New People Grand Opening and the J-Pop Summit Festival 2009

The fashion show featured the most established Lolita brand in Japan, Baby The Stars Shine Bright

Earlier this year I learned of a new store that was set to open in August. This store was designed to showcase big names, interests and all other things that make Japanese pop culture so exciting.

Being someone that has been interested in Japanese culture, both traditional and popular, since, oh, the age of 15, this of course piqued my interest. I began to learn more about the store and the festivities planned around the opening including the first annual J-Pop Summit Festival and I knew then that I had to be there to see New People and the J-Pop Summit Festival for myself!

On August 15^th, 2009, after 4 years of planning and $15 million dollars worth of investments, New People finally opened its doors to the public. New People is a 20,000 square foot building with 3 floors of fashion, art, books and food with a cinema located in the basement of the building all dedicated to what is more widely known here as J-Pop. It is located at 1746 Post Street in the heart of San Francisco's Japantown and is the brain child of founder and CEO of Viz Pictures Seiji Horibuchi.

Everything in the store is a work of art in itself with all three floors being laid out and artistically planned, even down to the furniture in the main lobby, so that it encapsulates the feelings and expressions of all things modern Japanese with just the right touch of Americana to create a stunning fusion of Japanese and American design. Even the bathrooms were designed to offer an experience!

The second floor of the building is where you will find the some of the hottest brands and unique fashions being offered in Harajuku now. Current brands being offered in the store include Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Alice and the Pirates, Black Peace Now, 6% Dokidoki and SouSou. And while most of these designers will be offered permanently, they do have plans to bring in others in the future. 

The third floor of the building is where the art gallery happily named Superfrog is located. For opening day this art gallery hosted exclusive prints by none other than Yoshitaka Amano, the man behind the character art for the Final Fantasy Series. His current show called "Deva Loka" and was inspired by American Comics and automobiles. He used a combination of auto paint and metallic glitter in these pieces to accentuate the fusion of his inspirations. "Deva Loka" will only be showing until October 25^th, so be sure to get out there to see it before it makes its way to Japan!

The basement of New People is where Viz Cinema can be found. This cinema is a fully loaded movie theatre and is dedicated strictly to showing the most popular films and anime movies that Japan has to offer. During the grand opening of New People and to round out the J-pop Summit Festival, it hosted the American premiere of 20^th Century Boys. This film has been highly acclaimed around the world but this was its first showing in the US. It was a grand red carpet premiere complete with the heroine of the film, Takako Tokiwa (Yukiji Setoguchi) and the still unidentified "Friend" (if you don’t know who I’m talking about then you best be seeing the film, you will thank me later!) making an appearance and also giving a Q & A session before the screening of the film. 

Other films that were shown this month include the last two films in the 20^th Century Boys Trilogy, The Last Hope and Redemption. Redemption will also simultaneously open in Japan as well as Viz Cinema on August 28^th and run through September.3^rd.  Bleach The Movie saw its first US showing on 8/18 at Viz. The cinema also hosted the official DVD Release of Death Note, L and Change the World, on 8/25!  You can check out vizcinema.com for more information, future show listings and events.

30,000 people turned out to celebrate the Grand Opening of New People and the J-Pop Summit. It was a day long celebration including 4 all-girl bands, a kawaii harajuki make-over contest, a fashion show featuring Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Black Peace Now and various discussion panels with the designers and pop culture icons galore, including Yoshitako Amano.

The 4 bands played in the Peace Plaza across the street of the new store location throughout the day. The bands came straight from Japan and were Red Bacteria Vacuum a 3 piece all-girl punk band from Osaka, Noodles a power-punk quartet from Yokohama, TsuShiMaMiRe, a power-pop band that mixes elements of punk, ska, jazz, funk and rock and Omodaka, a duo mixing traditional Japanese folk music with electronica. The Harajuku Make-Over contest was also held during the open air mini-concert and was hosted by 6% Dokidoki, a designer that practically invented the Harajuku style. The lucky winner of the make-over contest also received a round trip ticket to Harajuku courtesy of Japan Airlines.

In the middle of the celebration the fashion show was held. Personally this was the one event that I was looking forward to the most. The show featured the longest and most established sweet Lolita brand in Japan, Baby, The Stars Shine Bright along with their Gothic Lolita inspired line Alice and the Pirates and one of the most well known gothic brands in the world, Black Peace Now. The Fashion show ran about 2 hours and featured designs specifically catered to their new American audience without losing any of their Japanese style.

BTSSB opened up the runway with various pieces from their massive catalogue of Sweet Lolita ranging from white and pink baby doll dresses coupled with matching 3 inch heals and parasols to pieces resembling what Little Red Riding Hood would wear on her way to grandma’s house. I was particularly taken with the Little Red Riding Hood piece which was beautifully trimmed with white lace and matching red wedge heals. Following BTSSB was Alice and The Pirates, the gothic Lolita brand by the same designer.

If you have not had the chance to familiarize yourself with Black Peace Now, it is time to do so.  This brand in my opinion beautifully captures what gothic fashion is all about.  Just enough angst layered with sophistication and the classic style that gothic fashion has evolved into over the last 10 years or so. Showing outfits that push the edge just enough with short skirts with the ever classic hint of garter coupled with 4 inch platform boots to long flowing gowns with bustles and just the right mixture of black with purple highlights.  The men’s outfits were rather striking as well, with long flowing coats and top hats and beautifully fitted pants with ruffled tops. 

The summit festival is planned to happen each summer and they hope to expect an even greater turn out next year. This year the numbers proved to be much higher than their projections of a 10,000 person turn out, showing that such a store and festival has been wanted and waited on for much longer than the fine people behind the project could have imagined. Many congratulations are in order for all of those that spent so much of their time over the last 4 years to make the Grand Opening of New People and the first J-pop Summit Festival such a huge success. It really was an experience I will never forget and I duly intend on attending again next year. In the meantime I will be saving up my dollars so that next year I will be able to bring home a few pieces from my most favorite designer of the day, Black Peace Now. Now that they are being offered in America I have no excuse to own at least one of their beautiful pieces. If only I could afford to buy out the whole store, I would die a happy Ruby…

Be sure to check out their website at newpeopleworld.com for updates and more information of all their events that they have planned throughout the year. And mark your calendars for next year’s J-pop summit.  It surely is a celebration not to be missed.

Also, keep your eyes out for GB Issue #29 where we will have our very own interviews with the two designers featured at this year's festival, Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Black Peace Now.  (Photos by Tawny Guidi)