwalk flanked by stadium spotlights, all the while smiling, waving, and occasionally tossing hats and teddy bears into the ecstatic audience.

Enormous screens showed hyper-kinetic CG images suitable for a trance party while equally frenetic pop music played at high volume. Each of the 18 brands had five minutes to show their stuff, allowing for about eight ensembles and three music track changes.

The effect couldn’t have been more different from your standard hyper-cool, fashion show with poker-faced models and obscure indie music. It was as if MTV and Disney had teamed up to put on a fashion show, and the crowd couldn’t have been happier. Disney Mobile was actually one of the sponsors of the event, along with Toyota who both enacted live advertising spots in between sets.

And the clothes? A mix of bohemian and color pop looks, with some sporty casual thrown in.

Just like the girls who showed up to watch.

Another key point of the Girls Collection is that these real clothes can be bought in real stores now, as opposed to the stuff presented at the recent Japan Fashion Week, which is intended for retail the following fall.

In addition to the runway shows, the event included such highlights as performances by HipHop/R&B acts Funky Monkey Babys and Chemistry, appearances by pop singer Leah Dizon and comedienne Shizu-chan, and a high school boy drag show hosted by Junichi Okada and Ken Miyake, members of V6, one of the currently most successful boy-bands (which elicted a “chou kawaii!” Or “way cute!” from the girls sitting next to me). And then of course the grand finale:

The Tokyo Girls Collection, now in its sixth season, is held twice a year. In two weeks the event will make its second visit to Beijing, where Japanese fashion has a growing following.

Tags: Fashion, GirlsWalker, Tokyo Girls Collection
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives license

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I would love to go to one of these shows…my favorite models are Marie, Jun, & Sara Mary from ViVi magazine!

Comment by Shirley — March 19, 2008 #
Tokyo Girls Collection 2008 (Spring / Summer)…

An estimated 20,000 girls attended the Tokyo Girls Collection, a biannual fashion event organised by Girls’ Walker magazine, on Saturday (Mar 15) at Yoyogi National Stadium.
Contrary to most of the fashion shows which only invite celebrity …

Trackback by Asian Pop with YeinJee — March 25, 2008 #
[...] still going through all of the flyers we received at last week’s Tokyo Girls Collection, but this one caught our eye immediately: an ad for Puppine, a magazine launched earlier this year [...]

Pingback by Trends in Japan » Puppine fashion magazine for dogs — March 28, 2008 #
[...] the search for the next Miss Tokyo Girls Collection, the finale event for the now famous biannual “real fashion” festival. This is the ultimate opportunity for a would-be reader model, not only to grace the pages of [...]

Pingback by Trends in Japan » Miss Tokyo Girls Collection up for grabs — June 4, 2008 #
When will be the next show held ? Please email me the date and location. I would like to attend.

Comment by jane scott sf preston — June 18, 2008 #
japan girl picture very pretty in shirt and very activity fantasy

Comment by trung hau — June 21, 2008 #
i’m ukrianian and i live in canada, but i wanna visit japan, tokyo, because i like japanese girls

Comment by Oleh — June 29, 2008 #
Wow , japan is my fav country …. not only the food are good but girls fashion also two thumps =) love japan so much =)

Comment by chenny — August 26, 2008 #
[...] the search for the next Miss Tokyo Girls Collection, the finale event for the now famous biannual â€œreal fashionâ€ festival. This is the ultimate opportunity for a would-be reader model, not only to grace the pages of [...]

Pingback by Trend: Crowdsourced Fashion Models | CScout Trend Consulting — September 12, 2008 #
[...] Click for our 2008 Tokyo Girl’s Collection report [...]

Pingback by Trends in Japan - CScout Japan Blog » Tokyo Girls’ Collection - TGC Spring 2009 — March 11, 2009 #
oow… the Japanese girl is so cute….
Whether they are not beautiful, but they have the style to get rid of that…>.<
Want to imitate their style too~
Hahaha..

Comment by o0otidak — March 13, 2009 #
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