Tag Archives: Book

Tokyo Urban Culture: Illustrations, Street Style and Rockers

TOKYO CITY GUIDE : CULTURE / STREET LOOK

Tokyo-Illustrations de Christophe Prébois-1-Photo Mademoiselle Le K-copyright 2014

Tokyo Illustrations of Christophe Prebois

Tokyo-Illustrations de Christophe Prébois-2-Photo Mademoiselle Le K-copyright 2014

Coffee shop, short break after a traditional fabrics hunting with Christophe Prebois, the fashion designer of Brutals (stylish shirts for men).

A notebook on table : sketches and draws of Christophe’s travel in Japan. Some sketches look like photos. Others remind me the rythm of fabrics prints. I look at them, take pictures. Such beautiful illustrations!

Tokyo-Illustrations de Christophe Prébois-3-Photo Mademoiselle Le K-copyright 2014Tokyo-Illustrations de Christophe Prébois-4-Photo Mademoiselle Le K-copyright 2014

Street Style

“Let’s walk in the woods, while the little blue hood … there! ” A week of real street looks: snapshots on the board below.

Between kawaii kawaiiiiiiii pink and holder Stockings in Harajuku, multicolored polka dots and green boots in Omotesando and eighties revival with slippers in Yoyogi Park. Coach, I sign for another week!

Tokyo Street Look-Japan-Photo Mademoiselle Le K-copyright 2014

The Rockers of Yoyogi Park Vs The Shibuya Girls Fashion Shows

Right, I’ve often met the most xtreme rockers! Here are the dancers rockers of Yoyogi Park. Impressive mix of unique hairstyle with acrobatic jumps. They are the real “characters” of Yoyogi Park.

It was reckoning without the intrusion of Kawaii Land: why do these fashion teens rush with such frenzy? Fashion shows open to public.

Rockers Vs Shibuya Girls Fashion Show-Tokyo-Japan-3-Photo Mademoiselle Le K-copyright 2014

If you want to check out the Shibuya girl style (the fashion tribe not the brand): visit the famous department store 109… in Shibuya of course!

Me, I can’t stand the bad techno musics loudly played in the differents shops there. Plus the chorus of non stop « sumimasen » shouted by salespersons. And I don’t like the outfits too, pretty boring. Harajuku is much more fun! 

DOMO ARIGATO TO ALL OF YOU!

Photos : Mademoiselle Le K – copyright 2014, tous droits réservés.

For more about fashion tribes : Tokyo Fashion 

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DESTINATIONSHOTEL REVIEWS & LIFESTYLE   

Fantastic Meeting with Rem Koolhaas @ Taschen

Last tuesday @ Taschen Bruxelles : 

Rem Koolhaas was signing copies of “Project Japan, Metabolism Talks…” written with Hans Ulrich Obrist (between 2005 and 2011) and edited by Kayoko Ota. The Dutch famous architecte who’s won several international awards including the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2000, came with James Westcott. He contributes to the book as a writer (picture 5) and will participate to this improbable interview!

Among many emblematic works of Rem Koolhaas, the headquaters of CCTV in Beijing and Casa da Musica in Porto, which is my favourite!  A crazy shaped building with perspectives of German Expressionnist movies : “with a low floor space and less impact on the environment” (Rem Koolhaas). I really enjoyed discovering each spaces, going from one surprise to the next. Like a succession of decors both playful, aesthetical, convenient and unconventional.

No surprise : Rem Koolhaas studied scriptwriting before studying architecture. He wrote an unproduced script for Russ Meyer, the filmmaker of “Faster Pussycat Kill Kill” (the master of  B- movies is today a cult director)! In 1975, Rem Koolhaas founded OMA together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. Then he had a student called Zaha Hadid… Quiet on the set!

– Why a book about the Japanese architecture?

Rem Koolhaas answers in French :

Today there is no more Dutch, or French or American architecture. Except in Japan, there’s always been a Japanese architecture. It is the last nation with an influent architecture. The Japanese architects have a more sophisticated link to the past. Which is both a weight and a gift.

– What is the Japanese movement Metabolism?

–  For Metabolism, the architecture is a phenomenon almost organic, constantly changing. In 1960, there was an optimism about the role of technology. Those architects created an architectural vocabulary. In the book, the interviews review all context of this Japanese architectural movement and the role of the Japanese  bureaucracy at the launch of this movement. It’s really a human book. We interviewed the surviving members of Metabolism, together with their mentors, collaborators, rivals, critics, protégés,  the architects widows and families.

– Is the book a task of remembrance?

– Yes, it’s about transmission. It is a cultural document representing a moment before the market be the dominent force.

Rem Koolhaas shows me the book spine, with a multicoloured stripe design. Each one of these colours corresponds to one complete section of the book. Really helpful – I was about to write “to navigate”! lol!

– Today  architect has to be more than an architect?

– Architect has always had to be more than architect. Architect-businessman, or architecte-sociologist, or architect-writer…

MANY THANKS TO Rem Koolhaas, James Westcott and Taschen.

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INTERVIEWS  

Fashion and Surrealism: what will you wear tonight?

No no, I won’t be in Big Ap with Courtney tonight! But thoses pix show perfectly THE surrealist annoying question : what will you wear tonight? And once more: a WOW 2010!

Related posts : FASHION & DESTINATIONS