Dear Shaded Viewers,
Breakfast on the 40th floor looking out at Mt. Fuji is not a bad way to start the day.In fact you can not see it in this image but believe me, it is there. These girls are lining up to buy tickets for their favourite pop stars.
The Prada building and outside of Mister Hollywood.
Daisuke Obana aka Mister Hollywood
I asked to meet Daisuke Obana, the designer behind the brand N. Hollywood and the owner of Mister Hollywood. In my mind I imagined someone driving a pink convertible and wearing flashy clothes. I was dead wrong on that one.
Daisuke shows the day I return to Paris so I was really happy to meet him today. We sat around his very old and lovingly varnished dining room table and talked about his first trip to LA when he was 14 and how ever since then he had been profoundly attracted to North Hollywood. He’s even bought a house out there but isn’t about to be transplanted, he wants to keep it special and just visit several times a year and at the same time to bring N.Hollywood to Tokyo. Hidden on a small road at the end of a passageway you encounter Daisuke’s planet Hollywood. The entire shop has been built from elements that he transported here from the American West. A magical chandelier made of wooden forms for childrens shoes dangles from above. The floors slant as if by wear the dressing rooms have stage lights around a portrait of a clown. On the top floor there is a record collection and a comfey leather couch. My thoughts – a line of home fragrances and Daisuke should absolutely think about designing sets for films. Sometime over the next month I’ll post a short video interview with Mister Hollywood but till then here are a few images from today. Think clowns, amusement park, old LA and vintage inspired clothes for men.
Daisuke Obana and Kaoru Sasaki from commons&sense magazine and that is Daisuke’s vintage car.
After our visit with Mister Hollywood Akiko and Tsukasa and I went for a healthy lunch. They are deciding what to order.
Next we went to the Ne-Net fashion show where I ran into my friend Tiffany that I had not seen in more than 4 years. The show was quite funny with a little model dressed as a ghost running through a field of static ghosts. This happened a few times during the show but my best close ups of him were totally flou.
Tiffany has been living in Tokyo for the past ten years and is finishing up her book on 4 decades of Japanese street fashion. She is standing next to Tokyo’s first stylist. I am very sorry but I don’t know her name, you will have to read Tiffany’s book to find out.
Tiffany told me about this great doll shop but I was not allowed to take pictures there, here is the back view of a Manga doll. You buy the body and the head separately, then there are numerous wigs, all kinds of eyes and a wild selection of clothing. Barbie should be very worried.
In case I was feeling homesick for Paris, I went to visit L’Eclaireur. Again, not allowed to take photos…but I took this one before I knew that to be the case. I’m looking forward to their one year anniversary party on Friday night. L’Eclaireur has a whole building here. I’ll discover the rest of it in a few days.
The l’Eclaireur building:
While walking on the street I ran into my friend Daisuke from Celux and Penny Martin from SHOWstudio.
I had an admirer on the street today. I bet tomorrow she does my hair. She told me how much she loved it. Tsukasa has been documenting my trip for commons&sense magazine
I could not come to Tokyo and not visit the Comme des Garcons shop. Cannot take pictures there either so I had one of the sales help come outside for me. I thought the backdrop was perfect for him.
Then it was time for the Ato show, I much preferred the men’s to the women’s. Reminded me a bit of Number (9) except there weren’t any lean and lanky cowboys here.
The plan was to skip dinner, take a bubble bath and call it an early night….As you can see it is 2h and I’m still writing to you.
Kaoru Sasaki, Editor in Chief and Creative Director of commons&sense after the Ato show and my view right now.
Later,
Diane
