Forget the French maids of Harajuku, the couture-clad ladies of Ginza or the vintage denim fiends of Shimokitazawa. Some of Tokyo's best-dressed people are, without a doubt, its senior citizens. The elders of Japan's largest city have a penchant for cargo vests, bucket hats and bold contrasting prints. They wear floppy tam-o-shanters and high-waisted bell-bottoms, and execute tone-on-tone ensembles with natural ease. I thought I had made a new discovery of this phenomenon on a recent trip to Japan, but my elation was short lived. Nothing escapes the watchful eyes of Tokyo's fashionable youngsters and, as it turns out, "Okijawa" or "Old Man Style" is already very much a thing. I should have known better: Tokyo is as famous for its street style as it is for geisha spotting and square watermelons.
To be a tourist is to seek out new ideas and unexpected inspiration, and if you're the sort of person who's into clothes, the way people dress can be a rich source of both. With tour-guide attention mostly devoted to museums and historic landmarks, the clothes worn by everyday people in cities like Paris, New York and Tokyo are often overlooked, but they are as much a part of the city's culture as any famous sculpture or square.
I travel for food and scenery, usually in that order, but a city's vitality is in its people, and the distinct ways the locals interpret fashion can add significantly to a destination's appeal.
Hawley Dunbar, the editor of the lifestyle website Sidewalk Hustle, travels with an eye for food, music and art, but is just as fascinated by the street style she sees en route. "It's always interesting to see someone walk by and wonder what their life is like," she says of people-watching in New York, which is among her favourite destinations for fashion inspiration. "You never know what that person's job could be or why they put that on, or who they're going to meet." Paris's Marais neighbourhood is another top haunt, as much for the 17th-century splendour of the Place des Vosges and the pastry shops of Rue St. Antoine as the way in which the Parisian women put their outfits together. "It's that effortless French cool," she says. "A white T-shirt and a long black skirt and whatever the trainer du jour is."
While Paris, Milan and New York have long held reputations as fashion-conscious cities, the era of street style has brought attention to a slew of new locales. In Florence every January and June, camera-wielding style-philes flock to Pitti Uomo, a men's-wear trade show, to observe attendees decked out in the height of Italian tailoring. Copenhagen and Stockholm are famous as centres of Scandinavian design, but thanks to the influence of brands like Henrik Vibskov, Our Legacy and Acne Studios, they have become hubs for Nordic fashion, too.
Photographer Scott Schuman, whose blog, the Sartorialist, is largely responsible for popularizing street style among the masses, can still be found shooting in Paris and Milan, but his quest for fashion's next frontier has taken him farther afield. His forthcoming book will be a collection of photos from his travels in India.
For style seekers with an appetite for adventure, countries like Peru and Burkina Faso also boast textile traditions stretching back centuries, and fascinating customs of dress to match. Then there are the famous dandies of Brazzaville, in the Republic of the Congo, whose candy-coloured suits, top hats and over-the-top panache have earned them international renown.
For variety, creativity and sheer audacity, however, there's nowhere quite like Tokyo. "That was an overwhelming experience," says Dunbar of the people-watching in the Japanese capital. There are dozens of fashion subcultures to be found in Tokyo's cool neighbourhoods, each of them carefully labelled and categorized into a rich taxonomy of indigenous vogue. There are tribes of rockabillies, goths and grunge kids – long-time staples of the Japanese street-style scene – but also newer, lesser-known groups.
The Ojikawas, for instance, are identifiable by their fondness for cardigans, long frumpy skirts and tweed. Then there's the "Unbalanced" style, characterized by too-long shirt sleeves and oversized jackets. Among the ritzy department stores and high-end boutiques of the city's most expensive districts, you'll spot the "Mode" style: Adherents dress head to toe in Gucci, Fendi and Commes des Garçons. Then, of course, there are the senior citizens themselves who seem wholly unaware of their role in all of this. They're just waiting for the train or carrying their groceries home, surely puzzled by the white guy with a camera that won't stop snapping away.
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