Harajuku Girl

Sun shining, temperature hitting 30 degrees and what do I decide to do?; saunter round the stores of Harajuku. I visited Harajuku last year when I came to Tokyo and decided to go on a Saturday, and let me paint you a picture; Harajuku on a Saturday is like a buffalo stampede on acid. I would say it's all part of the atmosphere and experience and something you have to participate in, however, I would advise this in a cooler season of time in Tokyo, definitely not summer when you literally cannot see for sweat dripping in your eyes. So I opted for a Sunday shopping sesh this year instead and whilst it was still ludicrously busy, it was most definitely the smarter choice. When stepping out the station at Harajuku you are immediately faced with Takeshita street; one of the busiest streets I have ever walked down in my life. This street has everything Japanese street style has to offer, it is literally the pick and mix sweet selection of street style. You can walk past one shop on Takeshita street overflowing with girly chiffons and an array of pastel paradise and then right next door sits a dark, sinister shop which looks like it eats its neighbouring shop for breakfast. 

After reaching the end of the street style, sub-culture, yellow brick road you are faced with all your usual high street stores; Topshop, Mango, H&M and to my disappointment, Forever 21 (spew). However, crossing over the road you will come to designer heaven. It goes without saying a stapler really would have came in handy today to staple my mouth shut because as I walked down this street my jaw was dragging along the ground as I gazed into all the fabulous window displays. And I repeat, FAB-U-LOUS.

So being in Tokyo and everything, I decided to treat myself to a stunning Ted Baker number. This particular Ted Baker dress is part of the Ted Baker 25th anniversary collection so it kinda gives it that extra pazaz ya know. I cannot begin to give enough appraisal to the shop assistants in the Ted Baker store, they were actually amazing and I actually found myself chatting to one of the girls for quite some time. It definitely makes the difference when the staff are top notch. Furthermore, the interior of the store, woweeeee, but I shall get to that another time. So aside from my amazing purchase, I was then walking back to the train station when I stumbled across a wee store called 'John Bull Private Labo'. I almost walked past this store due to my growing fantasy of lying in an air-conditioned room, however, out the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a Black Score t-shirt hanging in all its glory. Yes, that is right, Black Score. So with all my excitement I bustled into the store and there they all were; nearly the entire range of Black Score's t-shirts all exploiting their pure amazingness. This just topped off my day as if you haven't heard me go on about them before, Black Score are my favourite t-shirt brand EVER. 

Finally, aside from street style pick and mix, high street haven, and designer divineness, Harajuku also possesses many tremendous wee side streets all blossoming with cutesie, little boutiques and independant stores where you are guaranteed to pick up some awesome buys. Also, they have some really yummy cafes and they are definitely worth adventuring in to if you are a cake fiend like myself. So, the moral of the story, if you ever find yourself in Japan, you simply must visit Harajuku. And well, if not, seeing as it's not your average holiday to France, maybe have a wee research into it, it's a rather fascinating place. 
Click here to visit the Ted Baker website.
Click here to visit the Black Score website.

A photo I snapped of Takeshita Street, April 2012

My new baby

Nula - City Print Dress, Ted Baker - £129

Asian Antics

Konnichiwa. So after an unnecessarily long, hot and cramped flight and a week of fighting jetlag, I'm finally settling in to life in Tokyo. Humidity and thunderstorms aside I'm already beginning to sport a slightly orange Tokyo tan and it's inevitable what goes perfectly with a tan; perfect clothes. So, I've already started on my Asian adventure of gathering info on new designers and brands that I wasn't aware of before and I'm going to be blogging away about them as well as other well known and relative Asian designers over the next two weeks.  From designer to street style, the women out here love their fashion so I'm beyond excited to start writing about it all. So keep your eyes peeled and chopsticks at the ready and watch this space for upcoming posts. Peace out.