AOHARU for Men and Women

Written by: Gigi Bing

While much of the world looks to Europe as the hub of fashion, one should not turn their eye away from the East where exotic and unconventional ideas make powerful statements in apparel. By fusing eastern and western concepts, Japanese fashion is youthful, fun, and playful in its contemporary styles while it is stately and noble in its traditional forms.

The influence of Japanese fashion culture is now no longer debated. It is assumed. We see it featured in fashion magazines, in music video, on catwalks. The unique, new fashion sense of Japanese youth caused a revolution in fashion, music and retail in Japan. That influence has now reached Second Life.

Asymmetrical clothes with bold cuts and exotic accessories are the latest trends in Japanese fashion. SL fashion designer Machang Pichot has captured Japan's fashion trends in her Aoharu traditional and modern clothing lines. Her store is stocked with Japanese-influenced women’s and men’s apparel consisting of beautiful vibrant color combinations that demand your attention, to bold and trendy colored shoes, to innovative and sophisticated hair styles, to exotic flawless skins.

inVogue: How did you become interested in fashion design? Describe your background and explain how you ended up creating the Aoharu line.
Machang Pichot: The very first shop I opened in Second Life was a Kimono shop. Because I am Japanese and I thought creating and introducing Japanese traditional things would be nice. Since I love fashion in real life, soon I started to feel the desire to design mode/casual clothing too. In February 2008, the birth of AOHARU Sim, and that was when I started to design casual clothes. For me the clothing is a bridge; it helps me to communicate with variety of people. In Real Life, I am an illustrator working for TV programs and such. I love how the lines make shapes. In the AOHARU LINE, I put emphasis on beautiful form. Beautifully formed dresses make people happy, don't they? I will try my hardest to keep making even more beautiful clothing.

inVogue: Describe the Aoharu style, like a good friend of yours would describe it.
Machang Pichot: I'd describe the characteristic of AOHARU as its form and colors. Because of my RL profession, which is an illustrator, I always try to design clothes in beautiful form and colors.

inVogue: What is your most favorite item from your fashion line.
Machang Pichot: I'd pick AOHARU Chiffon Flower Dress. I had this inspiration to make a dress that you can feel flowers when I had a walk in a flower garden when I was on vacation. I designed it as the flowers wrapping around your body and chose some pale colors as they were in for the season.

inVogue: Where do you find your inspiration to design your beautiful garments, shoes, and skins?
Machang Pichot: I love fairy tales such as Alice in Wonderland. My creations are a nice mixture of trend and imagination. For my skins, I make what I'd like to look like, as in skin tones and makeup patterns and such.

inVogue: Do you spend a lot of time researching your collections or is it a whim or a fancy like you walk around and see something and it just grabs you?
Machang Pichot: I don't spend much time on researching. You see a lot of girls in different fashion in Harajuku, Tokyo, and that's where I hang out in a lot. Maybe that's where and when I get to research for my creations as I walk around. The very first thing I do is let my imagination work, remembering the things that I got inspirations from, and put them on the paper, and then I design my clothes from the sketches I make.

inVogue: When you see people either wearing your clothes, skins, etc. How does that make you feel?
Machang Pichot: That makes me very, very happy. That may be the happiest moment in Second Life to meet people wearing my creations, because it proves that they are pleased with my creativity.

inVogue: Can you describe an evolution in your work from your first creation to the present day?
Machang Pichot: In the beginning, I was making Kimonos, then on to casual clothing. My earlier clothes are not so realistic in shading. My customers told me that my creations remind them of Anime. On the other hand my recent creations, I make them as realistic as they can be, and have more shading as well. I love making clothes that has cuteness and beauty as well as a Japanese touch.

inVogue: How would you define what is and what isn't a trend in fashion?
Machang Pichot: Generally speaking, a trend is something that the majority of people would like to wear for the season. I believe everyone has their own favorites, and that would make them their trend, so what I like would make it my trend.

inVogue: Describe the current state of Japanese fashion and where do you believe it is heading?
Machang Pichot: Japanese fashion is hybrid. It is a blend of the trends of fashionistas from abroad with our own trend then changed it to fit our small figures. There are a lot of girls who refer to petite fashionistas such as Nicole Richie. I believe that there will be more original and unique styles in our trend.

inVogue: How do the people of Japan view fashion compared to other countries?
Machang Pichot: We have loads of fashion brands from abroad here in Japan, so as you walk through the city you'll see both of our own fashion trend and that from abroad. There's also a variety of fashion magazines here and we love reading them. And of course from the movies we see a lot of different fashion styles.

inVogue: Where do you see AOHARU heading to in the future?
Machang Pichot: I love making clothes that make others happy, and will continue to do so. I will try my best to make clothes with cute forms and textures for AOHARU.


Machang has proven herself to be a designer that is not afraid to push the envelope within her collection. She has taken a culture and poured that into her AOHARU collection. A look which can be defined as contemporary, futuristic and appealing to the global SL fashionistas.

AOHARU
http://slurl.com/secondlife/AOHARU/119/124/24