The Cat Street

There is a revolution happening.

A quiet, unorganized, but hyper connected revolution, with no central figure.

It is an inverse revolution.

It is a revolution of creators.

It’s girls with cameras looking to get the perfect picture of their lunch bento to share with others and add to the texture of nowness.

They didn’t do this in the 1920’s.

This is now.

The Tao of Now.

The Nowist Revolution.

You can see it in the way that kid over there walks, and makes his strut look so good that the kids behind him are inspired to try it too.

It’s all captured here. In the sun, with its perfect morningness

Its perfect start-overness

Its perfect brand new dayness

Today makes an ideal day to start the reorder

and arranging of the world how you see it.

To share it now

and go on the record of now.

Tokyo Fashion Fall Round-Up 2009

On Saturday, I went into every single clothing store in Harajuku.

Here is my trend report and the state of Tokyo Fashion according to my highly untrained eye:

Faux Layers

There was an abundance of sweaters-slash-turtlenecks-slash-t-shirts-slash thing with lots and lots of zippers. All layers beyond the main one were just stitched enough to peak out and justify being called a layer. These can be seen walking all over the streets, with folks throwing in even more actual layers into the mix.

Army Fur

Seen the Army jacket traipsing around for a good while of course, but now nearly every single shop has them lined in fur. And not the kind of fur that looks like it could endure much battle action. It’s a flowing, feminine kind of fur that is begging for cans of red paint to be emptied on it. The men’s jackets are have even more fragile looking mane’s than the women’s offerings. Perhaps a bit of 21 century fashionista gender bending going on there…

Duo-Tone Color Gradations

It could be shoes, it could be a belt, it could be a sweater or a t-shirt. The point is the powers that create taste are applying this rudimentary paint shop program technique in critical mass. The more awkward and jarring the contrasting colors are, the better. Tokyo is a very grey city, and these gradations are fighting that one duotone at a time.

Native American Patterns

Mostly in sweaters, some shirts, but wildly in bloom right now across the Harajuku back streets. Most places have accompanying wallets and belts and other leather goods with these Native American designs burnt in or laid out in lavish beaded patterns.

FIght Club Red Leather Jacket

Ubiquitous across all manner of stores. Every local label has a twist on this cult classic. Some have more pockets and zippers than the others, but the point is, everyone is doing the Tyler Durden.

Flannel

Perhaps the most demonstrative show of motif that can be found in ‘the H-juku’ right now. Print this basic lumberjack grid on a t-shirt or a trucker hat. Make a back pack, fanny pack, lunch sack, whatever you call it sack out of it. Use existing patterns, but stitch them more accurately than the one that ended up on Paul Bunyan’s back. Put a Japanese label on it and then confidently charge upwards of 200 bones for it, and you might prove yourself tastemaker enough to open up your own little Harajuku niche boutique…

This One Store was so Cool that it Closed Forever Seconds After I Bought a Shirt

It happened when I was walking through the scene.

I mean THE SCENE. With all capital and neon letters.

I’m talking about the back streets of Harajuku.

Home of all those anti-corporation, street, skate/t-shirt culture brands that get blogged about and then reblogged about the world round on alleged ‘coolhunting’ blogs.

How cool is this place? And how do I stand up to said coolness?

I found out. The hard way.

I proved to be such a shock to the system of cool, that when I bought a shirt from one of these shops, they closed their doors forever in response. They couldn’t handle that an ordinary person (and borderline tool to be honest…) was now to be counted amongst their clientele. Could you imagine if someone like me accidently showed up in one of those coolhunting blogs, back associated to their little indie shop?

I mean, come on; I had no gold chain (let alone ten), no outward display of swagger. I made zero attempt to walk with a limp. I smiled and nodded and when generally responsive and outgoing when greeted.

I should have seen the end coming.

I should have taken that smirk and immediate de-stocking of inventory as a warning sign that I was so pedestrian that a place would actually be impelled to stop selling things because I caught a glimpse of a design I liked and decided to crash the party.

Me culpa.

They tried to minimize the impact of my averageness by suggesting that the shirt might not actually fit.

Sorry guys, the XL will be just fine. Can I get a bag for that?

I wonder if this scenario was in their initial business plans.

I can back imagine it all now:

“Alright, look at this picture, and take a good look. We will commit to store operations until the second this guy walks through our doors. And then we close instantly… Money Sign Medallions on three. One. Two. Three. Money Sign Medallions!! Break…”

The second I handed over my 10,000 yen for the graphic tee (that’s over 100 bones for a single shirt!) the music in the store came to a record scratchy halt. All chatter stopped, and all hipster customers went sprinting for the exits like a fire alarm just went off.

They tried to tell me that the color probably wasn’t the one I was looking for. That I surely wanted this in black…

Nope, green is fine, I assured them.

With that, two employees behind the counter pulled off their shirts in unison and started jumping up and down on them.

“And how much for these plastic gold chains?” I asked.

A guy straightening the shelves heard this, and melted instantly.

Oh underground, unbranded establishment, I am sorry for the havoc I have incurred upon your business. I wish that you didn’t have to board up the doors because of my interest in your wares. I will try to let you operate in peace next time, and not force my money upon you. But, if I like the designs I see when you decide to open up another shop in this part of town, I might just attempt to make another purchase.

Respectfully,

Average Andrew

Logo Design: New York Connection

I really like this logo.

I like how the letters are hand done, but still look like they were perfectly designed shapes, consciously placed within the outline of the apple. It isn’t just haphazard scrawling. It is sophisticated hand penned design.

Look at the way the bottom right stem of the K dovetails and creates a uniform width line of negative space against the extended serif of the N below it. Beautiful.

Look at variation of line widths, the kind of variation you get with a calligraphic pen. You can’t even get this with a sharpie, as much as I love sharpies. These lines are interesting to look at, where ever you choose to look.

I love the shape and flow of the wavy double underline at the bottom. And love the artist’s decision to break the lines into a longer set of two and a shorter set of two. It’s those kind of unexpected decisions that make this really stand out for me.

How cool is the loop at the beginning of that first T?!

And I like the rather clunkily shaped, but well placed, chunk of black space beneath it. Delicious!

The back to back N’s in the bottom word have subtle variation to prove their craftsmanship and show that they are not the generic mass offering of a type foundry. No, these lines come from a specific place.

I love this logo as an emblem for this particular exhibition. It’s an exhibition that features wildly colorful works of street artists, all around the theme of New York. But this logo face, doesn’t try to be the literal cover for this book. It exists in an Apple-like minimalism, black and white, confident and bold. Serving as an emblem or shield for the show, while not trying to compete for attention with the works at all.