Welcome to the final part of Tokyo Telephone’s coverage of rooms 24 (part 1 and 2, here and here respectively), this time we are focusing on the outstanding accessories and miscellany that didn’t find its place in either trends or fashion. But don’t let that lead you to believe that the artists and designers covered here are any less important, indeed, it is often in the broad middle ground of Japanese design, that often defies definition, that the real talent tends to flourish. It is a market pretty much unique to Japan, in that it is affordable enough for people to actually buy, yet not cheap enough for the quality to suffer – it is “Japanese design”, a label that describes curiously inventive, expertly finished and generally superfluous to use items. Whether they be the hat you see above (trust me it is a hat) or, in the accessories and objects you are about to see, it is all part of the great Japanese tradition of being able to find a market to support any designer, no-matter how niche. So often I find myself walking past shops filled with work which I appreciate, but can’t see the mass-market potential, but then in a city like Tokyo the odds of finding your market are very much on your side.
Kicking us off we have these cute little semi-precious charms.
The gimmick here is that not only can they be chosen for their healing powers (good news for me as I am always sporting about ten different stones at any given moment), but you also get to excavate your stone yourself with the kit as seen above.
Next an idea to appeal to mothers everywhere, baby shoes that you make yourself.
As you can see in the top-right of the picture above, you get soles, pre-cut patterns, threads and so on to create any of the shoes you can see at the bottom. How cool is that? The fact that the leather is of exceptional quality and produced in Japan is the icing on the cake.
Wearable office supplies. The rings and bow-ties above are both post-it note dispensers so they are always close at hand.
Here you can see the ring in action.
On to a range of accessories you will shortly see gracing Wall in LaForet amongst others. Very cute, all hand-made and about as whimsical as I am willing to go.
Faces in felt is a big trend right now, and I am seeing it on hats all over Tokyo these days – I believe Curione was the first to do it.
There is an address for you to look up if you fancy one of the above, or any of the Wall shops throughout Japan.
The re-make vibe has boiled right over from being the toast of street fashion in Tokyo, to the Japanese mainstream. Mass-produced re-make items? Something is off with that sentence, but it is the vibe of the moment, so I say go with it, but never forget you can do it yourself.
Some beautiful works without any real purpose.
And finally, someone a designer whose jewelry seems to have made an impact on Rebecca here at Tokyo Telephone.
But that just might be because anything with cats on tends to. But still, I cannot deny how cute these are, and beautifully finished with hand-stitched fabric.
That ends our rooms 24 coverage, I hope you enjoyed it. Now we just have to sit back and look at our various image boards to try and find the common trends between it all before we head into Tokyo Fashion Week next month. I hope you are as excited as we are.
If you want to know who any of the designers are above, then feel free to ask. We will try and feature as many of them as time allows in their own right, but if you cannot wait then ask away!
