I eyed a woman wearing tight jeans under a flowing skirt with yellow sneakers and a guy in camouflage pants, a brown velvet blazer and pink Chuck Taylors. But the fashion show in front of the store was worth the price of admission. Still, the next day I went to Harajuku and sat on the steps of the three-floor chain that hogged what must be one of the world’s most desirable-and expensive-pieces of commercial real estate. “Meet me tomorrow at the corner of Omotesando and Meiji streets, in front of the Gap,” he told me over the phone. This was one guy who I wanted to meet, and I hoped that he’d have time to take me to a boutique so hip and underground that it hadn’t yet been discovered by local fashion gurus. The nine-hour, $600–$700 private tour covers Tokyo’s trendiest shops, blocks, styles, concepts and products.
In fact, Tokyo is so hot when it comes to reinterpreting global fashion that if you are an American or European retailer, hiring fashion consultant Loic Bizel to take you on the Tokyo Fashion Tour (is a no-brainer.
So I figured see-through umbrellas were just this city’s über-hip answer to foul weather, and I imagined that before long, I’d be one of the cool kids. Japanese influences are found worldwide, in music videos, movies and video games, and on the catwalk. I didn’t know much about this Japanese city of 12 million, but I knew I was headed to a place on the cutting edge of cool, where pop culture is served up as universally as white rice and green tea. So, on my long eastbound flight, I made my Tokyo to-do list: Watch sumo go to a tuna auction buy umbrella. I’d hunted around for them in Washington only to find pint-sized versions that barely covered my head, and were covered with ladybugs. You know the one: clear, plastic and toted around by the always-cool Scarlett Johansson in the film Lost in Translation. I was headed to Tokyo, and I wanted Charlotte’s umbrella.
Shopping in Tokyo, where street corners double as catwalks and the daring flaunt their color-clasing individuality in a kind of live theater, is not for the fainthearted.
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