Interview by Jeff Carvalho and Nick Schonberger.
A Western understanding of the Tokyo street scene has until recently been a story best left told by the individuals who have visited the District; people from the West who return with countless stories of a maze of micro shops littering a small area in Downtown Tokyo -street fashion with no borders. But with every first hand account received, the story becomes ever more complex: the array of people, the variety of small house fashion brands; none of which seem to relate, but often broaden the image of the Harajuku. No one story can explain how the District came to become a fashion focal points of the new era.
Tiffany Godoy's book Style Decifit Disorder (released this month from Chronicle Books) may well be the first steps into understanding the history and legend that is known as the Harajuku District (as written and told in English). Used to loosely describe a small shopping district in Tokyo, Harajuku, truth be told, emcompasses something superbly more vast than what most Westerners suspect. Harajuku is not a movement, it is a living breathing District in the heart of Tokyo that has roots reaching as far back as WW2. The story of the Harajuku is not a simple one. Luckily for us, Style Deficit Disorder offers an excellent introduction
We had the chance to speak with Tiffany about her book just days before its release.
Can you define what the DC (designer character) Brands were and how that all began?
TG - Designer Character Brands got that name in the early 80s when Harajuku had started to find its place on the map in terms of the general public getting to know these brands and then developing small little boutiques to established places that were featured in magazine. People outside of the district would come and visit as a destination. These stores, the size of your closets, became [major] brands.
The people behind [the DC] were very charismatic and had travelled ... and it was very expensive to travel back then (10k and 40 hours to go to Europe). It was a rare thing [to travel to the West]. They were leaders in everything that was cool.
Where were they getting their [design] influence at that time?
TG - A lot of people are under the impression that Japan was really influenced by the USA... because of all the soldiers that were based here [during WW2] but culturally they were very influence by the UK and what was happening in London... especially the Kings Road area and musically. When The Beatles came in 1963, that set things... started a fire. I think British fashion and culture including music was incredibly influential.
In 1963 you had The Beatles and in 1964 the Tokyo Olympics. You had a huge shift in culture like we're seeing now in China as they prepare for the Olympics: architectural, cultural. The same thing was happening in Japan at the time. Before that there was Elvis and American soul music. But I think the fashion that came along with The Beatles... people could really connect because they had a similar physiques, that kind of makes things more accessible to the Japanese. [They seemed] more real and connected to them.
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