{"id":1017547,"date":"2025-12-10T15:48:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T12:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1017547"},"modified":"2025-12-10T15:48:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T12:48:55","slug":"inside-the-playful-worlds-of-tokyos-young-creatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1017547","title":{"rendered":"Inside the playful worlds of Tokyo\u2019s young creatives"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Interior worlds of Tokyo’s creative gyaru<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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\"Alexandra<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\"Alexandra<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\"Alexandra<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\"waespi_hao_01\"<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\"Alexandra<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\"Alexandra<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Gallery \/ 10 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cTokyo is so often romanticised through the streets, the neon, the chaos, the energy \u2013 but we rarely see the rooms people go home to,\u201d says photographer Alexandra Waespi<\/a>. Her new project, <\/span>The Interior Worlds of Tokyo\u2019s Creative Gyaru<\/span><\/em>, takes us away from the city\u2019s cacophonous exterior and into the bedrooms of young creatives connected to gyaru, otaku and adjacent subcultures.<\/span><\/p>\n

The project began with a trip planned around meeting the nail artists that populate Tokyo\u2019s expressive scene, but Waespi\u2019s curiosity soon led her to the world of gyaru, a subculture emerging in the 1990s that has become known for its playful and often excessive aesthetics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the foundation for the series began to take shape, the photographer dug more deeply into the world. \u201cI found how many misconceptions there are [about gyaru] and how misunderstood it is\u2026it\u2019s not just about cliches of big eyelashes, tanned skin and blonde hair.\u201d Determined to show a real view of Japanese youth subculture and those who pertain to adjacent aesthetics, Waespi started connecting with subjects online.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Photography Alexandra Waespi<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\u201cAs soon as I started meeting people, I saw how huge the spectrum is. Some of the girls identified with gyaru, others more with otaku culture, and some feel outside any label entirely,\u201d Waespi explains. \u201cEach of the girls is an artist in their own right. Sea is a tattoo artist, Hina a textile artist, Minori a model and multidisciplinary artist, Hao works in designing and upcycling, the Onegai twins DJ anime happy-hardcore nights, and Karen works in fashion PR.\u201d What linked the creatives she encountered was a shared freedom in their self-expression.<\/span><\/p>\n

This playfulness emerged in the spaces these creatives call home. Each time one of the girls let Waespi into their room, they opened their doors to a cluttered mix of nail art, makeup, kitschy accessories, colourful beads, and toy dolls. \u201cThe spaces all hold the tools they need to create and build these characters and worlds and identities,\u201d she says. \u201cThey all showed intention and care in how things were arranged, whether the space was minimalist or maximalist. Everything felt purposeful, like nothing was there by accident.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A key influence behind the project comes from Waespi\u2019s long-standing love of photobooks. \u201cOne of my influences was a photobook I found a few years ago at Megutama, this incredible photobook caf\u00e9 in Ebisu,\u201d she says. There, she discovered Masato Seto\u2019s Living Rooms Tokyo<\/em>. \u201cI was intrigued by how he photographed people in their homes, letting them compose themselves however they wanted to be seen without any direction.\u201d She also points to other Tokyo-specific works she admires, including Kyoichi Tsuzuki\u2019s Fashion Victims<\/em>, Hana Shimodate\u2019s Girls Room Diary<\/em>, and Shiori Kawamoto\u2019s Onago Room<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Alexandra<\/span><\/span>
Minori @minori_fujikawa
\nHao @haoarise
\nSea @sea_hirayama
\nKaren @__teayea873__
\nOnegai * twins @kikoeru_ayane and @oyasumi0220
\nHina @hina_beaute
\nProduction Assistant and Translator – kenshu shizuka<\/span><\/span>Photography Alexandra Waespi<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Like the projects she is inspired by, Waespi is driven by a desire to understand her subjects beyond the surface. \u201cFor me, making personal work is a way for me to connect with people I\u2019m curious about and learn from them\u2026 my focus is on the subject and our collaboration, making sure they feel seen on their own terms.\u201d Her approach pushes back against how these scenes are usually documented. \u201cMost portraits of these subcultures show girls photographed in the street, often through a male gaze. I admire how boldly they present themselves publicly but I wanted to understand where that comes from.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In one photo, the Onegai twins proudly stand next to a tilting pink tower of games. As self-proclaimed otakus, the duo are fixated on collecting, their latest triumph is their tower of eroge (\u30a8\u30ed\u30b2) (x-rated video games) they show off to the camera. Also in their collection are Otaku dolls that scatter across their room. \u201cThe characters they idolise are living with them as a source of constant influence.\u201d Waespi adds.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Photography Alexandra Waespi<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kawaii culture has been a dominant aesthetic of Japan since the 1920s, and cuteness has only continued to bloom since then. The appearance of cute objects threads throughout the bedrooms, Hello Kitty<\/a> plushies stack on beds and various cutesy dolls with bewildering eyes and dilated pupils strewn across the floor. Likewise, the photographer recalls encountering \u201cmodern shrines\u201d and \u201csmall altar-like areas\u201d where objects, photos, plushies, and charms were arranged neatly together, while the rest of the space often stayed scattered in paraphernalia. \u201cLots of people view them as their pet and companion\u2026 one plush can feel like an anchor, something steady and personal,\u201d the photographer explains, \u201ca whole group of characters creates a little world around you, a soft space full of imagination. They\u2019re comforting, non-judgmental, and always there\u201d \u2013 a grounding that Waespi feels is most welcomed in a dizzy, vertiginous city like Tokyo.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source URL: https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/article\/69242\/1\/tokyo-young-creatives-alexandra-waespi-gyaru-otaku-kawaii-photographs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interior worlds of Tokyo’s creative gyaru Gallery \/ 10 images \u201cTokyo is so often romanticised through the streets, the neon, the chaos, the energy \u2013 but we rarely see the rooms people go home to,\u201d says photographer Alexandra Waespi. Her new project, The Interior Worlds of Tokyo\u2019s Creative Gyaru, takes us away from the city\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1017548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-1017547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1017547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1017548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1017547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1017547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1017547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}