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March 29, 2025
 

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Samuel Thomas

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Samuel Thomas
Samuel Thomas is a fashion writer and lecturer in fashion media at Bunka Gakuen University. He regularly contributes to The Japan Times, among other publications, and provides consultancy services to industry clients.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jun 9, 2014
Young designer opportunities, plus new lines for older brands
Designers, get ready to get crazy
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
May 12, 2014
Harajuku and Omotesando: Where pop and luxury fashion are friendly neighbors
A Fashionable 'pearing'
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Apr 7, 2014
Anrealage and Christian Dada round up Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Tokyo
The Anrealage experiment continues Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Tokyo wrapped up with some off-schedule shows at the end of March, which included popular local brand Anrealage.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 29, 2014
Fashion Week Tokyo: menswear's mixed messages
Designers continue to break new ground
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 29, 2014
Fashion Week Tokyo: opening the floodgates
International brands are no longer shunning the country's biannual collections
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Mar 10, 2014
Fashion week is here again; see what the ordinary folk are invited to
Don't miss out on Tokyo Fashion Week
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Feb 10, 2014
Great collaborations — Etro x Ninagawa; sumo x Sasquatchfabrix; Common Sleeve x almost everyone — plus Valentine's tips
Mika Ninagawa updates Etro's paisley, sumo stable Kokonoe-beya branches out to street fashion, while Common Sleeve mix and matches with more than 30 brands.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jan 13, 2014
The avant-garde of old and new, plus a quick reminder that the 'real' sales are nigh
In November last year, Issey Miyake opened an extra-large Omotesando shop called "Reality Lab," which features his more experimental lines all under one roof. These include 132 5., a wearable line of origami-folded clothing cut from fabric derived from recycled PET bottles, and IN-EI, a line of pleated...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 9, 2013
Otaku culture gets under the skin
Tattoos in Japan have long moved on from the kind often romanticized by the West — that imagery of flamboyant yakuza that so many seem reluctant to relinquish. But a brief glance at the policies of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto reveals a nation still unwilling to allow tattoos into mainstream society...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Dec 9, 2013
December offers Tokyo style and makeup shows, plus even more new high-end stores
Fashionably made up with Shiseido
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Nov 11, 2013
Huge headwear, film shorts and the fashion in between
Uniqlo gives the fleece a makeover
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 26, 2013
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: No longer an outsider
The last day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo coincided with the Shibuya Fashion Festival, a platform for designers feeling constrained by the limitations of the official venue at Hikarie. As it was, the only condition placed on the participating designers' means of presentation was that they be open...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 26, 2013
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: Walking the line
The menswear schedule looked somewhat lacking on paper this season at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo. The big names that would normally take the lead in international coverage — namely, Takeshi Osumi's post-Phenomenon project, Mr.Gentleman, or the internationally friendly Whiz Limited — were...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 10, 2013
Fashion Week's side shows give the public a rare seat next to their runways
Next week is Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo but, chances are, you’re not invited. Before that teen trauma of being excluded sets in, don’t panic — there’s a ton of alternative events to get dolled up for.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 10, 2013
Etw.Vonneguet designer draws inspiration from Pina Bausch for new collection
Under the alias "Olga," the Japanese designer behind Etw.Vonneguet has long been part of the official Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo, all the while challenging the institution by opening public auditions for models and welcoming anyone to her shows. This time she will break away from the official event...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON: FASHION
Oct 7, 2013
Madstore, Christian Dada, Alexander Wang make Tokyo debuts, while Parco pushes the envelope
Alexander Wang lands in Aoyama
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON: FASHION
Sep 9, 2013
Louis Vuitton celebrates its muses, while Control Bear heads its own store
Louis Vuitton is celebrating six of its designer's 'muses' in an interactive exhibition at the Tokyo Station Hotel. 'Timeless Muses' honors supermodel Kate Moss, film director Sofia Coppola, French actress Catherine Deneuve, novelist Franu00e7oise Sagan, architect Charlotte Perriand and, to bring the 'timeless' into context, 19th-century French Empress consort Eugu00e9nie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Aug 12, 2013
Color-changing fashion, Hedi Slimane's first Saint Laurent collection, 99%IS' unusual "macs" and newcomers to Harajuku
'A Color Un Color,' the second show in a 'Philosophical Fashion' series of exhibitions at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, is featuring one of the most exciting brands to come out of Japan in the past decade: Anrealage.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jul 8, 2013
This month's genuine pearls of fashion wisdom
Pearls of fashion win a Guinness World Record
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 2, 2013
Let's talk 100 percent kawaii!
Long before the mayor of Shibuya announced pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu as an official ambassador of kawaii culture, Sebastian Masuda, her art director, had been on a mission to spread "kawaii culture" across the world, advocating it as not only a potent source of Japan's emerging soft power, but also...
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
Massive quake kills at least 150 in Myanmar and Thailand
Medical workers treat a earthquake survivor on a bed in the compound of a hospital in Naypyitaw on Friday, after an earthquake in central Myanmar.
Student suicides in Japan hit all-time high
A volunteer handles an incoming call at the Tokyo Befrienders call center, a suicide hotline center in Japan's capital.
Tourist submarine sinks in Red Sea of Egypt, leaving 6 people dead
The interior of a Sindbad submarine vessel at sea off Hurghada, Egypt, in August 2024, in this still image obtained from video.
Yellow sand blankets cities across Japan
The Meteorological Agency forecast the yellow sand to move away from eastern Honshu by 6 p.m. on Wednesday. But it will continue to cover parts of western Honshu and Shikoku until Thursday morning, it said.
Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.
Hanami season to have record ¥1.39 trillion economic impact on Japan
Cherry blossoms along a road in Tokyo on Tuesday. The 2025 cherry blossom season is expected to have an economic impact of around ¥1.39 trillion on Japan.
Tokyo Series proves to be big business for MLB — and Japanese companies
An advertisement featuring Shohei Ohtani in Tokyo.
New SDF command will be key for contingency planning, Australian commander says
A Maritime Self-Defense Force SH-60K "Super Auk" from JS Shiranui prepares to land on HMAS Brisbane during Exercise Malabar 2023 while off the coast of New South Wales, Australia.
Japanese wages likely to rise more than 5% again this year
Wages are set for another big increase this year as annual negotiations secure generous agreements.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties
By Anton L. Delgado

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