Hasta La Gadget!

This season’s Tokyo Girls Collection took place last Saturday at Yoyogi Stadium in Harajuku, attracting around 23,100 followers of fashion. See our Spring 2009 and 2008 coverage to get catch up on the concept of the TGC.

Despite the Tokyo in the name, we discovered by chatting with the girls waiting to get in that many had come from regional areas around Japan. Nor is the word “girls” in the title entirely accurate either; now in its 9th season, the original TGC crowd is growing up, meaning with regulars and newbies together the age demographic is broadening to include kids and full-fledged adults. This year’s theme was “The Hunting,” a recession-friendly message that suggests zeroing in on the object of one’s desire (as opposed to unbridled consumerism or ceasing to shop altogether).

Girls who shop in Shinjuku (left); girls who came in from Osaka (right).

Over the years we’ve watched the TGC move from an event that showcases popular fashion brands to a platform for launching new brands in Japan—both Kitson and Nicky Hilton have given preview shows on the TGC runway. Now the event is becoming a brand in its own right. The most recent edition was as much about promoting new TGC collaboration items as it was about setting new fashion trends for the season. Said collaborations include branded stockings and beverages for Lawson convenience stores, a faux leather jacket for Uniqlo, and new cup noodle flavors for Knorr.

Tokyo Girls Collection collaboration items now on sale at Uniqlo.

When it comes to fashion the TGC has an obvious authority—being a trend-setting event about fashion—and it is now looking to parlay that authority into the ever-blurring industries of health, beauty, food, and beverage. With the Knorr noodle campaign, the TGC is playing up the concept of “bishoku” (beautiful food), which encourages girls to select healthier food and beverage options as a means to enhance inner, and thus outer, beauty. While cup-noodles might not be the healthiest staple food in the world, consumers can expect that the TGC-branded cup noodles will be at least less figure-damaging than other similar products on the market (ditto the coffee drinks). All TGC-branded goods are low calorie, stylishly packaged, and designed to suit the lifestyle of the modern urban girl (who needs coffee and a spare pair of tights to go, naturally).

Innovative cross-industry campaigns have overshadowed the TGC’s original claim to fame—that audience members can buy items off the runway with their mobile phones. Rest-assured there was still plenty of mobile fun to be had: this season featured a number of free samples, contests, and games to be experienced by swiping one’s phone on IC card readers at points around the venue. We particularly liked the promotion for the Tokyo Girls Parade, which we reported on earlier here. Event guests could pull up the site on their mobiles by scanning an IC card reader or a QR code and create their own dolled-up avatars.

Once uploaded, the fashion-forward doppelgangers could hit the runway in proper, larger-than-life TGC style on a large TV screen set up for the promotion.