W ith his big brown eyes and permanent pout, Nicola Formichetti doesn't look like the kind of guy to battle his way to the top of the bitchy world of fashion. But that is exactly where this super-stylist is -- flick through the phonebook-size fashion mags on the shelves on any given month and you're sure to come across his name before too long.

Born in Japan to Italian and Japanese parents, he grew up between the two countries before moving to London at age 19. After working at an avant-garde boutique, he began styling fashion shoots for Dazed & Confused magazine and now, at 29, he is the cult magazine's Senior Fashion Editor, as well as a regular contributor to such style bibles as V, Another, i-D and Teen Vogue.

Then there are those lucrative corporate clients like Prada, Missoni, D&G, Nike and H&M, for whom Formichetti styles ad campaigns or works as a creative consultant. This week he is in Tokyo for the launch of British retail giant Topshop, and its menswear counterpart Topman, in Harajuku's youth-style mecca, Laforet, where he works for Side by Side, a store that champions cutting-edge designers from London.