Fresh Fruits

Fruits is a collection of Tokyo street fashion portraits from Japan's premier street fanzine of the same name. Fruits magazine was established in 1994, by photographer Shoichi Aoki, initially as a project to document the growing explosion in street fashion within the suburbs of Tokyo. Over the last five years, the magazine has grown to cult status and is now avidly followed by thousands of Japanese teenagers who also use the magazine as an opportunity to check out the latest styles and trends. The average age of the kids featured in the magazine is between 12 and 18, and the clothes that they wear are a mixture of high fashion - Vivienne Westwood is a keen favourite - and home-made ensembles that when combined create a novel, if not hysterical, effect. This extensive collection of portraits represents a unique documentation of the changing face of street fashion throughout the last decade. Colourful, fascinating and funny, this is the first time these cult images have been published outside Japan.



Foreword and photographs by Shoichi Aoki
Every sunday until 1998, Omote-sando, the main street in the Harajuku area of Tokyo, was declared a pedestrian heaven or Hoko-ten, and all traffic was banned for the entire day. On one particular Sunday in March 1997 I was standing on a street corner outside my new officer surveying my surroundings when two girls wearing tartan duffle coats caught my attention. They weren't doing anything in particular, just hanging out while a few foreing tourists took their pictures, but they exuded an attitude and degree of presence that was hard to ignore. I was so impressed I decided to run upstairs and get my own camera, and then boldly went up to them both and saked if I could also take some photographs for a magazine which at that moment was slowly forming in my mind. They agreed and then simpply stared into the lens without smiling or striking any kind of pose. After the shoot I asked them if they would fill out a questionnaire about the kinds of clothes they were waering, their favourite music, current obsessions and point of fashion.Their answers astonished me, for instead of receiving the usual brand names they replied that they customized the original items by modifying the cut and look of the designer label to meet their own special requirements. This was the very first shoot for Fruits magazine and was a revelation for me that has since become a personal commitment to document the new and emerging trends of Japanase street fashion.

Artes / Moda, Estilo e Beleza