The origins of Harajuku street style: interview with Shoichi Aoki FRUiTS magazine founder recounts the style that defined Y2K in Japan

When Instagram still didn't exist and fashion publications told of a muffled and distant world, of fine Parisian salons and Milanese catwalks, there was little space that publishing gave to street fashion. In the 1990s, Shoichi Aoki was one of the first to document the street aesthetics of Tokyo's Harajuku district, narrating it in the pages of the iconic FRUiTS magazine and acting as an ambassador for Japanese streetwear around the world. The Harajuku style was beyond definition: kitsch, colorful, bizarre, unlike anything you'd ever seen before. And the greatest value of FRUiTS magazine was to be a real chronicle of the life of a young and dynamic neighborhood in Japan of that era. It was a cheerful, young magazine that celebrated the local culture by elevating it to the same status as the inaccessible world of couture and, in many ways, foreshadowed that self-expression that would come with Instagram decades later. 

From a foreigner’s point of view, how did Tokyo change from the ‘90s to now? How did you think the culture shifted?

I think Tokyo, particularly Harajuku became a victim of its own success. Thanks to magazines like FRUiTS and KERA, the world discovered and embraced the styles of Japanese youth subculture and this global popularity fed back into Harajuku to the point of over-saturation. Harajuku became a kind of parody of itself. I lived in London for many years and saw an almost identical transformation happen to Camden Town. Thankfully we are now seeing a resurgence of unique styles with new designers and different attitudes. It all comes back to this evolution and symbiosis that makes fashion so addictive!