Currently viewing the tag: "lolita"
Due to our current hectic schedule, we actually celebrated Valentine’s Day yesterday by having a lovely wonder around Shimokitazawa followed by dinner at a super-cute cafe just down the road from us in Koenji (it’s my new favourite place – they even have hot cocktails, amazing). Yet again we ended up giving each other similar presents, this time Things With Snakeskin, awesome. I could be cheesy and say it’s just more evidence that we’re a good match? Or maybe we’ve just lived together for a long time now? Either way, it was a much-needed break from running around!
To me, Valentine’s Day is a great celebration of cheesiness and [...]
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Continuing on ongoing project showcasing the the best and most beautiful vintage shopping experiences in Tokyo, today we’re very proud and excited to feature Gaijin, a vintage boutique in Koenji.
Even though I kind of prefer the darker side of fashion, I always pop in to Gaijin whenever I have time – I love the pastel colours and calming atmosphere, as well as spotting lots of cats and unicorns all around the lovely little shop! Gaijin is owned by a charming couple (alas out scouting for new treasures in London when we took these photos), and while the wife runs Gaijin, the husband [...]
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Even though I’m not a lolita fashionista myself, there’s just something about the style that keep drawing me back. Lolita fashion has been on my mind a lot recently, what with relocating Telephone Towers and sorting through our lives & junk, thinking about how far we’ve come over the past three years together. Maybe it’s because I’m feeling slightly nostalgic, and because lolita was the first specifically Japanese fashion that I fell in love with as a young teen – I think lolita will always have a place in my head and my heart as something very special indeed.
(Ah, enough with my [...]
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We’re no strangers here at Tokyo Telephone to Japan’s fabulously frilly lolita fashion, and I have to stay that my love of food-related prints has already been documented… So I suppose it’s no surprise that I’m finding my self salivating a little and almost reaching for the fork when looking over Angelic Pretty’s latest print series, Petit Patisserie.
You may remember my last look at Angelic Pretty’s French Cafe series, and it seems there’s no end to how inspiring French food can be! (Personally, I’d really love to see some traditional Japanese food themes – takoyaki print, sushi roll headdress, soba socks? [...]
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I think clowns are a pretty common phobia (coulrophobia – thanks, Wiki!), so it’s perhaps a little surprising that Alice and the Pirates have plumped for a clown-filled circus print released for reserve just the day before yesterday. I’m not particularly scared of clowns (Stephen King’s IT notwithstanding! ARGH!), but even so, I don’t think there’s enough red noses and baggy trousers here to give lolita fashion lovers nightmares – more likely to have bad dreams about inferior lace and stains on dream dresses, I’m sure!
With its nonsensical German and circus folk, I was prepared not to be phased at all by the print, but I have to [...]
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Lolita fashionistas, I do hope you forgive me for re-appropriating Baby’s brand name. (Actually, why am I asking for forgiveness? It’s not the first or last time!). I thought I’d take a brief look at Baby, the Stars Shine Bright today and focus on a couple of designs that have caught my eye. Baby’s sister brand, Alice and the Pirates, has just come out with a lovely new print but that deserves a post all of it’s own!
Anyway, dragging myself back to the subject – Baby, the Stars Shine Bright is most definitely a lolita heavyweight brand, beloved by many. I have some very fond memories of [...]
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The highlight of Hyper Japan 2011 for us here at Tokyo Telephone was the chance to see the latest work from the UK based Japanese designers fresh out of Central Saint Martins College (amongst others) and they certainly did not disappoint. Although the irony was not lost that while most of the attendees of Hyper Japan do go so far as to deify Japanese fashion, the designers themselves had taken great pains to learn about fashion in the West, but it was a great pleasure to see London once again acting as the lens for that particular conversation to go through. Ultimately it showed that not only does the [...]
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Hyper Japan returned to London this weekend to a bigger venue at the Kensington Olympia after it out grew its location on the achingly cool Brick Lane, but the fact that it reached maximum capacity within hours of opening and greeted most patrons with a 3 hour queue alluded to the fact that they will be holding it somewhere even bigger and better next year. So what was it that they were all so keen to to indulge in? On one hand you would be forgiven for thinking that it was the typical anime / manga / cosplay focused fare that would usually exist in otaku isolation in Japan, but in [...]
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Perhaps I should amend the title to call this a small selection of our favourite Japanese fashion books?
The only thing I love more than Japanese fashion is reading (and Samuel, of course!). So, inevitably, I get a bit giddy when I get my hands on books about Japanese fashion, and I thought I’d take opportunity here to share some of my picks from our vast library. I’ve chosen books in English as I hope they’ll be more accessible to a wider audience and easier to find if you do decide to purchase any. (We also have a million billion more fashion books in Japanese, so if you’d [...]
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The reasons I love Pink House are many. Exhibit A is their undeniable influence in pre-lolita fashion. Exhibit B is the gorgeous frilly flowery awesomeness that Pink House do so well. Exhibit C is the fact they put out four collections a year, giving me four reasons to get excited. I present to you today Pink House’s summer 2011 catalogue, in all its girly glory. Ta-daah.
If you’ve spent some time here reading Tokyo Telephone, you have gathered that I’m not a particularly girly girl, to the point where it definitely takes Samuel longer to get ready then me (I think he’d argue that he has [...]
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I think it’s fair to say that Angelic Pretty has reached cult status within Japanese street fashion, particularly among lolita fashion fans worldwide. Much like gothic favourite Moi-meme-Moitie, Angelic Pretty’s latest releases are pounced on by frill-hungry girls (and that rarest of species; the brolita, aka male lolita), and the brand’s success can also be measured by the fact that they, along with Baby the Stars Shine Bright, were the first lolita labels to open their doors to international lolita fashion lovers outside Japan. Has Lolita gone mainstream? No, if but the continuing success of Angelic Pretty is anything to go by then keep an eye out for [...]
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It feels like a while since I’ve looked at anything particularly frilly, so let’s remedy that as soon as possible!
I’ve had an on-off love affair with lolita fashion for many a year (it’s gorgeous, but if I’m rushing around to shows and meetings the layers of petticoats aren’t going to do me any favours!), and while I’ve always leaned towards the darker end of the spectrum, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t harbour some deep feelings for brands such as Juliette et Justine. I love the romance of it – the prints like antique storybook illustrations, the soft colour palette, the air [...]
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