Shoichi Aoki's Contemporary Fashion and the Matrix of 90s Fashion Documentation
Lately, I often find myself returning to one incredible Japanese fashion publication of the 1990s – Contemporary Fashion. Created by Shoichi Aoki, later of Fruits fame, Contemporary Fashion spanned 7 issues, released between the years of 1995-1998. As almost every fashion enthusiast these days is more than familiar with Fruits and its ensuing lore, I thought it might be more helpful to take a deeper dive into its predecessors.
The first iteration of these early fashion journals by Aoki was New Generation Designers / ニュージェネレーション・デザイナーズ. Released in two special volumes, they documented Paris Fashion week in Fall 1993 and Fall 1994, capturing runway styles from designers such as Xuly Bet, Jean Colonna, Martin Margiela, and Ann Demeulemeester.
New Generation Designers No.2, 1994
From these two initial special editions came Contemporary Fashion / コンテンポラリーファッション, produced in the same glossy, y2k-esque graphic style. This publication, running seven total issues, serves as one of the best sources of documentation of mid-90s Japanese and European fashion, particularly underground-leaning and artisanal designers, mostly unknown at the time. Furthermore, Aoki's incredible, full-bleed photographs capture runway looks in a deadpan, tungsten-coated aura.
Martin Margiela Spring-Summer 1996, Contemporary Fashion No. 3
Alexander McQueen Spring-Summer 1996, Contemporary Fashion No. 3
Each publication would focus on one season of Paris Fashion Week, which Aoki would travel to, along with editor-in-chief Noriko Kojima, twice a year. Alongside images from Paris fashion week, Tokyo Fashion week was also included, documenting some of the earliest shows and presentations from domestic designers such as 20471120, Shinichiro Arakawa, and Christopher Nemeth.
Christohper Nemeth Spring-Summer 1994, Contemporary Fashion no. 1
Aoki's magnificent photography was always the highlight of each issue, dedicating anywhere from 3-10 spreads for a selected range of designers, usually focusing on more underground or emerging talent at the time. The first few issues also included a 'Chat' section, featuring a discussion between Aoki, Kojima, and Takeharu Hirakawa (of Mode Clinicier) discussing the season's looks. Also included in vols. 1 and 5 are interviews with Christopher Nemeth, Walter Van Beirendonck and Marc Le Bihan, presented bilingually in Japanese and English.
Interview with Walter Van Beirendonck, Contemporary Fashion no. 5
These publications are unfortunately becoming rarer and rarer to find physically, with some issues hitting the 200-300 USD range for resale. Regardless, I have been lucky enough to source two physical copies (of the total seven volumes), nos. 2 and 3:
Contemporary Fashion nos. 2 & 3
While Aoki would go on to produce the long running STREET peroidical, as well as Fruits, any enthusiast of fashion history would serve themselves well to dig into Aoki's magnificent 90s archives captured in these two series of publications.
STREET advertisement, Contemporary fashion no. 1
If you're interested in digging deeper into these issues yourself, every digitized version can be purchased on Aoki's website here.