Event: Tokyo Girls Collection

Written By Rebecca Milner on Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 11:09 AM | In Lifestyle Trends, Japan, Events

Affordable teen fashion show draws the crowds in Japan.

An estimated 20,000 girls attended the Girls’ Walker Magazine celebration of all things cute, the Tokyo Girls Collection. The twice-annual extravaganza, held at Yoyogi National Stadium on Saturday, is billed as a “fashion festival for Japanese real clothes.”

“Real clothes” is the term used to describe the fashion forward and affordable domestic labels favored by teens who patronize the likes of Shibuya 109. In true democratic fashion, anyone who can afford the ¥3,000 entry fee can attend (in contrast to typical fashion industry invitation only events); for ¥5,000 you can get a seat in the stands and for ¥10,000 a VIP seat next to the stage.

Popular models from trend-setting girls’ magazines, such as Vivi’s Jun Hasegawa (right) and Lena Fujii (left) and Ray’s Karina, pranced down the 45-meter LED catwalk flanked by stadium spotlights, all the while smiling, waving, and occasionally tossing hats and teddy bears into the ecstatic audience.

Enormous screens showed hyper-kinetic CG images suitable for a trance party while equally frenetic pop music played at high volume. Each of the 18 brands had five minutes to show their stuff, allowing for about eight ensembles and three music track changes.

The effect couldn’t have been more different from your standard hyper-cool, fashion show with poker-faced models and obscure indie music. It was as if MTV and Disney had teamed up to put on a fashion show, and the crowd couldn’t have been happier. Disney Mobile was actually one of the sponsors of the event, along with Toyota who both enacted live advertising spots in between sets.

And the clothes? A mix of bohemian and color pop looks, with some sporty casual thrown in.

Just like the girls who showed up to watch….

Another key point of the Girls Collection is that these real clothes can be bought in real stores now, as opposed to the stuff presented at the recent Japan Fashion Week, which is intended for retail the following fall.

In addition to the runway shows, the event included such highlights as performances by HipHop/R&B acts Funky Monkey Babys and Chemistry, appearances by pop singer Leah Dizon and comedienne Shizu-chan, and a high school boy drag show hosted by Junichi Okada and Ken Miyake, members of V6, one of the currently most successful boy-bands (which elicted a “chou kawaii!” Or “way cute!” from the girls sitting next to me). And then of course the grand finale:

The Tokyo Girls Collection, now in its sixth season, is held twice a year. In two weeks the event will make its second visit to Beijing, where Japanese fashion has a growing following.

For the original post and more Japanese trends please visit our CScout Japan blog.