Real models for real fashion

The “real fashion” movement, characterized by a devoted following to the fast fashion of Shibuya 109 and the pages of magazines like Vivi, has gotten a bit more real. In addition to their stable of popular professional models, fashion magazines often use “reader models,” non-professional, non-agency wanna-be models who, in response to ads in the magazine or website, send in photos and an applications.

These “regular girls” inspire readers to personally connect with the publications and are, of course, a whole lot cheaper. Recently, however, these readers turned models have been striking out on their own.

Dokumo Girls is a fashion and beauty website penned by five reader models who had their first 15 minutes of fame in the pages of Vivi, JJ and the like. The site, which features blog-style articles on hair cuts and shopping trips, is part of the larger Dokumo Style site that contains online shops, brand tie-ins, street photo reports, and extensive advertorial all featuring reader models.

In similar style, free magazine Venus, created by a group of college women and now three issues strong, is also positioning itself as a reader model publication.

On pages interspersed with ads and advertorial, the amateur model editors strike poses and weigh in on the season’s fashion trends. They also hold twice yearly fashion shows put on by reader models and manage a website, girlsfashion.jp, that contains event and audition information.

Last month, Venus held a pop-up office on the first floor of the iconic LaForet department store in Harajuku, which served as a make-shift reader model studio. Shoppers were invited to stop by to shoot a mini-session with the hopes that the jury of peers would select their picture for the pages of the magazine.

Fashion watchers in Japan have been begging for the latest fashion revolution, and while the ultra-mainstream girlie girl looks featured in these reader model publications are hardly cutting-edge, even the purists among them have to admit that these girls are shaking things up a bit.

Tags: Fashion, LaForet, magazines, Models

Elle Plus anticipates aging Japan

CanCam, which released its big-sister version AneCan last year, is not the only magazine anticipating Japan’s ageing population: this month Elle Japon released Elle Plus, a supplementary insert for the 40 plus demographic. While both regular Elle and Elle Girl feature Hillary Duff on their April covers, Elle Plus has Carla Bruni on the front and interviews with other 40 and fabulous women inside.

There is no question that more and more women in Japan are reaching 40 (then, say, 20) so we are beginning to see a lot more media targeted at this age group. With the few other magazines targeting middle aged women, like Hers and Croissant, portraying classical (read: conservative) images of beauty along with the usual articles on yoga and vitamin supplements, Elle Plus stands out for showing forty year old women in mini-skirts.

Elle, by far the most successful of the foreign glossy franchises (with a respectable 100,000+ circulation), also seems to be tapping into the success of the CanCam “senzoku” strategy of establishing a stable of models who appear exclusively and regularly in the magazine. A feature in the April issue introduces 30 new faces for the magazine. Each of the spindly young blonds is caught on camera looking “fresh and innocent” making cute poses more in the style of Ebi-chan than Kate Moss.

Tags: Fashion, magazines

Regional flavored coffee drinks from Walker magazine

If Tokyo were a chilled convenience store coffee drink, what would it taste like? City magazine series Walker created a panel of six readers (3 men, 3 women) to work together with Japan’s top barista and Toyo Beverages to develop a coffee drink that epitomizes the taste of Tokyo.

Based on a panel discussion about top Tokyo cafes and feedback after sampling various coffee drinks, Tokyo Café Latte was born, a coffee drink derived from a rich, bitter coffee, milk reminiscent of cream liquor, and a subtle dash of honey. The package, of equal importance as noted by the panel, is an oshare (stylish) two-tone brown and cream (like the interior of a classy hotel) with English words scribbled on the front.

Walker plans to produce coffee drinks for all the cities where it has magazines
with the Kansai style Café Au Lait set for release on April 8. In a hade (loud) leopard print cup with the words café au lait written in Japanese hiragana, the Kansai taste coffee drink is a creamy, milky, rich coffee drink, not sweet at all.

Yokohama, Tokai, Hokkaido, and Kyushu taste coffee drinks will be released consecutively each month from May, available at Lawsons for an undisclosed limited time.

This move by Walker touches upon two recent trends, beverage collaborations and regional products and would seem to be somewhat inspired by the successful Starbucks packaged coffee drink “Discoveries” series with flavors inspired by Paris, Seattle, etc sold exclusively in East Asia. Compared to other coffee drinks, which run up to 300ml, both the Walker and Starbucks products are a slim 200ml, though Walker is ¥180 compared to Starbucks ¥210.

Unfortunately it seems like sales of the Walker series will be limited to the coffee’s particular region, so those who want a taste of Hokkaido will still actually have to go there.

Tags: beverages, magazines

Puppine fashion magazine for dogs

We’re still going through all of the flyers we received at last week’s Tokyo Girls Collection, but this one caught our eye immediately: an ad for Puppine, a magazine launched earlier this year by Brangista Inc. under the banner “Dog meets fashion.”

Considering the less then stellar condition of the traditional publishing industry these days, it is always somewhat surprising when new magazines appear. The potential Puppine reader, however, has already proven to spend hundreds of dollars a month making sure that their little pocket monsters don’t feel the effects of global recession. So why not spend a few more on a magazine?

With popular model turned actress and TV talent Hinano Yoshikawa on the cover, the first issue features article on how to match your dog’s look with your own, celebrity dog inspired fashion tips, and doggie-mama lifestyle photo spreads.

We have been monitoring the pet boom for some time now (see previous posts here, here, and here)) and while it seems like it could reaching a saturation point (dog beer?) the new products still keep coming.

Tags: Fashion, magazines, pet