If Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl was older and Japanese, he’d probably be in Tokyo’s Ginza district drinking I.W. Harper at Bar Vespa.
I found this ad while flipping through an accessories magazine called Men’s Ex. Aside from the nasty goatee, this dude pretty much resembles what I’d imagine an Asian Ed Westwick would look like.
This is a really cool look from Body Butter’s Jodhpur suit collection.
The slim burgundy suit contrasts nicely with the charcoal pinstriped vest, and as a highlight, they gave the model some pretty stylin’ kicks as well (somewhat reminiscent of the Takahara’s I mentioned a while back).
Body Butter says this suit type has a ‘slimming silhouette’, which means the garment features clean lines and carefully aligned buttons to give the wearer the appearance of a smaller waistline.
To me, it just looks like a slim suit. Like, if you can’t already squeeze your marshmallow ass into this skinny getup, it won’t be doing much for your silhouette now, will it?
At about $500, I’d call this set reasonable for a brand that calls itself Body Butter.
Wearing white canvas sneakers with dark unwashed denim is never a good idea.
Thinking that I had washed most of the excess dye out of my denim jeans, I tried wearing them with these unworn Diesel shoes, just for a day, and look what happened – dirty blue sneakers!
God knows if I can gently bleach these babies back to their original state. Next time, I’ll take my time and tape up the insides of my pant legs or just forgo wearing white shoes altogether with untrustworthy denim.
Oh well, it is never a bad time to shop for more footwear. A recession just means more deals, right?!
Walk into any convenience store or pharmacy in Japan and you’ll likely find Gatsby deodorant and hairstyling products in the toiletry section. Gatsby is a maker of beauty care products, specifically for men, and is owned by Osaka based Mandom Corp.
So how does Gatsby Gold deodorant fair against its Gillette and Mennen counterparts?
Gatsby Gold has a pleasant fragrance, but one that diminishes quickly after use. Japanese people consider strong fragrances a bit offensive, so it’s not surprising that their deodorants lack that head slamming nasal shot you get every time you walk past a crowd of teenagers wearing Axe or TAG. Furthermore, most Southeast Asians lack any sort of body odor to begin with, so an olfactory smokescreen is not really what they’re going for.
When might you use Gatsby Gold?
This Gatsby deodorant is probably best used for short trips out of the house, and not for 9-to-5 workdays, riding crowded commuter trains and the like. Personally, I usually forgo the use of pure deodorants and opt for the chalky white stuff (anti-perspirants). I find that staying dry is pretty essential to smelling clean; spray on fragrances do nothing to keep your dry!
Next up, is Gatsby’s Moving Rubber hair wax.
This stuff comes in travel or bathroom sized allotments and is great for adding style and hold to your hairdo. Each type of wax comes with a unique name and container color, and each one is rated by shine and strength on an easy-to-read scale. For instance, the Wild Shake flavor that I’m using right now scores high in strength, but low on shine. This is something Astro Boy might use!
With 4-foot high hairdos being quite the norm in Japan, good hair styling and cleaning products are sold everywhere. In comparison, they’re not quite up to par with their domestic selection of deodorants. Although you can find a few western strength products in Japan, like Axe and Old Spice, those might not be your products of choice (well I’m hoping they’re not!). So when visiting – and I hope you will travel to the Island at least once in your life – you might want to pack a few extra spray cans of whatever you use to mask your explosive barbarian odor!
Juvenile Delinquent is the name of the brand, and their namesake pretty much captures what they’re all about. Typically featuring dark denim with loud ‘Asian’ patterns embroidered on each of their garments, JD appeals to a certain segment of the Japanese market who have adopted and remixed the whole hip-hop/gangsta style.
Some of these jeans interest me greatly as pieces of art, and a few I might even consider owning, but sadly, a lot of what I see from Juvenile Delinquent are items that I just couldn’t pull off wearing on any given day.
Perhaps if I was a low-ranking yakuza solider with a deep tan, cornrows and a budding MMA career, I could walk out of my apartment feeling confident with the whole JD look. But as of now, I’d probably just come off as a bizarre fake gangster/confused foreigner mishmash that would shock and offend everyone around me. Then again, isn’t that often the goal of Japanese youth fashion?!
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