Girls Walker has announced the beginning of the search for the next Miss Tokyo Girls Collection, the finale event for the now famous biannual “real fashion” festival. This is the ultimate opportunity for a would-be reader model, not only to grace the pages of one’s favorite magazine, but to actually join the stage with top teen fashion icons.
Unlike traditional pageants, where the winner is selected by a panel of “expert judges,” Miss TGC is eventually chosen from a panel of peers: the girls in the audience who can vote with their mobile phones.
The role is a springboard for modeling success not only in Japan but in East Asia as well, as the real fashion movement, driven by a TGC now held in Beijing, is making serious inroads into China. Despite lingering sensitivities between the two countries, which can sometimes hinder cross-border success, the sheer popularity of the style has made Tokyo Girls’ fashion, and the faces supporting it, a hit among young women and teens in urban China.
On a similar note, OTTO Corp. has announced the June 1st opening of the OTO-Tokyo Selection boutique in Shanghai. The select shop features Tokyo fashion labels, like Maison Gilfy, ReDark, and Glad News that show at TGC and have boutiques in Shibuya 109, and promises that new items will hit the racks on the same schedule as the Tokyo stores. OTTO has also announced plans to open 20 such boutiques in China by 2012.
