What are they saying? I can tell you.
At a 5-star hotel in Paris, Mr. Ikki is preparing for the stage of
MASATOMO.
MASATOMO’s concept this time was Neo Japonism, which delivers fresh Western x Japanese mix style and strong impact.
Back to the streets in Paris, Beni-chan found the famous street snap photographer, Scott Schuman.
She also enjoys taking photos of fashionable boys, asking if they know the word “kawaii”. It was pretty easy to join the show when she introduced herself being from Japanese TV.
It was last year that a letter from Moscow, Russia was posted to Tokyo Kawaii TV, asking if they can broadcast Tokyo Kawaii TV in Russia. The TV station of Moscow is named Kawaii TV Russia, and was founded Dec. 2008.
It’s a cable TV station, mainly targeting teenagers. Their core contents are Japanese anime & culture. Thus it used to be 90% anime but from now on they think fashion will be the next to anime. Broadcasting Tokyo Kawaii TV throughout Russia is the first step to them. They want to change dark gray sky in Moscow into fresh pink color! (Sounds cute, huh?)
Lately kawaii is getting popular among girls in Moscow. At a skate rink, there were Russian Lolita girls! They are the member of Russian Lolita Hime association. Their cute Lolita dress attracts kids, too.
One of them had a Japanese Onii-kei (attractive & fashionable cool looking men’s fashion) magazine and says she likes Japanese men rather than Russian men, just like other Russian Lolita girls.
In fact nowadays in Russia, Japanese kawaii culture is getting accepted little by little.
Decoden is a good example.
Decoden for the rich is made of gold & diamonds and costs US$150,000.00. So far 6 of them have been sold in Russia!
It’s originally from Switzerland company named GOLDVISH.
Young Moscow people like Harajuku street fashion, too. That ranges from Gothloli (gothic & lolita) to decora-kei Harajuku style. Some people sell sweets handmade decorations.
“I make kawaii clothing by myself, trying to make it looks like the one Harajuku girls are wearing. I’m referring photos of Harajuku girls.” says a Russian girl. Anime made her into Japanese culture. She makes clothing all by herself. She paints like kimono pattern on clothes and she can also make visual-kei style clothing just like this. “I found a photo of schoolgirl’s wearing school uniform on the net. So right now I’m making school uniform by myself. My dream is walking around Shibuya – Harajuku in this uniform. This year I’m going to Japan to study Japanese. I want to do a job connecting Russia and Japan in the future.”
Miyavi is a Japanese visual-kei singer who is popular among France, Germany, and Scandinavian countries. He’s got no idea why he’s become so popular, but one thing for sure is that visual-kei is accepted in Europe!
3 men are selected from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in order to investigate kawaii culture. They think that kawaii culture can be a new diplomatic step to the world.
They visited 3 spots of the followings.
1)Deco shop in Harajuku (neu＊neu)
Deco mori meaning decoration with little fake sweets and rhinestones, is the latest trend. “Isn’t that hard to use?” “Yes, but we prefer cuteness rather than function or being practical.”
2)Charismatic Fashion Magazine Model (being a model from a subscriber)”Dokumo”
They found Aoki Misako-chan on the set of famous Lolita magazine.
(She is a model for fashion magazines such as KERA, KERA maniax, and Gothic & Lolita Bible.
She is so popular among Lolita girls that when she visited Paris, her fan gathered to see her from all around Europe. Her makeup is unique with doll-looking eyes with fake long eyelashes.
3)Goldengai Shinjuku
Kokusyoku Sumire, a unit from 2 girls in Lolita classic taste was there.
They work for the cafe, “sumire no tenmado”
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan picked out 3 girls as kawaii ambassadors.
Misako Aoki, as a representative of Lolita idol.
Yu Kimura, as a representative of remake fashion idol.
Shizuka Hujioka, as a school uniform idol.
Back to Mr. Ikki, he was not on the paper. Beni-chan made a collage for him and pitched him to Japan Life Style Magazine in Paris.
Then they liked Mr.Ikki and he was on March edition.
Mr.Ikki’s paris collection was successful since he was on MENSTYLE.FR, one of the most big scaled fashion sites in the world and also on GHUBAR!!
Kirin’s opinion:
It was interesting that Russian people also like Harajuku kawaii fashion and Japanese kawaii clothing. Well, I don’t know what to say about kawaii ambassadors….Is it such a project for Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene? But it was cute that 3 middle aged men being far from kawaii are trying to learn what kawaii means. 
What did you think?
Posted by: kirin on 
May 30th, 2009 | 
Filed under: Kawaii Shop
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