february-2010

THE AVERAGE JAPANESE GIRL IS
SO INCREDIBLY STYLE-CONSCIOUS
THAT THE STREETS ARE LIKE A LIVE
CATALOGUE OF CREATIVE EXPERIMENTS
and even if you have no intention of furiously
making purchases over your mobile phone,
the raucous and choreographed shows are a
true spectacle to watch.
Yukiko, an attendee of the 2009 Autumn/
Winter event — an LCD-backlit extravaganza
featuring drag shows and live make-up demos
— buzzes with excitement.
“Sugoi tanoshikatta! So much fun!” she
glows with a post-shopping adrenaline buzz
— without a single bag in sight. “Japanese girls
have so much energy and creativity, and we
love to buy clothes. It’s the best fashion event
for girls who like funky and fresh fashion!”
“I’m not really interested in haute couturestyle
fashion or business wear, I just want to
see the kind of clothes that I like. And I like the
models — they are the girls I look up to.”
Most of the models on show are the
“cute-type” girls with names such as
Angelababy, Melody and Coco often seen
in magazines and the Japanese media,
refl ecting the national obsession with all
things adorable and kitschy.
The show itself is run by girlswalker.com,
a mobile phone portal fashion site with
seven million users, conceived by an
enterprising start-up called Xavel branding
inc., and it enables shoppers to buy trendy,
affordable clothing from each of its partner
labels. Tapping into the formidable consumer
force of the young, female technologically
savvy shopper, its users are mainly women
aged 20 to 34.
Tokyo Girls Collection glittering fi nale
INSETS: Jill by Jill Stuart modelled
by Angelababy; Lip Service
RETAIL THERAPY
TOKYO GIRLS COLLECTION
FEBRUARY 2010 65
Photos: ©TOKYO GIRLS COLLECTION by girlswalker.com 2009 AUTUMN/WINTER