Nigo keepin’ it fresh like raw fish

Photo by Jeff Minton for Portfolio

Portfolio magazine did a feature on Nigo, the ultra-rich creator of A Bathing Ape clothing brand. I blog for Portfolio.com once in awhile, and I was surprised to find that they would cover Nigo. The magazine tends to be a little “bougie” but apparently someone there thought this was important enough to give it a lot of space in the magazine.

Nigo, whose real name is Tomoaki Nagao, is at a crossroads in his career. He can either be a sellout and make Bape a much more international brand by opening more stores and pursuing other lucrative projects (Bape cologne? Bape sports drink? Bape condoms maybe?) or he could make the line more exclusive and go back to his Japanese underground roots.

The secret to Nigo’s success is that he fights to keep Bape fresh “as in raw-fish-in-a-refrigerated-case fresh. The clothes and footwear are intended to be seen as perishable; rare; manufactured that morning, perhaps; and presented for you in a sushi-bar-style display.”

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a lady disguised as a vending machine.

Photo: Torin Boyd/Polaris, for The New York Times

What will they think of next? There was an interesting article in The New York Times on Saturday about an “experimental fashion designer” in Japan who makes skirts that transform into vending machines. View a slide show of how this “outfit” works.

Why would one need such a getup? To protect oneself from dangerous, street assailants. Aya Tsukioka doesn’t just make skirts. She also sews “manhole bags,” purses that look like manholes while laid on the street, and a backpack for children that can be folded so that a predator mistakes the kid for a Japanese fire hydrant.

Smelliest Keitai Eva!

HAHA take a look at this. If you don’t know what I mean when I say “keitai” I am talking about those ultra cool keitai straps or cell phone straps that no respectable Japanese youngster would be caught on the streets without.

According to Strapya-World.com:

 Lucky Poo, Golden Lucky Sh!t Cell Phone Straps and Big Craps

Golden Shit, we call Gold Unchi in Japanese, is a symbol of Luck/Monetery Fortune. Bring it to your cell phone, Wii or digital camera! Now booming all round the world among potential riches.

You get the idea

Japan Fashion Week 2007

I know I am posting this kinda late, but from Aug. 29th to September 5th, Tokyo was all a glow for the 5th Japan Fashion Week at Tokyo’s Midtown Hall. Designers previewed their Spring/Summer collections for ’08. The Japanese try not to step on anybody’s toes, JFW spring/summer collection is held before major fashion shows around the world in September but autumn/winter show is held after them in March. The cool thing about JFW is that the clothes actually look wearable – you know minus the polystar afro.

 

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