The 23th Tokyo Girls Collection was held last weekend over at the Saitama arena and featured a dizzying selection of models and a great number of popular fashion brands including Murua, One Spo, Cecil McBee, aquagirl, bonica dot and even some foreign favorites like H&M and American Apparel. However it must be said that even with the hundreds of models from all of the key Japanese girls magazines in attendance and some 20 fashion shows, thanks to the whole TGC running the very best part of 4 hours (with long breaks) it did feel like the style side of the Tokyo Girls Collection was in the shadow of corporate sponsorship and celebrity appearances. Not that that is a criticism in the slightest, the function is a successful one and when people want to buy the official soundtrack and iphone covers than they're free to do so. It is only a minor point that I am getting at, but there is a gulf between a fashion show aimed at editors and buyers and that put on as a show for the general public and this must be considered when looking at the TGC as this sort of commercial fashion show continues to be a relatively new concept.

Anyway, the fashion shows that flitted between the performances by T-ara and girls dressed because the latest bread from Family Mart, were fantastic and reflected the real diversity in mainstream Japanese fashion right now. Certainly https:// of the day was ?Bloggers Style?, however the opening show by THE NIGHT TIME Porter was all people could talk about using its dark fetishistic undertake the trends of as soon as:

The stylist was Tsuyoshi Noguchi and you could just feel his strong feminine vision in every outfit that graced the excessively long catwalk. Next to the brands that dressed women somewhat childishly, this felt bold and reflected the proceed to mode fashion deep within Gyaru havens like Shibuya 109 and young people in general.


This show just appeared to read the trends of the moment perfectly and seeing the media reaction within Japan this had the result that TGC desired by placing this because the first defining show this season.

Can?t wait for those hats going to retail later this year. I am hoping to see a Tokyo filled with girls reclaiming the rebellious strength that Gyaru originally stood for and failing that, I'll always be pleased to see more black.

But don?t worry I won?t just be talking about THE NIGHT TIME Porter special collection, there have been many more shows on the day, but frankly none that powered through the mainstream trends with more gusto than the above.

Compared to last season there were significantly less edgy brands that exhibited within TGC. This is definitely a show geared towards popularity and the mainstream although One Spo did pull out all the stops for their royal military collection.

More ?Bloggers Style? and a resounding success by means of that leopard print riders on the proper!

Uncertain about either of the above (both one spo), but at the very least they put on a good show.

More one spo, trying very hard to steal the show and almost succeeding.

And finally some street ready outfits from Vence Exchange which echoed the dominant feel of the opening show.

That has been my heavily edited version of the 4 hour show, in case you are in the mood for a look at all the shows in all their varying glory then your main TGC site should be updated by the time you read this. I've gone for a mode fashion focused consider the event, but because of the brands like aquagirl you could quite easily ignore the above and get a slightly more conservative version of events. I guess what I'm getting at is that there is an awful lot of awfully good fashion out there in very accesible places at this time and without much effort you can get a damn classy look quickly. Thanks to the success of TGC I honestly believe that is a great time for Japanese fashion, never has it been very easy to be so fashionable.