The Tokyo Look Book: Stylish to Spectacular, Goth to Gyaru, Sidewalk to Catwalk [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Doctor of Tokyo fashion Philomena Keet's Tokyo Look Book takes the reader directly to the streets of Tokyo with herself as our guide and ears, and photographer Yuri Manabe as our eyes. Their colorful book is loaded with photos and such specific cultural and subcultural fashion information that an amateur on the subject, such as myself, will feel quite overwhelmed at first. If you too are a novice, you'll be amazed at the subtle differences the trained eye notices in fashion styles and cliques that rule the Tokyo scene. The book is divided into 5 chapters: Shibuya Girls and Guys, which focuses on energetic young teen styles, Spectacular and Subcultural, which holds more theatrical styles like the popular Lolita, Goth, and Cosplay, among others, Youth Street Fashion, which takes a look at young people whose style is fashion for fashion's sake, The Stylish Female, which is much like it sounds, a section on slightly older, more professionally fashionable young women, and finally, Young Men At Work, which is sort of the male version of The Stylish Female. The book also takes a look at popular locales and interviews various designers who are particularly en vogue.

The Tokyo Look Book is a visually fun read and has plenty of info for someone new to the whole Japanese fashion scene. I, myself, being a professional artist and having noticed how popular certain Japanese styles are in commercial art and illustration today, found it to be quite fascinating, but I also realized that what I would have preferred would have been a book focusing on that second chapter, Spectacular and Subcultural. This is because it's those extreme, theatrical styles that are naturally most prevalent in U.S. illustration these days. I know there are a few books out there that do cover some of those very popular styles specifically, and I'll have to pick some of them up, but for the broader view of styles worn by young people on the streets of Tokyo, The Tokyo Look Book is an excellent guide.

I have been a fashion designer and makeup artist for quite a few years, having been designing clothing for most of my life. When I saw that I could have a chance to review the Tokyo Look Book, I jumped at the chance.

The Japanese people have long captured my attention with their venturous spirit when it comes to fashion and trends. I find them delightful and inspiring.

The Tokyo Look book is 222 pages long. There are scads of photos in it arranged in the following chapters:

1-Shibuya Girls and Guys
Shopping Mall Shibuya 109
Fashion Designer Riko Nakane of rienda
Fashion Designer Miwa Mochizuki of Glad News

2-Spectacular and Subcultural
Fashion Designer h.Naoto
Fashion Designer Nama of Moi-meme-Moitie
Fashion Designer Takuya Angel

3-Youth Street Fashion
Boutique: Dog
Fashion Designer: Naoyuki Ohira of Team Message
Street Fashion Magazine FRUiTS and TUNES

4-The Stylish Female
Fashion Brand Crystal Ball by GARCIA MARQUEZ gauche
Fashion Brand THEATRE PRODUCTS

5-Young Men At Work
Fashion Designer Kazuhisa Komura of 5351 Pour Les Hommes
Workwear Shop Mannenya

Glossary
Shop List
Acknowledgements

The books bright pink and black cover is delightful and trendy retro looking. The author Philomena Keet and photographer Yuri Manabe just scoured the streets with camera, tape recorder, and clip board trying to capture a well rounded view of what fashions are on the streets of Tokyo in 2007 at the time they prepared the pages of this book.

Each chapter has many many photographs with descriptive captions that are fun and interesting and then there are a few interviews interspersed in the chapters which give a perspective from someone in the fashion industry related to the styles featured in that chapter.

I found the book to be refreshing, fun and delightful to look through. A wonderful conversation starter, this would do well to sit on your coffee table - ready for conversations to start at any time.

Also, this is a wonderful book to pick up after a rough day at work or in the world when you just want to curl up with a cup of tea or coffee and just relax and smile.

Sometimes I laughed out loud, and other times I got great inspiration. One of my favorites was a Japanese girl with ice blue contact lenses and pink long hair.

The fashions range from haute couture to down right goth extreme and everything in between. There are catwalk photos and on the street photos.

I found a lot in this book that inspired me to go out and be daring and different, after all, I don't think anyone can top what some of these marvelous people have dared to do on the streets of Tokyo when it comes to fashion.

I gave this four stars because I felt that the book lacked a little bit in terms of cohesiveness. It was not organized in a retro extreme fashion that would echo the contents of the pages, but it also was not organized severely either- which would give it that edge in the opposite direction.

Had the book a little bit more cohesiveness with graphics and layout, it might be a little easier to read. As it is, it looks a little like someone's layout for scrap book ideas just before they add the embellishments, if that makes any sense at all. It just feels a little incomplete.

Having said that- it is a minor thing- I still enjoyed the book and am thrilled I got the chance to read through it. I know that I will keep it handy to look at again and again.

Although the subject matter is inherently interesting, this could have been a much better book. Probably the biggest problem is that for a book so reliant on its images, the photography is generally uninspired and the quality of the photos mediocre. Also, though the author fancies herself an "anthropologist," the text consists mostly of superficial descriptions with little insight or analysis. This is an example of a book that might have worked better as a website.