HARAJUJU

Your now-defunct source of Japanese fashion inspiration.

[harajuju]

HA·RA·BYE·BYE

Harajuju.net, our online Japanese fashion community, closed its doors today. We will also officially stop updating this Tumblr.

Rather than write a long drawn-out goodbye, I’ll leave you with this note from longtime contributor and friend @vampirefiction​, which was posted on the site a day before it went dark.

A Eulogy for Harajuju

I joined Harajuju in 2011, at what was probably the nadir of my fashion existence. I had reached my zenith a few years earlier when I was in Japan living the life, with long chemically straightened hair and ballin’ outfits from h.NAOTO and Black Peace Now. When I got back though, none of that worked in tropical, laid-back Brazil -- so I cut my hair, sold most of my wardrobe and was sorta muddling through in dumb polos and clubmasters.

Then I “met” Brad through some comment about cool headphones that looked like they were designed by Gackt. And Brad was insanely cool. Like, I wouldn’t wear any of the crazy patterned Tornado Mart gear he wore, but the way he wore it was inspiring. He was unapologetically feminine and over the top, like I was in Japan, except he did that in ~The West~ and didn’t give a shit. And there was real intelligence and care behind his clothes, which I assume helped him get away with wearing a snakeskin suit in Canada.

So I lurked his forum for a while and thought it was a collection of really charming weirdos, and of course I wanted to join in. Posts were funny and irreverent and people could make fun of themselves and each other without putting anyone down. That intelligence and care in fashion came through in other users too, such as Galism’s constant constructive advice and Retromantique’s passion for Anna Sui and strong encouragement of others. Retro was a show unto herself, an explosion of color and beauty and just brimming with love in everything she did and said. Most of all, though, there was a warmth in Hara that I have yet to find in any other internet community. When I started posting, I got a reception that I don’t think will be beat any time soon.

And that surprised me, in a way, because most of the fashion circles I had seen outside Japan (and participated in) almost always involved a certain meanness. Harajuju was the opposite. It was constantly uplifting and everyone was a pleasure to read.

Very soon the fashion became just one aspect of Harajuju. I looked forward to reading book reviews, movie reviews, updates on life stuff or just banter. In fact mostly banter. From very early on, I think, it felt more like a group of friends hanging out together than an internet space for fashion. In fact the fashion side was always pretty complicated. Turns out it’s hard to give concrete advice -- no matter how constructive and clear -- than can really help someone across the world figure out what they want to wear and how to wear it. But the contact with cool people that were thinking about and sharing ideas about style in general did help me enormously. I discovered my love of Rick Owens and managed to find a direction I was happy with. I bought skirtshorts from Synthese and they arrived labeled “shorts for my friend”, which I still think was pretty nice.

And I read more, laughed more, thought more -- about clothes, about anime and about everything -- and met people I would never have met. From ettezuslust with her guns, Sai with her art, Cows with his perfect, toned body, Cielux with his perfect, toned body, G and her infinite advice, Chau and Synth with their writing (which somehow, I think, even helped me write better), Who and his THINKING, not to mention bladequeen Azile, dark empress Rosenrot and Shah, the hierophant. And the couple of times I managed to meet any of you in real life you were even cooler and nicer than on the forums (way nicer in Cows’ case).

So not to let this ramble out of control, I just wanted to leave in writing, on Hara, how cool this has been and how cool everyone here has been and how strange and awesome it is that we all came together, even if only for a while. And that was Brad’s doing. Through his benevolent dictatorship he kept the forum warm yet provocative and I think really set the tone for what we did. His humor was precise, he called out bullshit when it needed to be called out, argued everything with real insight and could spot a good idea or a bad idea faster than anyone else. He proved that you can look cool and not be an asshole, which I genuinely think is an important lesson. Because of him, Harajuju was as varied and exciting as it was, with lolita, mori, menswear, casual, goth etc. all sharing one space. His ability to relate to most styles and most people and to keep it interesting for everyone is probably unique, so we better not forget it. And it didn’t come for free. He put serious time and money into thinking up new designs, new improvements, new ideas that would make this a better experience for us. It may not have exploded into an internet sensation, but I think all of us who were here can agree that he did make it a wonderful experience.

So thanks everyone and, especially, thanks Brad.

Thanks to you too.

[huberschwinkel]

My village is the last in the world to celebrate the pagan tradition of Hocktide (Tutti Day). It’s a festival held the second Tuesday after Easter, and involves kisses being exchanged for oranges. Wooden staffs decorated with flowers and oranges (called Tutti Poles) are carried from house to house by Tutti Men (this year both actually women) to collect kisses. 

This year was the first I’ve known where the festival took place in a school holiday, and it was really cute to see all the little children running about with mini Tutti poles that they’d made（*´▽｀*）

I wore a spring-like coord to go to see the festivities. And then immediately afterwards went to Pizza Hut with a friend ^^;

[jedem-das-seine-deactivated2019]

[chromet]

Sacai X Henderscheme Sandals

Via jedem-das-seine

[tokyo-fashion]

Milk & Milkboy “My Angel Fly With Me” Fashion Show in Harajuku

Legendary Harajuku fashion brand Milk held their first fashion show in 6 years recently at Quest Hall in Harajuku. The show featured their upcoming collections for both Milk and Milkboy - including the Milkboy x Gremlins collection. Milk was founded in 1970. Not only did they help put Harajuku on the map, but they are also one of the Japanese brands that invented what would eventually become Lolita fashion. Hitomi Okawa is Milk’s original founder and she is still the head designer of the brand today. She designed the items in these new Milk and Milkboy collections. Pictures and Video of Milk & Milkboy 2015 A/W Here

[emiii-chan]

Newest from Liz Lisa: coordinates gifs & stills ❤ –> blog post & video

[kotozuka]

[tokyo-fashion]

QR code kimono.

[petit-cottage]

Voyage dans le temps ~ Belle Époque ~ : 橘玄叶MACX邪恶的小芽

[frederica1995]

Krad Lanrete

[tralala-doll]

Tralala lookbook

[cadney]

I’m speaking out, as a kawaii ambassador and as a concerned member of the Lolita Fashion community, about my Anime Matsuri experience.

I will preface this by saying that I support the petition against John and Deneice Leigh and Anime Matsuri, and I signed it days ago. It’s important to remember, however, that although I am a kawaii ambassador, I am speaking only on my own behalf. My opinions do not necessarily reflect those of my fellow ambassadors, and I will do my best not to speak about anyone’s experience but my own.

When I was invited to attend Anime Matsuri, I was incredibly excited. I had heard whisperings about John Leigh from American friends, but he had always been kind and generous to me and my organization, and I wanted to support Misako Aoki and my fellow ambassadors in the exciting opportunity of our summit. Misako had been dreaming of bringing kawaii ambassadors around the world together since before Kiga, Nadine and I were appointed for Canada in 2013. I also wanted to make a decision for myself about the convention; despite complaints I had heard, so many of my Canadian friends were starting to attend every year. It seemed like such a dream of a fashion convention that I wanted to make my mind up for myself.

The summit itself was unfortunately not everything that I dreamed it to be, and I distinctly remember walking out of it exhausted and upset. Rewind to the Tuesday before Anime Matsuri: I was asked by one of my fellow ambassadors, who was asked by John, to put together profiles that would be used to select the American ambassador. This was a strange last minute undertaking for someone getting on a plane the next morning, but I managed to use my night to make sure they got done.

I was already concerned about this. It was so last minute: why were the profiles being compiled right before the con? Who would translate them into Japanese for Misako Aoki’s decision? Nonetheless, I got them submitted and trusted that they would be used, at the very least, adequately.

On Saturday afternoon, the ambassadors met with Misako one hour before the summit. We had all prepared small presentations about our individual countries, which we brought on flash drives. We talked a bit about the structure of the summit, and how it would work. At this point, I asked if the US Ambassador had been selected and if the profiles I sent had been used in the decision. It was then that I learned Misako was never sent the profiles by Anime Matsuri, and she did not know who had applied. This was less than one hour before the summit.

At that point, I became upset. I couldn’t fathom why I was asked to do all that work for nothing. I began to expect the worst: that I actually compiled those profiles for John’s decision, and that he planned to make that decision without Misako’s input.

I could have brought a tablet pre-loaded with the profiles for Misako if I had been savvy enough to expect this level of disorganization, but there was nothing I could do when I learned they were never shared with her.

Speaking of laptops, when we arrived at our panel room for the summit, there wasn’t one. We all brought flash drives under the expectation that we would be provided with the device we needed to stream those presentations; inevitably, the setup was stressful and disorganized. I have to nod to AM staff here (hardworking, lovely people) who fought to get us the AV we needed to get started.

We were unable to get started on time because we did not yet have a translator for Misako, and the decision of the US kawaii ambassador had not yet been made. When we were finally assigned a translator, we had to call John. There was no choice here. Misako didn’t have the information she needed to make the decision, and John was the one who had what we needed. When John arrived, Misako was finally shown the profiles, which we managed to pull up on a tablet one of the ambassadors happened to have with them. The translator had to last minute read the written portions of each application to Misako (and those were large written portions!) so we could come to a consensus on the ambassador. John asked each of us who we thought might be a good choice. Because I compiled the profiles I knew quite a bit about each applicant, so I put forth my opinion. Misako came forward as well, with candidates she liked.

Let’s stop for a second, because I need to be clear about one thing: Ann’s profile was fantastic, and we did like it — Misako, as well, did like it, and I think all of us would consider Ann a qualified candidate for kawaii ambassador.

That does not, however, excuse the worst moment of this experience for me: when other names were brought up as frontrunners for this position, John shot them down, and he shot them down hard. He said the point of this ambassador was to create wonderful events in partnership with Anime Matsuri. He said other US ambassadors could be chosen at later times, but this ambassador needed to be local, so he could work with them.

My jaw dropped when he said this. Even though I was supposed to be professional, I’m sure I became visibly upset. I just kept thinking to myself: why were these people even allowed to apply if they cannot be considered for this position? Why should they waste their time? Why should I waste my time creating their profiles? I have thought hard about the unfairness of this appointment, and I know who is to blame for that unfairness. Fortunately, he is no longer a JLA member — but I don’t think our work as a community stops there.

I love Ann, and I don’t want anyone to read this and think that I or any of my fellow ambassadors think she is unsuitable. She is a good choice, but this selection process was a farce and as an organization, the JLA must do better to avoid coercive deliberations like the one I was a part of. Because of how late the panel was and how quickly this decision had to be made, none of us were able to effectively argue about how unfair this was to other candidates. I regret not arguing harder, on principle.

During the panel, Misako mentioned that John helped her pick this ambassador and hinted at the possibility of more being appointed in the future. Following this scandal, I don’t know what will happen, but because of what I witnessed at the summit, and especially because of the inexcusable accounts of sexual harassment John engaged in, I am no longer willing to work with John and Deneice Leigh, and I have no desire to affiliate myself with Anime Matsuri ever again.

Many of the people this man made lewd, sexual comments to are my friends, whom I love and respect. John: as a powerful figure in the convention and Lolita Fashion events world, you exploited an imbalance of influence between yourself and these girls, and that is absolutely abhorrent. In your brief explanation, which you have now retracted, you criticized them for not telling you to stop making those comments at them. But what would that have accomplished?

They were not just your friends. They were your business partners. Some of them had money and product tangled into their relationships with you. There’s no room for sexually charged language in a business partnership, and it was your responsibility to understand that, not theirs to tell you to stop.



As for my feelings about the Japan Lolita Association: it’s complicated. Kawaii ambassadors have always worked as unsponsored individuals, and we’re capable of moving forward on our own, continuing to create events within our communities, promoting Lolita Fashion locally and abroad. I personally feel, however, that the JLA has a responsibility to address the John Leigh situation publicly, as an organization that represents unity between world communities. The voices of Lolitas worldwide are calling out to you. I support them. I am one of them.

[droptokyo]

Name: Mannamiyu / One-piece: GIVENCHY (Vintage) / Hat: PRADA

INSTAGRAM: @nijihan

[angelicdaze]

Idk if I would call this a PSA but just kind of an FYI to lolitas out there: MTV is trying to do casting for an episode (or series of episodes) for True Life and they’ve been reaching out to the community. But the episodes aren’t meant to put the fashion in a good light (hello, remember My Strange Addiction?) and are instead going to talk about “trying to look anime.”

So please, if you’re contacted by anyone from Viacom and they tell you they want to interview you for a lolita fashion episode on MTV: SAY NO. Say no or risk being ridiculed and humiliated when they completely twist your words around and make you and the fashion look completely bonkers.

[lolitaplusgeek]

Don’t do it anyone please!!!!

[francisbacon-deactivated2020071]

Signal boosting

[emiii-chan]

Gifs & stills from my Liz Lisa summer coordinates video –> blog post

[703iii-deactivated20150716]

sawa takai 2016ss

[droptokyo]

HITOMI’S MAGAZINE ‘SIRENCE’ VOL.4

INSTAGRAM: @hito0806

[harajuju]

John Leigh of Anime Matsuri, who sexually harassed young women in the lolita fashion community, must step down

John Leigh (center) with models Akira (left) and Midori Fukasawa (right).

If you’re at all involved in the Lolita fashion scene, or even follow any who are involved, you’ve likely heard of the recent scandal involving John Leigh and Anime Matsuri.

If you haven’t, a primer: Anime Matsuri is a fairly large anime convention that takes place in Houston, Texas. Its Japanese fashion events are the largest in North America, with guest appearances from large lolita brands and models, along with extravagant — if incomprehensible and hurriedly choreographed — fashion shows. John Leigh manages these fashion events, and his wife, Deneice Leigh is a chairman of the convention.

Both John and Deneice Leigh were appointed Kawaii Ambassadors by Misako Aoki (who I’ve previously interviewed) and the Japan Lolita Association at Anime Matsuri 2015. The title of “Kawaii Ambassador” has typically been reserved to recognize leaders in the lolita fashion community; it had never before been bestowed upon a non-lolita by the JLA.

Despite the big names involved, it’s no secret that the Anime Matsuri fashion events have typically been disastrously managed. And just a few days ago, blogger and ouji superstar Buttcape published a post detailing not only the reasons behind this, but also that John had infiltrated the local lolita fashion community and was pulling strings to force moderators critical of Anime Matsuri out of it — including herself. Another blogger and guest of Anime Matsuri, girlyhoot, further elaborated on the neglectful way that her and other guests were treated.

But more important than poor event planning and community corruption was the revelation that John had used inappropriately sexual language in conversations with younger women he was working with during these events.

Nothing could have prepared me for when Chokelate, model and owner of Lockshop Wigs, posted her tell-all account of her experience with John. It’s clear that John was pursuing a sexual relationship with Chokelate:

“The first evening I had dinner together with John and his friend, there the sexual jokes and comments started to increase. Here he also talked a lot about someone from GLW (Jessica? Jennifer?) sucking his dick for favors and to get models in the AM show to wear their wigs and disgusting stories like that. […]

When we arrived at his house to pick up his wife, he talked for quite a while in a way that actually made me really uncomfortable, about not knowing why he does all of this for me and that I should think about the reason he might be doing this. About that he's wondering why he likes me so much, etcetera. I was really relieved when his wife joined us. […]

He shares most important information that could possibly be used against him either in real life, or through Skype. It's been really hard for me to find written back up evidence on things he told me, or we talked about, he definitely was worse with his ‘jokes’ when we were not writing and he continued with these jokes the entire time.”

Were this not damning enough, Chokelate’s screencaps of messages from him make his intentions plainly clear when he offered her a trip to Japan on his dime:

“Jan [January] is the Tokyo Auto Salon, among other things. Also we are staying in one room, with one bed....so if ur going to give me a speech about sleeping on the ground, and being conservative and what happens in Japan wont stay in Japan...save it”

(She rejected the invitation.)

Yesterday, John posted and quickly deleted his response, entitled “A man in a woman’s world. Pt 1.” This is a great title for numerous reasons; it’s possibly the most tone-deaf response to multiple accusations of sexual harassment running through a community comprised almost entirely of women, and the promise of a second part to this schlock reads almost as a threat. Thankfully, we will seemingly never have to see it.

While screen caps of John’s post are available, you really don’t need to read it. It’s complete fucking garbage, opening with a look back on all the charity work that he’s done with the JLA, before launching into personal attacks against each of his accusers. He also confirms he sexually harassed these girls but hey it’s just a joke lighten up?:

“As a disclaimer I would like to point out that I joke a lot with my friends or people I consider close. If you are offended by sexual innuendos, dirty talks or comments about boobs and orgasms, you should not be my friend. Online or offline.”

John, let’s be real: there’s no chance that your comments were innocent, even if you played them off as such. Why make them at all? These are not your bar buddies — they are your peers in a community that has given you the privilege of organizing the biggest, best events on their behalf and promising to come to them in return. If you truly love Japanese fashion and want to promote it and do good by the community, would you not treat that dynamic with professionalism and courtesy?

Whether or not you think you’ve been unfairly treated, you’ve made the lolita fashion community fear for their safety. You’ve made explicitly sexual comments to many of them. You are male and not a lolita,* and I suspect your actual interest in the fashion is meagre.

Simply put, this was never your space to begin with. By taking what should absolutely be a safe space for women and making them feel unsafe, you’ve violated the trust that was bestowed unto you. You don’t have a right to fight for your place in the community because it was never yours to begin with.

After deleting his blog post, John posted the following on Facebook:

I want to apologize specifically to the people in question and to everyone who has been affected by this. I understand I have hurt you and I’m sorry. Regardless of what is happening now, I considered you my friends at some point. I also understand an apology means little without positive action, so I have decided to take a course on Sexual Harassment to be more aware of this serious problem and to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I have deleted the blog post and will work on myself to become better. I'm very sorry.

It’s impossible to accept this apology at face value — particularly after the pains he went through to paint his accusers as jealous or spiteful in his now-deleted post — but even if we do, it doesn’t make much of a difference.

Misako Aoki and the Japan Lolita Association are currently investigating the matter. As of this writing, the petition requesting that the JLA strip John and Deneice of their titles as Kawaii Ambassadors has reached 2,500 signatures. John, even if you think you are in the right (and let me stress this: you are not), you have failed to do the one thing that would’ve proved you actually give a shit about the lolita fashion community and those within it:

Listen to their overwhelming demands that you step down.

It is unfathomable that John Leigh, a married man with children, should expect to remain a leader in the lolita community when he has sexually harassed multiple members of that community.

brad-t

–––––

* I am also a cis-het male and non-lolita. While I do occasionally attend lolita events and might have more lolita friends than non-lolita ones, I do not consider myself a member of the lolita community. I’ve written this post for the sake of consolidating information and getting the message out.

[albotas]

REEBOK X GUNDAM M40168

Based on the Gundam anime series, Reebok unveiled the Gundam M40168 Instapump Fury sneaker. Instapump shoes already looked like a mix of sci-fi robot parts, so Gundam is a perfect match for a collaboration.

On the topic of Gundam, if you haven’t given the series a try yet, go check out our article HOW TO WATCH GUNDAM.

(via Highsnobiety)

BUY: Mobile Suit Gundam - Complete Collection 1 CHECK IT: More sneaker posts on Albotas.com