A Picture's Worth A Thousand Songs

Sometimes there's nothing better than an artful photoshoot which takes clothes from the realms of necessities to art. Even better are collaborations between musicians and fashion houses, a trend as old as the artforms themselves. I haven't posted on high fashion in awhile, and I was so excited to find this issue of WWD Japan I had to share!

Ayumi Hamasaki in Viktor and Rolf

Tokio Hotel in Yohji Yamamoto

Maki Nomiya in Louis Vuitton

(Her lashes, I'm obsessed!)

Miyavi in Thom Browne

Definitely captured Miyavi's spirit in this shoot!

Pink Lady in Gucci

Kara in Prada and Tiffany

Juno in Adidas Originals by Jeremy Scott

This has to be one of my favorite looks- love the boldness, details, and colors of Jeremy Scott.

Alisa Mizuki in Alexander Wang

Choshinsei in Dsquared

All images scanned from WWD Japan, Fall 2011

Mad Man

Below- One of Takeru's outfits from mad$hip PV. Really tempted to replicate this! Finding this outfit is what inspired this post. The video is awesome too.
One band's style that I love, and would feel comfortable wearing on a daily basis, is SuG's. In the early days they pulled off a very striking Visual kei look, but the band quickly developed their own unique, colorful, casual identity with just the right amount of style and grit.

In both music and fashion they are diverse, fitting into the ideas of oshare kei but keeping the right amount of tough spirit to keep them rocking on.

Above, other outfits worn by the whole band in mad$ship PV.

All Images found on Google Image Search.

Eye Spy

Let's face it, Visual Kei is an eyeful! In a typical ensemble there are so many elements it's often hard to take notice of them all. Cosplayers, you know what this feels like!

But one thing I always think is a cool touch in Visual Kei (and seasonal runways, for that matter) is eye makeup. There's an infinite number of examples out there, but I pulled together just a small grouping of styles and effects seen throughout the genre:


If you want to replicate these looks, Sephora and Ricky's are probably your best sources in the US.

Who doesn't want a giant black rose on their eye? I quite like the bottom two myself.

The fact that I was planning to do this post collided with a perfectly timed tweet from Sephora, announcing the arrival of Paperself lashes to their stores and online. I had heard about these some time ago, and am thoroughly excited to pick up a pair! False lashes are fun once you get the hang of applying them...

Images from the Paperself Web Site.

It's a London based company that focuses on paper-based design. How cool are these! Very, very visual, but can be elegant and fun on any occasion.

Paperself Web Site: http://www.paperself.com/ps%20%20all.html

Sephora Youtube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tz_RMhVqZo

Wrapped Up

Scanned from Cure- April 2006

Remember when hair wraps were the thing? I just found this style from 176BIZ (Tara, Bass), back in 2006. A gift from a friend, I was happy to look at some of my old favorites and see some classic VK looks from years ago, and wanted to share. Really want to make some clip-on hair pieces now to emulate this.

Fall Fantasy- GLB #41

There's lots of things I like about fall, and like a lot of fashion followers, it's all about the changing fashion. My favorite part- boots and layers! Gothic and Lolita fashion is no exception, and is probably best suit for this transitional season. Gothic and Lolita Bible is one of the staples of the Japanese fashion scene, and along with Kera, publishes the best new clothes among street brands that have become famous wold over. This fall's issue has a lot of what's best in GL, cute jackets, new prints on classic silhouettes, boots, bags, and even some Halloween inspiration!

Click on the pictures for better quality!

Examples of illustrations in this issue.

Another thing I love about GLB- patterns! Each issue comes with a decent amount of simple projects you can make at home. Frequent buyers of the mook will probably have a surplus of bow, skirt, and mini hat patterns, but each issue brings a unique twist to various Lolita wardrobe staples. See the below projects I completed from this issue!

Also, I love their street snaps! The ones below are from an event in Germany, so cool! And the steampunk below is just a perfect representation of the fashion.

Hakuei on the back cover modeling for Black Peace Now.

And Mana. Always Mana.

Charmed

I'm big on bling. The more outrageous, and in your face, the better. (Judith Leiber, anyone?) But I think it's also worth mentioning that restraint is also a very valuable quality as far as fashion goes, and even in visual kei, there's a fine line between what's laughable and what's just right.

Although both of the below images are a couple seasons old by now, it still inspired quite the spark in me to make the comparison. Something about Reita's bedazzled and whip-stitched jacket just made be think "That Burberry bag!" See below:

From October 2010 Arena37C

Actually, one thing I like about most of the GazettE's outfits from RED PV is the level of texture.(Can I please, please, please know who makes their outfits??!! ) Other than Ruki who's rocking sequins again after Before I Decay (plus he's now blonde again!), every other member has some sort of embossed lizard or croc print going on somewhere. Hard to see, but trust me, it's there.

Quick Observation

Ok, so I got the Autumn/ Winter Issue of Gothic Lolita Bible, and upon flipping through its glossy pages, found a spread on Ali Project. Now, this is one artist I simply HAVE to know more about, half for the outfits and half for the music. Ok, maybe more for the outfits, because every time I see an article, I keep kicking myself for not doing more research. This outfit (at left), however, made me do a double take as it reminded me very clearly of Ruki from Taion PV (at right.) Maybe I watch one too many GazettE PVs, but still.... I thought the parallel was worth mentioning. Ali Project really rocks it out!