FASHION Magazine

When it comes to the East, we never seem to get enough of the adorably packaged beauty products, semi-complicated beauty regimens and on-point street style. Even the weirdest beauty ingredients have become our most coveted ones. With Asia’s R&D departments leading the discovery of new ingredients to infuse into products, you can also expect some, um, more eyebrow-raising beauty […]

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It’s a sunny day in Tokyo and a group of anime princesses and warriors are becoming uncomfortably warm in their latex and polyester costumes. They’re “cosplay” enthusiasts leading a group of tourists through Akihabara, the area known for attracting those into otaku culture, characterized by an obsessive interest in anime, manga or video games. During a pit stop at a “maid cafe,” hostesses in frilly French maid outfits (a popular strain of anime character) pour blue and green sodas and perform J-pop numbers. Do they dress differently after work? “Oh, this isn’t work,” says one, wearing eyelid tape and huge fake lashes. “It’s our lifestyle.”

Otaku culture is the focus of Japanese brand Shu Uemura’s holiday collection (from $27, shuuemura.ca), created with Takashi Murakami. The artist famous for stamping his colourful designs on Louis Vuitton Speedy bags in 2002 emblazoned the makeup’s packaging with Six Heart Princess, his anime artwork based on the legend of a warrior princess. “It’s a very dark story about people who were born into a cursed family and are not able to break away from their blood,” he says. Cheerful! “I tried to create something that would not be dubbed as modern art but that was totally Japanimation style.”

In today’s edition of WTF Karl Lagerfeld, the designer has dished to WWD from Tokyo about the apparent junk food diet that has changed the way Japanese people look: “I noticed that people became bigger than before because now they eat more cake and sweets and things like this that they didn’t do in the […]

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Despite using oil-free products exclusively, my face always looks and feels grimy by early afternoon. What else can I do to control the oil on my face?
The last time I used blotting papers was around the same time I assumed oily skin was caused by eating too many french fries from my school’s cafeteria. Now I know that it can be attributed to hormones, a lack of hydration in your body, or a change in climate—and I’m revisiting the notion that blotting papers are an easy, portable fix for nasty oil slicks. Speaking of nasty, I recall hearing a rumour that blotting papers clog pores and can actually have a negative effect on your complexion… but that’s simply not true! In fact, Japanese geishas have been using paper to blot and keep their makeup fresh since the 1800s—but it’s what’s in the paper that counts.

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Wear your heart on your tee all summer long by supporting those in need. 50% of profits from the sale of the t-shirts goes to support the Peace Winds Japan charity. ($32, jennybird.com)

This Saturday, April 16th at the Design Exchange, Toronto will participate in Global PechaKucha Day along with more than a dozen cities around the world.

You’ve probably already donated to help the earthquake-, tsunami- and nuclear accident-stricken people of Japan via the Red Cross, but here’s another way to help: Buy a copy of The Light of Tokyo—and its publisher, Assouline, will donate 50 percent of the sales to relief efforts. Photographer Jean-Michel Berts, who has shot campaigns for Hermès, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Oscar de la Renta but also specializes in documenting the beauty of urban architecture, captures Japan’s soaring skyscrapers, serene formal gardens and elegant Buddhist temples in velvety black and white.

To purchase the book, visit shopassouline.com

Have you been counting the super colourful Prada fur stoles in the front rows at the fall shows too? Take a click through their fab fantasy look book. [Fashion Gone Rogue]

Japanese designer Tsumori Chisato, famous for cute clothes with cute prints, is working on a capsule collection for French children’s brand Petit Bateau, which has long been a magnet for stylish French mamans who are just as wont to don the tiny tees themselves. (They also offer a full-size range for adults.) The Chisato range […]

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Yesterday, while we were humming and hawing over whether or not to wear cement-coloured polish, the Tokyo Nail Expo was showing off mind-blowingly intricate nail design–3D Hello Kitty, lace, diamonds, giant rosettes and what appears to be She-Ra. The annual nail extravaganza also includes the Japanese-celeb laden Nail Queen Awards, which appears to be a […]

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The symphony of colours, patterns, textures, forms and silhouettes in fashion transcribes into a cultural and historical dialogue into the Textile Museum of Canada’s exhibit, The Cutting Edge (to July 7, $12, 55 Centre Ave., 416-599-5321, textilemuseum.ca).