Banana Fish — thefashionatetraveller.com

KERA magazine – Japanese gothic punk style. KERA iPhone app.

How could I not love this clip? It features some of my favourite KERA magazine models Re:NO, Lancer Bee and Akira, about models who are also in bands.

It also features so many of the gothic/punk labels I love, and own items from: Peace Now & Black Peace Now, Sex Pot Revenge, Algonquins, Sexy Dynamite London, Stigmata, Banana Fish (see my fave Banana Fish dress here, and a bit about the Shimokita Banana Fish store here)…. even gal label GladNews gets a look in.

Sex Pot Revenge celebrates its 10th anniversary all June, as does Banana Fish – congrats to these great labels! Although, sadly, Banana Fish on June 9th ceased trading and is no more – sob 🙁
Back to the video. I have the skull ring that is in the clip at 4:17 and love them (I have one in black and one in green). I also love the coloured hair you see in the vid – pink, blue, red, purple. But onto the clip itself – you wanna see, right?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYkd99fUDAg]

Thanks to Bite Hard blog for alerting me to this great little vid. It really takes you back to Tokyo and its fashion, when you can’t otherwise be there 🙂

And did you know, there’s even a KERA iPhone app! Volumes 1, 2 and 3 are available, for when you just “have” to get a dose of gothic lolita fashion, while you’re on the way to work, school or shopping.

In older news, here’s a short vid of Aya Kamiki at a KERA magazine shoot back in 08, (copyright is owned by GIZA Studio and KERA)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np1odhqg630]

And finally, scans from June 2010 KERA (I’m not fond of the music track on it, so recommend the mute button!)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-tf3V0F6so]

You can also find current scans of the June issues of other magazines: Egg, Loveberry, Cutie, Cawaii (from 09), Scawaii, Popteen, PopSister and Zipper, if you’re more into gal style.

Enjoy!

Shimokitazawa – the place I’d live in Tokyo

If I tried to explain to you why I love Shimokitazawa so, I don’t think I could. It just feels like home.

It reminds me a bit of Newtown, with alternative types and hippies and students and vintage lovers and artists and rockers and some older people, and restaurants, cafes, bars, gig places, recording studios, dollar (100yen) shops, fruit and veg shops, supermarkets, cool labels, secondhand clothing shops galore, hat stores, florists…just stuff you need to live, without all the neon and showiness of Shinjuku (that I also like, but in a different way)

Shimo is where I’d actually live, if I lived here. The paved, car-free streets where you’re free to wander, are a godsend. Perhaps I should just shut up and post the pictures.

So I started off in Banana Fish, where I bought a great black dress with a crest on it adorned with deer antlers, bats, a crown, chains etc, with assymetric shoulders and a spiky pointed hem. Banana Fish do punk stuff and they do cute – usually together – but they now have a new cutesy/gyaru section full of sweet stuff, aside from the more punk gear.

OK, I look like a grinning eedjit because we’re saying, KAWAII!!!! – orright?

After that, I checked out the rest of the neighbourhood.

There is a ridiculous amount of vintage/secondhand clothing stores, some with designer goods. Like this one. I tried on a gorgeous Emilio Pucci jacket in my colours of aqua and purple..only to discover it wasn’t 4000 yen as I thought (or $50 aud), but over 40,000!!! Sigh… I sadly gave it back.

Seriously, if you come here and you like vintage, visit Shimo.

Colourful buildings also abound, like this record shop

There were some kind of models or minor celebs there, and people were just queueing to watch them…which gave me the chance to snap them 🙂 First, the ‘celebs’