There\u2019s this legendary Japanese fashion magazine that I see in New York more than I do in Tokyo: FRUiTS magazine. For fashion aficionados, the name couldn\u2019t be more familiar (They\u2019d find it ridiculous that I\u2019m even having to explain what this iconic, street-style bible is). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
FRUiTS was founded in 1997 by photographer Shoichi Aoki. For 20 years, the magazine documented the fashion subculture styles straight from the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo, where cool kids with eclectic styles congregated. It was a cultural touchstone in fashion in many ways. Before the street-style snapshots, there was FRUiTS. Before maximalist styling swept the modern fashion world, there was FRUiTS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The monthly publication chronicled the diverse, colorful outfits of young people. Their styles were trend-less, mixed and most importantly, personal to the wearers. Aoki, the magazine\u2019s founder, chose the name FRUiTS \u2014 a stylized version of the word \u201cfruits\u201d \u2014 because, \u201cThe vividness and the freshness of this novel take on fashion reminded him of strawberries, oranges and other cute fruits,\u201d he told the online culture publication, sabukaru<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The magazine folded in 2017. Its final issue came out in February of that year. \u201cThere are no more cool kids to photograph,\u201d Aoki had said when he announced the end of the magazine. He saw the rise of social media and fast fashion change how people dressed, making it less about personal curation and more about single-brand outfits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So how does this Japanese street-style magazine that was once distributed from the heart of Tokyo end up in New York\u2019s Rizzoli Bookstore<\/a> today? Or at the designer vintage clothing store on Spring Street<\/a>? Some devotees are even hunting for it on Reddit<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The New York fashion crowd\u2019s love for FRUiTS is unmatched. They yearn to see the OG street-style magazine, which authentically captured the youth\u2019s madcap fashion, revived. When Aoki\u2019s magazine was released in digital eBook format for the first time in English in May 2023, publications like Vogue and Dazed took notice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPublications have learnt to talk about online trends (i.e. stealth wealth<\/a> and indie sleaze<\/a>) as if they were embodied movements and not discourse-generated cores,\u201d Daniel Rodgers wrote for Dazed<\/a>. \u201cThose things have their own value \u2014 teaching us about people\u2019s evolving relationship with clothing \u2014 but they often overshadow the more interesting stuff that takes place IRL and at nightclubs and art schools.\u201d This makes the return of FRUiTs all the more relevant, Rodgers noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I couldn\u2019t agree more. There are many so-called fashion \u201ccores,\u201d microtrends and aesthetics today that help define how people dress. There was the ballet-core epitomized by Sandy Liang and Miu Miu; \u201cbloke-core\u201d or \u201cblokette\u201d led by Wales Bonner and Balenciaga; and, on a more recent note, the \u201coffice-siren-core\u201d \u2014 an edgy take on traditional corporate attire that started trending on TikTok. They all pull off their distinctive styles in their own ways, like how the fashion crowds from Aoki\u2019s fashion magazine did. And yet, the predefined \u201ccores\u201d feel like an efficient categorization of how people dress, lumping together the individual\u2019s personal styles into a visually cohesive world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This explains, perhaps, why a magazine like FRUiTS excites so many fashion freaks even beyond Japan. The personalized styles that were captured in FRUiTS could care less about brands, trends and being boxed into some \u201ccore\u201d category. I assume that Aoki hated boxes, hated labels and hated being labeled or placed in a box. But it\u2019s what society, the internet and the fashion world generally tend to do. Trending, out of trend, Gothcore, Clean Girl, Mob Wife, Gorpcore, street, couture \u2014 it feels safe to have everything cleanly categorized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, individualism in fashion has become downgraded to trends dictated by the virals, hashtags and posts on social media, especially in American society. In contrast, FRUiTS was about featuring those who defended their unique identity and celebrating how great it feels to be different from one another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan has 264 years of isolationist history<\/a> (also known as the Tokugawa period; 1603\u20131867), during which it completely secluded itself from the outside world. This fiercely independent time led to the growth of their own unique culture. This sensibility is also felt in the realm of fashion, explaining why so many unconventional, experimental styles originate from Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Walking through the streets of New York today, I see so many bookstores and boutiques curate FRUiTS, along with other Japanese fashion magazines and photobooks. STREET, Aoki\u2019s other street-style magazine project, which he started in 1985, can be seen on the shelves of 194 New York<\/a>, a vintage designer boutique on Eldridge Street. CLIMAX<\/a> Books, an indie bookstore just around the corner from the Bowery Hotel, specializes in selecting photobooks by young female Japanese photographers who are often under-recognized. The selected photobooks, like the ones by the influential Japanese photographer Hiromix, capture the distinctive Decora and Harajuku styles from the \u201990s Japanese youth culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I guess it\u2019s a testimony to the beauty of individualism. When the whole world becomes more globalized and so many places look the same now, this kind of uniqueness stands out from the masses. This is perhaps why FRUiTS\u2019s documentation of Tokyoites\u2019 eccentric styles attracts the like-minded people here in New York today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a world of fashion \u2018cores,\u2019 the iconic Tokyo magazine reminds us of the beauty of individualism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-geist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":438,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/editorsvision.com\/frenzy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}