Vogue, Elle, and Numero Try Their Hands at Shibuya Street Style

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Our woman in Tokyo, Misha Janette, on the bi-annual "Touch Me" Shibuya Street Style fashion show—this season styled by editors from Vogue, Numero, and Elle.

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What is the result of Vogue, Numero and Elle being given the job to makeover Japanese “Shibuya” street-style? A parade of fair-skinned, leggy creatures and a boost of cachet, natch.

Dazzlin’, Emoda, Laguna Moon, Han Ahn Soon, Mercury Duo and Murua are household fashion names in Japan and represent a handful of the most popular Shibuya-based brands. Their bi-annual “Touch Me” fashion show is an attempt to inject some high-end va-va-voom into the collections and they achieve this at the hands of some heavyweight stylists and editors including Ako Tanaka of Numero Tokyo, Ting Ting Lin of Numero China, Naoko Kikuchi of Elle Japan, and Shun Watanabe of Vogue Hommes Japan.

Shibuya style is a very insular culture that was traditionally shunned by the fashion elite and not often seen outside of Tokyo (save for the Patricia Field-advised Shibuya styling of Carrie in Sex and The City, circa the first film). Now, these brands are powerful enough to shape and lead the future of Japanese fashion. One of the reasons Shibuya fashion has been so successful is its rejection of Western fashion ideals, often opting to use local models that are more relatable than Western ones, its “bridge” pricing as well as the practice of hiring designers who start out as retail associates until they garner enough fans to inherit their own lines.

The “Touch Me” incarnation certainly succeeded in showing these brands in a new,
sophisticated light. But as could be seen by the girls hanging around after the show,
Shibuya fashion is at its kookiest and cutest on an honest-to-god Shibuya girl.
· Touch Me [Official Site]
· All Tokyo coverage [Racked]