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Note : HARAJUKU is (or was… it depends…) one of the trendyest area of Tokyo, this is the place where the whole Japanese youth culture buy the latest exclusives clothes and products. This is where you can find all the famous shop such as : A BATHING APE, NEIGHBORHOOD, SANTASTIC!, XLARGE, REAL MADE HECTIC, RECON, ATMOS… etc… In this article, HARAJUKU is a shortcut to speak about the Japanese streetculture, and Japanese premium urban apparels specificities.
In every single culture or religion on earth, there is always a central pillar of faith where it holds everything together. Without the pillar, the whole faith would crumble and disband until another pillar is built. The pillar is central to how people communicate and where their future rests. Our street culture, there has been many of these so called ‘pillars’. If you take a look at all the brands we buy, you would certainly notice that brand A has a collaboration t-shirt with brand B, and brand C has just done a jacket with brand H. Our culture is a tightly-knitted network which one influences each other and what one does today will be mimicked the very next day. But without him, our street culture wouldn’t have moved in the fast pace like it is now, and certainly it won’t be as eventful, colorful and interesting. That man is none other than Hiroshi FUJIWARA.
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Most people only know him as the designer and creative director for legendary brands such as FRAGMENTDESIGN, ELECTRIC COTTAGE, GOODENOUGH and HEAD PORTER, but little has been revealed about his life prior to the creation of all his brands and his musical talents. But one thing for sure is: without music, Harajuku culture, or even street culture as a whole wouldn’t be what it is now. Born in 1964, for 20 years Hiroshi Fujiwara declares his official occupation as DJ up to his recent retirement. In the past, he never mentioned himself as a fashion designer or stylist, but little was known that after he got out of senior high school, he enrolled in a specialist college in Tokyo and dropped out within 3 weeks. Rumor is that the college he enrolled in is the very famous BUNKA FASHION COLLEGE in Tokyo which NIGO (A BATHING APE) and Jun TAKAHASHI (UNDERCOVER, AFFA and ZAMIANG), his two apprentices, studied and graduated in the later years. In the early 80’s, Japan was gripped with a new wave of music trends with the invasion of Punk Rock from Britain and Hip-hop from New York. The music also brought along a change in clothing and lifestyle for the conservative Japanese teenagers who wants to openly express themselves and what they think. This is actually the precursor to what the Japanese now call ‘freeters’, meaning young men and women who works and lives casually and do what they want, and don’t want to be binded behind a office desk for 7 days a week like their typical Japanese parents. At that time, Hiroshi was already a full-time musician and playing in gigs in different nightclubs in SHINJUKU and HARAJUKU, which back then which is the mecca for all underground cultures in Tokyo. In the clubs, he has met a variety of people which was influencial to him including names such as Takagi KAN, KUDO, Tycoon TOSH and GOTA who together as a group establishes the music lable ‘MAJOR FORCE’. Then luck stumbled upon him. He entered a fashion contest and eventually he was awarded with a prize of visiting New York and London which further developed his interest in music and fashion. Through his travel and things he experienced overseas, Hiroshi has seen a much wider range of fashion labels and started his second job as a representative of overseas labels in Japan. One of the first labels he introduced was STÜSSY, which at the time was gaining more attention with the carefree lifestyle products and the ‘tribe’ system Shawn STÜSSY was introducing. The whole concept is similar to the modern day method of collaboration: gather a group of people who comes from different cultural background that shares the same passion, and create a product from each individual’s talent. In 1991, the first ever STÜSSY Chapt was opened in what used to be called “The Hill of Freedom», which is the area what is now call Daikanyama in Tokyo. Hiroshi is also regarded as one of the original ‘WORLWIDE TRIBE’ members. TINY PANX (or what used to be called Tinnie Punks), the two-man hip-hop group founded by Hiroshi and Takagi KAN in 1986, was the pivotal point in the history of street culture. The first album they released called “I Lov Got The Groove» captured the media’s attention and also inspired what was the next generation of designers including the now very famous NIGO. It was this album that led NIGO to follow Hiroshi’s footstep to move to Tokyo, enroll at BUNKA FASHION COLLEGE, met up with Jun Takahashi, open a select shop call ‘NOWHERE’ and begin the brand A BATHING APE. With the increase popularity of TINY PANX and the success of the MAJOR FORCE LABEL, they were invited to start a monthly column in a popular lifestyle magazine called ‘Takarajima’ and named it after their debut album for Major Force, ‘LAST ORGY’. Through the ‘LAST ORGY column, they promoted not only their own music, but also shared with readers their lifestyle, clothing, music and anything that seems interesting. They regularly mentioned a store call ‘A STORE ROBOT’, which originally called ‘ROBOT’ in UK until they opened a new store in Tokyo. The store carried items from the 70’s Punk Rock era such as VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, Seditionaries to the 80’s NYC hip-hop boom. The shop is regarded as the origin of Harajuku culture, as it was the first of its kind and also the place where Hiroshi first met NIGO and Jun TAKAHASHI. An interesting note is that it was also the manager of ‘A STORE ROBOT’, call Billy KITAMURA who gave Jun TAKAHASHI his nickname ‘Junio’ and NIGO which the name is now copyright protected. It was the similar style and appearance which made NIGO ‘the number 2′ to Hiroshi. The ‘LAST ORGY’ column stopped in 1990 after published for 3 years, and in 1991 Nigo and Jun Takahashi took over and did ‘LAST ORGY 2′ in the same space within the same magazine. Then in 1990, Hiroshi started the legendary clothing lable ELECTRIC COTTAGE which the rest is now history… Looking back at Hiroshi’s history and all his previous works, you would easily find he is the pioneer into a few areas which street culture is currently made up of. Firstly, he was the first person to come up with the idea of ‘limited edition’. In the early days of Electric Cottage and good enough, Hiroshi kept the production amount to a low number, carefully selected the retail outlet which he supplied the clothing to and appeared in different interviews and magazines to gain mass exposure. Using his influence as a famous DJ, music producer, stylist and a icon in the sub-culture, he successfully created hype which ensured his products are sold out when they drop into the shop. Collaboration is another famous practice created by Hiroshi. Up till today, nearly every single brand in the Harajuku area has collaborated or affiliated in a project that Hiroshi is involved in. The point of working in a collaboration project is to enhance the relationship between brands in the area, as well as expanding the brand into each other’s target market which the idea worked successfully and has started a trend in the next decade to come. But as a point of interest, Hiroshi has NEVER collaborated with NIGO and his brand a BATHING APE, given that he was the person who inspired NIGO into becoming a DJ and designer. In the course of the past 20 years, Hiroshi has started up many other brands at the same time when he is still running his older brands. During his prime years, he had as many as 4 different brands (ELECTRIC COTTAGE, GOOD ENOUGH, FINESSE and MORE ABOUT LESS) running at the same time. This trend has only caught on by other brands in the past few years, with NEIGHBORHOOD creating SVG ARCHIVES and BASE STATION, UNDERCOVER creating ZAMIANG and REALMAD HECTIC creating MASTERPIECE. Hiroshi is also known for collaborating within his own brands, so seeing collaboration t-shirts by ELECTRIC COTTAGE and MORE ABOUT LESS is no big surprise as it happens every so often. A really clever thing which Hiroshi specializes in is product placement. Usually designers would only get professional models to style their products, but Hiroshi knows his name and his products represent the latest in street culture so at every feature or interview he does, he would style himself or his friends with the most exclusive gear or the latest item available by his brands. Using his position as an icon, whatever he wears will be highly praised and sold out within days and over the years, he would accumulate a large group of dedicated followers who would dress in the same style as Hiroshi himself does. Nowadays in HARAJUKU, it would be strange if the designers wouldn’t appear in a styling shoot with their own brand. But the biggest contribution that Hiroshi has brought to our street culture is his gigantic network of friends from around the world. If we study the relationship between different brands, we could see there is a degree of interaction between each and every one of them, from collaboration projects to participate in a joint exhibition together. The meeting between Hiroshi and Michael KOPELMAN was definitely a turning point. If it wasn’t from their friendship and business relationship, a number of HARAJUKU brands would not have made their debut outside their domestic market since the shop HIT & RUN (now known as THE HIDEOUT) was the first to stock brands like A BATHING APE, UNDERCOVER, ELECTRIC COTTAGE, LET IT RIDE and good enough outside of Japan. In return a few years later, HARAJUKU would be hit with a wave of overseas brands such as SUPREME, RECON, SILAS and MARIA and UNDEFEATED which was all derived from this relationship. Can you believe where the hype would be if none of these brands made it outside their domestic market? It is hard to say without Hiroshi, where and what would our current street culture would look like. It may be non-existent, or maybe it’ll be more slow-paced than it is now. But one thing to know for sure is, without his presence or influence; our street culture would not be as vibrant or alive as it is today. He was the one who introduced some of the common practices of our street culture, who inspired many to become a designer and inspired many to pursue their own dreams and lifestyle like he did. His influence has expanded from what people may wear, to how one may live their life.
credit : http://natsarasas.wordpress.com/
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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ของเล่น kaws
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