What Happens When Japan’s Most Famous Rock Star Becomes A Fashion Designer

Have you ever wondered what it might look like if Japan’s most famous rock star created a line of designer kimonos? Me neither. But I found out the answer to this question after a spontaneous trip to Tokyo, which entailed a six-day binge on heavy metal, avant-garde fashion, and general cultural-immersion radness (with, of course, some traditional karaoke peppered in on the side). And who doesn’t want to know what that’s like? Yoshikimono is the brainchild and kimono line of Yoshiki, the leader of the heavy metal band, X Japan. If you’re unfamiliar, let’s just say it’s impossible to overemphasize their cultural significance. As Gene Simmons, leader of the band KISS, said himself, “If those guys were born in America, they might be the biggest band in the world.” Yoshiki and his bandmates created the “Visual Kei” movement, which some compare to Japan’s version of Glam Rock, but would more appropriately be described as heavy metal-meets-steampunk-meets-David Bowie, with their wardrobe something of the outer space, both 100 years into the future and 100 years in the past, in an alternate universe mostly renowned for its unlimited supply of makeup. More succinctly, you can’t really put a finger on it; and when you see it in person, you sort of don’t even care to try. X Japan leads this movement with borderline mythical status, and according to a U.K.-based publicist, the only comparable modern phenomena in terms of fan dedication is “Beatlemania in the ’60s.” In other words, Yos