If you’re a working woman in the city, there comes a point in time where you’ll a notice your monochromatic wardrobe becomes a uniform. Black itself is a staple that can’t be deterred and no matter what the magazines and fashion trends try to tell us, black will never be ousted from it’s post as the number one color choice for urban girls.
It is cool….strong….timeless.
But black is also considered…lifeless…..dark….boring.
But I think that black is just a canvas, where the colors of our imagination POP when they spill out on it. You don’t have to wear it on your sleeve. Because girls in black lead brilliantly colorful lives.
Sample sales are amazing. I am an muthereffin EXPERT at traversing the sample sale scene, and coming out with perhaps the weirdest, most head-scratching pieces in there. But I employ them like a pro. Take this Martin Margiela MM6 shirt piece. It’s the orange thing in the photos. It’s just a front piece of a tuxedo shirt or jacket, like the bib/collar. It’s basically a necklace and offers no real coverage. It is an illusion, and enigma, but damn if it’s not cool (it’s em em six, afterall!).
Inspired by the new TOGA SS 2014 collection and a request from Singapore’s JUICE magazine for an “outfit pic”, I called up photographer Celia Humphries and we planned the most epic “outfit pic” we could muster. “I AM NOT A STYLE BLOGGER!” is something that was always kind of my personal tagline… Go ahead and call me a hypocrite. But don’t call me boring….
シンガポールのJUICEという雑誌からインタビュー + コーディネートの写真を載せたいとオファーをもらったミーシャは、TOGA2014ssコレクションにインスピレーションを受けたスタイリングを、フォトグラファーのCelia Humphriesとタッグを組んで撮影した。話し合った結果、ふたりだからできる”大作”をつくろう！と気合い十分。ミーシャのモットーである”I AM NOT A STYLE BLOGER! ( ”私はストリートでポージングしたコーデを紹介する、というようなブロガーではない！”)はちょっとした自慢。 でも今回はとっくに楽しくコーデを撮影できたおかげか、そのいいところがすごくわかった。 偽善者と言いたければ言っていいけど、「面白くない」とは言えないから私はそれでいいわ…w
This is what happens when major personalities collide. Magic! Shot for Taiwan-based alternative magazine Zine (素人)、it was concepted by my friend and stylist Kosei Matsuda and shot in Tokyo this summer. He told me he wanted to do a shoot inspired by my personal style, and asked me to gather as much of my favorite accessories, hats and wigs as I could to pair with my favorite Tokyo brands. Then he asked if I would make a cameo in the shoot..and finally, the whole shebang was named “A Lot Of Misha Janette”. I couldn’t be more humbled and happy with that honor!
東京ファッションウィークのコーディネートダイアリー4日目: スパンコール達人になった日 by MURUA
I should give every outfit I wear a number according to how easy it is to sit in something or not. I couldn’t sit in the Anrealage cage dress on Sunday so that gets a “sit-able” number of 0. And the EMODA dress yesterday was raining beads every time I moved much less tried to sit that’s a cringe-worthy 3. Today I thought it would be easier…I don’t know why…. it was just sequins after all.
But today was a face-palm-inducing 4. The pailletes are delicate and don’t take kindly to being suffocated by a human being trying to rest itself on its bum. It was definitely super, super cool looking though. And would you have guessed it was by MURUA?! Yes! In fact this was also a show piece from the Mark Style “Touch Me” ss 13 show. I find it ironic that a domestic mass-market brand is the one putting out these fun showpieces, while many high-end brands can only afford to make commercial pieces. Mass-market or not, these items are so much fun to have on option and I`m grateful for it.
So today was the first day of filming for a big super special project…I had cameras on me for half the day, including the Dresscamp show. I am just thankful it’s not reality TV- what a head job that must be! Can’t wait for the project to be released!
sequin coat and skirt スパンコールのジャケットとスカート MURUA White top インナー ROGGYKEI Necklace ネックレス Yohei Ono Tights タイツ FUGAHUM Shoes シューズ dazzlin’ Hair ヘア Plumb Mask マスク Prism-gem Headband カチューシャ Baking Soda Sunglasses サングラス FURLA
MURUA’s collection theme was “Futuristic Mermaid” so everytime I came close to anyone the reflection on the walls made it look like I was underwater. Talk about a performance!
To be a model, one is usually blessed with natural good looks (see the law of symmetry in attraction), a chameleon-like ability to transform according the theme of a fashion shoot, and they work on their craft full-time by getting into agencies and attending auditions left and right. There are high-fashion models in Japan for sure, but the domestic girls, usually of mixed Japanese and western ethinicty certainly get enough work to have lucrative careers.
But there’s another type of model out there, very inherent to Japan, similar to the domestic models above from the outside but they are fundamentally different.
“Doku” means “Reader” and “mo” stands for “model” so literally it means “reader model”. Now that makes them sound like girls who read books to children for charity or something, so I would translate it more like “street-style models” or “amateur models”. Basically, these girls get scouted on the streets by magazines for their street-style which will usually correspond to one of the popular subcultures that has a magazine dedicated to it. So KERA will look for Harajuku girls, Egg will search for Gyaru and Popteen will look for mini-idols. The girls are already secretly hoping to get their photos snapped for the street-style pages in their favorite magazines so they get all dolled up and hang out in Harajuku or Shibuya. After they’ve been snapped for a few issues by a magazine and proved they’ve got style, they might be asked to become a “dokumo” for that magazine and are invited to professional photoshoots to get pages dedicated to her style and makeup techniques.
If we were to compare it to a phenomenon in the west, it would basically be…BLOGGERS! Girls with awesome street-style becoming superstars, right? It’s especially interesting since there’s no phenomenon of bloggers becoming famous in Japan, since they just go straight to being dokumo instead (and all dokumo have diary-like blogs anyway).
I learned about this somewhat strange world of dokumo when on assignment with CNN a few years ago I was asked to follow a Koakuma-Ageha dokumo “Sayurin” on a photoshoot all day. I was shocked when I saw her bring her own suitcase of clothes, and she did her own makeup as an editor hovered like a helicopter just inches away. “What brand of eyeliner is that? How thick is that line? 2mm? Are you drawing it differently this month compared to last month?” So basically for “dokumo”-heavy magazines the girls themselves are filling the pages contents themselves!
DOKUMO are the subject of this weekend’s episode of Kawaii International on NHK and for an hour it follows the ins and outs what it takes to be one, why someone would want to be one (do they get paid? What’s the point?). So definitely check it out. Melody and I talked to 6 **VERY** different dokumo from different genres so its very fascinating (hime-gyaru, akiba-mix idol, gyaru, harajuku fairy, gyaru punk and japanese-gothic)
As for the phenomenon I don’t think it’s going away soon, despite the blog and digital revolution. Said a model friend of mine, “I feel like dokumo might be taking our jobs someday. Afterall, they don’t have to pay for stylists or makeup artists!”. Look out, world!
In UTC or Universal Time Coordinated, timings are as follows: February 22, Fri. 23:10 February 23, Sat. 3:10/ 7:10/ 11:10/ 15:10/ 19:10
日本時間（オンラインストリーミングのみ）or Japan Standard Time: February 23, Sat. 8:10/12:10/16:10/20:10/ February 24, Sun. 0:10/4:10
※Available on internet for free for everyone to watch ※Same episode will be streamed in a total of 6 times once in 24 hours ※only available for streaming, not for downloading
読モ高橋奈々 for elianegigi
UNA
“Dokumo” Sayumin of Koakuma Ageha 小悪魔アゲハ読モさゆみん
