is a former computer programmer, now Japanese photographer, and creator of the magazines ''STREET,'' ''TUNE,'' and ''

FRUiTS In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

.'' He also subsequently created the ''Fruits'' and ''Fresh Fruits'' (collections of Japanese street fashion) photo books as a way of offering his photos to the foreign market.

Life and work

Aoki was born in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. He went abroad in the 1980s, where he first started taking photos of London's nonconforming street fashion scene. Aoki then moved back to Tokyo, where he started STREET magazine in 1985. He began documenting

street fashion Street style is fashion that is considered to have emerged not from studios, but from the population at large. Street fashion is generally associated with youth culture, and is most often seen in major urban centers. Magazines and newspapers co ...

in Tokyo's fashionable

Harajuku is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo. Harajuku is the common name given to a geographic area spreading from Harajuku Station to Omotesandō, Tokyo, Omotesando, corresponding on official maps of Shibuya, Tokyo, Shibuya ward as Jingūmae 1 Japanese a ...

area in the mid-1990s when he noticed a marked change in how young people dressed. Rather than following European and American trends, people were customizing elements of traditional Japanese dress—

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...

, obi sashes, and

geta Geta may refer to: Places *Geta (woreda), a woreda in Ethiopia's Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region *Geta, Åland, a municipality in Finland *Geta, Nepal, a town in Attariya Municipality, Kailali District, Seti Zone, Nepal *Get� ...

sandals—and combining them with handmade, secondhand, and alternative designer fashion in an innovative DIY approach to dressing. In 1997, Aoki founded the monthly magazine ''FRUiTS,'' now a cult

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

with an international following, to record and celebrate the freshness of fashion in Harajuku.

Publications

Magazines

* ''STREET'' (began in 1985) * ''

.'' (began in 1997) * ''TUNE'' (began in 2004) * ''.RUBY'' (began in 2012)

Books

*''Fruits.'' Phaidon, 2001. . *''Fresh Fruits.'' Phaidon, 2005. . *''Street London 1985-1996.'' 2017.

References

External links

ABC interview with Aoki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aoki, Shoichi Japanese editors Photographers from Tokyo 20th-century Japanese photographers 21st-century Japanese photographers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)