Pyarco is a new addition to the Shibuya shopping landscape, that is appropriately enough in Parco. The parody of the name is deliberate and should give you an idea of how it wants to be seen as a subversive outsider in the department store as a whole. At first glance the clothes it stocks fit well with the surrounding more conventional shops, but as you dig deeper you will find avant-garde work from the likes of Facetasm and Anrealage, and a bevy of references to traditional Japanese fashion as well. We will be taking a two part look at this shop, that we at Tokyo Telephone believe, presents the best face of Japanese women’s wear right now and a good idea of where the rest of the scene might be going – once they have caught up that is.
The shop was created by the same man that brought us Mikiri Hassin which has long been a supporter of the true trend-setters in Japanese fashion like Matohu and Hatora, but whereas that shop was tucked away off Cat Street Harajuku in such a location that you would need a map and luck on your side to find it, Pyarco is a location as mainstream as you could hope for (it is next to Muji), and this has allowed it to actually reach people who might not ever come across these more niche and artistic brands, in a move slightly reminiscent of that taken by Gypsy Three Orchestra’s limited shop. It also aims to be as welcoming as possible with a fun video-screen produced by Team Labo that allows visitors to have their picture taken and then uploaded to the site to share with their friends (see if you can find us!), and invites customers to alter the music that plays inside which in turn then goes on to effect the shop lighting. This friendly face of fashion is further enhanced with the presence of modern takes on Japanese traditional toys, ramune on sale, and even some traditional kanzashi hair accessories.
The lighting changes dependent on the music which you can play around with yourself – don’t worry the staff are happy to put it right if things get a bit discordant!
The inside is clean, but ultimately very welcoming as fashion should be. After all, even real outsider / underground fashion in Japan from Hiro or Juvenile Hall Rollcall is actually quite easy to get into, contrary to what you might expect.
Facetasm’s female line looks great in store and along with Anrealage headlines the stocked brands that include: keisuke kanda, is-ness, NiR, eimnou, spoken words project, PARADIGM SHIFT, sasaki katsura and torikonia.
Anrealage’s pixel perfect collection – which is so accesible in these basics.
The screen where you can take your fashionable prikura.
The sequencer where you can change the music.
A mix of quintessentially Japanese toys.
Modern takes on kanzashi.
And finally remade items from PARADIGM SHIFT that uses vintage sourced from Girmoire, Birthdeath and Cult Party amongst others.
Having established the mood of the shop, tomorrow we are are going to take a look at some of our favorite items and hopefully convince you that this is a shop that really does represent the best that real Japanese fashion has to offer right now. It is a shop that is proudly Japanese, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Official Website and access is here
