purple tokyo (part 5)

purple tokyo Japan has been a major inspiration to Purple since the beginning: first of all, for its traditional printing and paper culture, and fascinating graphic visual language. Second, because of Comme des Garçons and its revolutionary impact on fashion, as well as Tokyo street culture. Japan also represented a mysterious photographic world, with its dark, urban, and erotic aesthetic from the ’60s and ’70s avant-garde. Two of its main figures, Nobuyoshi Araki and Daido Moriyama, would later contribute to Purple. Early on, we also started collaborating with the emerging generation of photo- graphers that included Hiromix and Takashi Homma. For a decade, we had a Purple boutique in the center of Tokyo, where the magazine continues to have a strong presence.