How to get snapped on the street
Posted by: kirin on 
Jun 29th, 2010 | 
Filed under: Fashion, Tokyo Kawaii TVHow To Get Snapped On Street
12/NOV/2008 on air
Being snapped on Tokyo street and how fashion trends are created…
Street snap = “sutosuna”
Jingumae clossing is the hot area for sutosuna. Shooters are watching people passing on the streets for sutosuna hunting!
Sutosuna is one of the most popular features for fashion magazines to have. But it’s not easy to be hunted by them from such huge crowd of people in Harajuku. So many people want to be hunted for sutosuna!
3 guys who want to be hunted for sutosuna gathered. Murayama-kun wants to make his debut in the show business from sutosuna experience. Tsuto-kun takes 4.5 hours by Shinkansen to come to Harajuku once in every month only to get snapped on the street, hopefully. He usually works at a local factory. His fashion is so outstanding in his town. 140,000yen is his net salary per month but he uses most of it for apparel from Harajuku. Nishii-kun is a Rouninsei (a graduate who, having failed a university entrance exam, is preparing for one next year) living with his girlfriend. He studies 8 hours a day and works for the rest of the day to make living. He wants to have more girl friends.
Tsuto-kun was successfully snapped by a lady’s fashion magazine.
Nearly 100 fashion magazines are issued in Japan, and each of it has its own sutosuna pages. There are even magazines that are only for street snaps. It’s a good idea to check out street snap magazines for new idea. Street snaps reflect real trends from street. Watching Harajuku streets gives us a lot of new ideas. The apparel shop “e.a.p” refletcs their sutosuna experience to their new items as soon as possible. Even at a university there is a study group of sutosuna. Watanabe-san, the leader of the group has been studying sutosuna for over 15 years realized something very interesting. The cropped pants seen from 2007 Paris Milano Collection were found at Tokyo street half a year ago. The marine look from 2007 Spring Summer Collection was also found in Tokyo street a few months ago. Watanabe-san says, “There are many foreign desiners who are interested in Japanese street fashion. There’s no doubt they get the idea from Tokyo street.”
Yamaguchi-san, the star of Harajuku sutosuna, has been snapped 20 times in 2 years. His fashion and hairstyle is so unique. He must know the secret of getting snapped on the streets. He wears 10cm-heel sneakers that he designed by himself. His room is stuffed with his clothes, shoes and accessories. He even wears skirt since he was a high school boy. “Men can be beautiful, too, why not?” He takes photos of himself in the bathroom of Isetan department store.
Two people from Brigit are professionals of sutosuna hunter. They advise that walking too fast is not likely to be hunted for a snap. Usually fashion magazines will be published a month later from when pictures are taken. It’s nice to dress as you would a month later.
Yamaguchi-san helps Nishii-kun, and Bridgit team helps Tsuto-kun so they can highly be snapped on the street.
Tsuto-kun was finally snapped, but what was wrong with Nishii-kun? Mr. Ikki and Beni-chan asked the reason directly to the shooters there. “He was too fashionable for the readers of their fashion magazine to copy.” While the reason why Tsuto-kun was snapped was because his fashion was easy for the readers to copy.
Street snap from Harajuku is available now online at Style from Tokyo. The blog is by Shito-san, the queen of street snap hunter. She is looking for people who know their charm and so how they can dress better to make the most out of it.
Kirin’s opinion,
Do you remember Yamaguchi-kun? He was a frequent sutosuna model on fashion magazines to begin with. It looks like it’s not easy to walk with 10cm-heel sneakers when someone wears them for the first time. ^ ^
***There are archives of episodes listed under the page titled “Tokyo Kawaii TV” that is just located under the title banner of this blog.
***If you want to know the music that was used in the episode, please refer to this page and help yourself to find it by selecting the date when the episode was on air in Japan.
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June 29th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Hi,
I'm Mimi and I'm a german gyaru.
I want to thank you soooo much for this cool video and your help,
my japanese is not quite so good to understand everything now ;___;
I really love your page <3
June 29th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
lol, another Japanese term created by shortening two English words. The Japanese seem to be addicted to doing that.
Interesting explanation of that story. I'm glad some of them got their wish, but it would be hard to dress a month or two ahead in this heat and humidity. 
June 29th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Thank you Mimi for your comment.
My translation is only a summary which doen't cover everything, but I hope it's far better than nothing.
June 29th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
LOL We somehow like to do that whether it's originally from English or not. But this is more likely among younger people, I guess.
June 29th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I find these kind of posts very interesting, I think that for people who want to learn Japanese as well it's important to hear the language a lot~!
But wow, I never expected the street snap world to be so serious! I thought it must be hard to be snapped though. Haha, it was a bit of a dream for me to be snapped when I visit Japan one time, but I really really doubt it XD ! I don't think I could beat these people to it.
I think it was funny that the commentary on Nishii-kun was that he was 'TOO fashionable'! I would never expect that they would say that. I thought he looked most fashionable but I guess the way they explained it it sounds pretty logical.
I think one of the Lolita fashion models Misako Aoki was discovered through street snap (oh, what a dream haha) I think! I would never expect something seemingly casual like street snaps would help people to get into modelling and the like, it's quite surprising!
June 30th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Yeah, I think what's required for sutosuna models are that their fashion can be easily copied. In that way, it's different from fashion models. Also Dokumo (dokusha model) (http://tokyokawaiietc.com/tokyo-kawaii-tv/dokumo-a-subscriber-to-a-fashion-model) should look like a girl next door so that readers can feel them so close as friends.
June 30th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Your comments’ page changed! I think being called out for a snap can really lighten up someone’s day. I do look at Tokyo Street Style for inspirations~
June 30th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Thank you very much for posting about Tokyo street fashion. I enjoyed watching it. *(^_^)*
I didn't expect that are people that want and try to get snapped for a magazine. Interesting.
Thanks again for this episode. ^^
P.s.: Not really sure, but wasn't it Murayama-kun (not Tsuto-kun) that was assigned with Bridgit team. And it was Murayama-kun that got snapped. ^^
July 1st, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Oh, sorry. Yes I think you're right. ^ ^;
July 1st, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Ooooh, I've always wanted to be stopped for one of those, haha! Well, I guess I can dream.
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Japanese culture is so interesting. The fashion magazines feature someone wearing pom poms then a month later every store is selling pom poms. Everyone buys pom poms. And then next month they move on to the next trend. No wonder children wear uniforms in school. Parents would go broke otherwise.
I hate to admit it but the guy in the long skirt looked really sharp. However, I cannot see myself wearing something like that. If a man were to wear a skirt in America he would be laughed at. Or even violently attacked.
July 3rd, 2010 at 12:38 am
I have to say our society is consuming one. I myself however do not care or chase fashion trends so much. I don't buy things that I am not sure if I can wear at the same season next year, or even 3 years from then. What I dislike is, every shop has the same style of fad clothes. This means when I don't like the fashion trends that year, I can hardly find the clothes I like to put on anywhere. I want to be free from such thing. That's why I long for re-make of original clothes from 2nd hand clothes or something. But again, I have no time to learn or spend for that now.
As for the skirt, I think most of men would feel like you.
The guy on the episode is particular, because he is a young man who is into street fashion and his world so much. But I think it's cool he is free from prejudice and he is not afraid to be different from others.
July 3rd, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Hold up! Nishii-kun has such a cute girlfriend, and he wants to have more girlfriends?! I hope I am misunderstanding this, but I think he needs to have some sense smacked into him.
July 5th, 2010 at 3:57 am
You are not only beautiful, You are smart.
July 5th, 2010 at 9:20 am
Am I? ^ _ ^ Thank you~ (Hope you are not joking this. lol )
July 5th, 2010 at 9:23 am
No, you are not misunderstanding. He is such a guy who says so in front of his girl friend and his girl friend also supports his idea. (She's also weird.) That's why there is a big "?" between this couple and all the other people at there.
July 18th, 2010 at 2:38 am
Fascinating stuff! Wow, to think people go after street snap recognition so seriously. I'm going to post this too (with a link to yours) – so interesting
July 18th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
I'm happy you found it interesting. Thanks for the comment and helping your followers reach here.
April 26th, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Hi Kirin!
I would like to thank you for the interesting and juicy information you're sharing!
I'm a portuguese fashion designer and I'm currently doing my master teses on Harajuku and japan street style, so I find this site really helpfull!
Japan is the COOLEST!
April 27th, 2011 at 1:23 am
Hi Barbara,
Thank you for your comment. I'm glad my blog was informative and helpful for your study. ^ ^
Hope one day you can visit Harajuku and see everything through your own eyes. I'm sure you'll love it!
July 30th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
Global street snap fashionis a global street fashion photo site, featuring the best street style from cities like New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, and more
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