Shoichi aoki camera

Shoichi aoki quotes
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.
Shoichi Aoki (青木正一 Aoki Shōichi, born 1955) is a Japanese photographer and the creator of STREET Magazine, TUNE Magazine and FRUiTS magazine.

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Fruits (magazine)

Japanese fashion magazine

Fruits (stylized as FRUiTS) was a Japanese monthly street fashion magazine founded in 1997 by photographerShoichi Aoki. Though Fruits covered styles found throughout Tokyo, it is associated most closely with the fashion subcultures found in Tokyo's Harajuku district. The magazine primarily focused on individual styles found outside the fashion-industry mainstream, as well as subcultures specific to Japan, such as lolita and ganguro, and local interpretations of larger subcultures like punk and goth.

Content

Fruits featured a simple layout, with the bulk of the magazine made up of single full-page photographs accompanied by a brief profile of the photographed person, which included their age, occupation, and a description of what brands they were wearing (if applicable), as well as their self-described "point of fashion" (style inspiration). Most issues included only a couple of advertisements, and typically only for local businesses. Occasional special-edition issues of Fruits also included more extensive pro

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Chief editor of FRUiTS Shoichi Aoki has been a witness of the streets of Tokyo since the 90s. We spoke to him about the changes in street style from the mid-90s to 2010s to now. In the first part, he mainly covered the years between 1997—when he founded FRUiTS—to 1999. Here, Aoki talks about his impressions from the 2000s to now.

—(Continued from part one) Once the Urahara hype took over in the mid-90s, you began shooting mostly women for FRUiTS. You then published TUNE in 2004.

Shoichi Aoki (Aoki): Around 2003, a decade-ish after what we now call Urahara sprouted, a new style for men emerged. In my impression, the boutique CANNABIS was the thing that set it off. The staff there wore strange outfits. I still vividly remember their fashion show on the street in front of the store. I liked the fashion they showcased. It was kind of random. I don’t know how people would perceive it today, though. The style of the audience was interesting too.

The kids who had the Urahara mindset thought the clothes were uncool