Ai Tominaga Is All Over the Place

Tiffany Godoy wants to get inside the heads of Tokyo’s style provocateurs. (As if she didn’t already do that with her books Style Deficit Disorder and Japanese Goth). The Tokyo-based fashion writer took a handful of street-snap darlings—from supermodel Ai Tominaga to an earnest young musician fresh from the suburbs of Nagoya—into the designer showroom of their choice. Among the likes of Yohji Yamamoto and Balmain, they picked out their favorite pieces to pair with items from their own closets. The self-styled results, along with musings and interviews, fill the pages of Godoy’s new magazine, The Reality Show.

“People are less interested in fashion right now than they are in fashion culture—street snaps and models off-duty," Godoy told us when we came around for a sneak peek. "This was a way to put these people into an editorial world and figure out how to connect really creative designers with young people and how we as a society live now.”

More art project than magazine, The Reality Show is a collection of sleek, slim black-and-white folios with dramatic, Japanese calligraphy-inspired type designed by art director Tomoyuki Yonezu. Godoy has plans for subsequent seasonal editions, each featuring new casts of characters. In the meantime she’s content to fete the launch of her most personal project yet. This week saw a bash at Tokyo party spot Le Baron, with Tominaga making a surprise appearance behind the decks. Next month… Mexico City? “I know, it’s on the fringe,” Godoy said, “but that’s been my story all along. I didn’t go to New York, or to Paris. I came to Tokyo instead.”

The Reality Show issue #1, ¥2100 (about $20) at Restir.com

• Posted Jul 06, 2010
• Comment
  Tweet