Anime Expo: Fashion Show & Shops

anime expo gold infinity

Hello! This year I was fortunate enough to be able to get a press badge for my husband and myself to attend Anime Expo 2014. We went on Friday and Saturday.

With that said, let’s get on with today’s post! In this post we will focus on the AX Fashion Show & Shops. There were four brands that came over from Japan — SwankissKOKOkimGhost of Harlem, and Golds Infinity.

Swankiss

anime expo 2014 swankiss

If you like Liz Lisa, you will like Swankiss’ clothes. Everything is very romantic and sweet. The designer is Saaya Hayashida, and this is their first overseas fashion show!

Swankiss’ lovely shop staff. Bottom right is Sachiko, you can visit her blog here.

anime expo 2014 swankiss

KOKOkim

anime expo kokokim

You gotta f*cking love pink and pastels. Omg, I can’t do it, it’s too much for me. I was overwhelmed just looking at their booth, lol.

I didn’t take a picture of any shop staff for KOKOkim since I didn’t see any cute dressed up ones at the time of my visit.

anime expo kokokim

Ghost of Harlem 

anime expo ghost of harlem

And here we have Ghost of Harlem. This brand has a very punk rock, bad girl, street wear, sorta vibe. I’m diggin’ it, and sort of sad I didn’t really get the chance to check out their booth more.

anime expo ghost of harlem

Cute shop staff. Haha, I wasn’t sure exactly who was working and who was shopping, so I only got this one worker. Yea, I was very out of it at AX. 

anime expo ghost of harlem

Golds Infinity 

anime expo gold infinity

I always think of this brand as trendy and elegant. Definitely has a more mature feel making it appropriate for oneegyaru style. I bought a few items from their shop last year when they were at AX.

This year I wanted to buy this really cute black skirt, but I was sort of offended by the shop staff and figured that I’d just save my $80.

Our conversation went something like this:

What size is this skirt? Size small, maybe a 0 or 1.
Hmm… I wear those sizes… Oh, then it’s probably a double zero.

Haha, whatever. Guess that just means I need to loose more weight. Friggin’ Japanese clothes always make me feel fat!

anime expo gold infinity

All four of these brands can actually be purchased through YesAsia.com, but there isn’t a wide enough of a selection on there in my opinion. Ughh, can these Japanese brands just ship overseas directly from their websites already??

Fashion Show 

There were a ton of people who attended the show, and it lasted about 3-4 hours. The photo below is what the stage set up looked like. There was a non-elevated catwalk down the center through the seated audience.

anime expo ax 2014 gyaru lolita fashion show

I actually got to AX a little late and also had trouble finding the location of the show! So I missed all of the brands except for Golds Infinity. Here are the outfits that were worn for Golds Infinity’s fashion runway show.

anime expo ax 2014 gyaru lolita fashion show

After all of the brands were presented, Kimura U came out and did an introduction and even sang! She’s the designer of KOKOkim, and is also the Japanese Kawaii Ambassador. I gotta admit, that’s a pretty awesome title. She deserves every bit of it because she looks as if she walked right out of My Melody world, haha.

anime expo ax 2014 gyaru lolita fashion show

Once her performance was over, we proceeded to my favorite part of the fashion show, Kawaii International’s contest for a prospective kawaii leader! All of the voting is done online through Facebook, but they presented a few of the top contestants at AX.

anime expo ax 2014 gyaru lolita fashion show

Five different contestants walked down the runway and answered some questions.

The first one was Little Miss Lydia. She told us that her style was more of a dolly Alice in Wonderland look. The dress that she is wearing is a Swankiss & Milk collaboration heart apron dress and blouse set. I believe she also said that she loves to wear black thigh-high socks and that her most favorite part of her outfit is her leg accessory. I actually have the exact same leg garter from Creepyyeha.

At one point during her interview, she told us about a conversation that she had one time that went like this:

Why do you eat such cute food? Well, you are what you eat! 🙂

Haha, that one really stuck with me.

anime expo ax 2014 gyaru lolita fashion show

The second contestant that was introduced was this girl below. I’m sorry as I don’t know her name, but I can tell you that she was my husbands favorite out of the bunch! She probably had the best personality and seemed the most real. The fashion style that she was going for was sort of princess like. Also she is not wearing a wig! That’s her real hair and she has had it pink for many many years. She also buys vintage clothing and sometimes alters them too. What a cool girl.

UPDATE: I’ve been notified that her name is Sabrina Gruner!! Thanks, Christine!

anime expo ax 2014 gyaru lolita fashion show

Third we had a gyaru walk the stage. I would say that she was the only gyaru out of the bunch. She’s so skinny and tall! It made me mildly jealous. Apparently she was also in the fashion show prior to this portion of the event. I remember her telling the host about how she is already used to walking the catwalk and that it’s “easy.” The host’s response back to her was somewhat sarcastic… lol. It was an awkward moment for me to watch, as I know that in Japanese culture it’s preferred to be humble and not to boast. But other than that, I loved her style, and she sure does know how to pose! She couldn’t really pick a favorite part of her outfit, however she did mention that she owns many plaid skirts.

anime expo ax 2014 gyaru lolita fashion show

Our fourth guest to come out was Yanise Cabrera. She was dressed in lolita fashion. As she walked down the runway, she surprised us by opening up her umbrella! Yanise’s entire outfit was comprised of dozens of bows from head to toe. Quite lovely, even though I am not into lolita.

anime expo ax 2014 gyaru lolita fashion show

Our last contestant to walk the catwalk was Audra Jayne. She really reminds me of one of those hardcore ravers. What blew me away more than her outfit was her voice! She has a naturally very animated high pitch voice that sounds very cartoony. I’m not even sure if it’s real though. On her outfit, she hangs a bunch of little stuffed animals. Her favorite one is the caterpillar whose name is “Inch.”

anime expo ax 2014 gyaru lolita fashion show

All of these girls were very unique in their own way, and very different from one another. I was surprised by the wide range of fashion that they had picked. I was actually hoping to see more gyaru fashion if anything.

anime expo ax 2014 gyaru lolita fashion show

Fashion wise, my favorite was the 1st and 3rd, but personality goes to the 2nd and maybe the 5th because she’s so weird.

Which contestant is your favorite? Which brand is your favorite?

Follow on Bloglovin

Thanks for reading!
xoxo Sarah

10 Replies to “Anime Expo: Fashion Show & Shops”

  1. Whoa! I’m surprised at the conversation you had with the shop staff cuz you look super skinny to me wtf! Weird too because most of the shop staff at AX are from the states.

    But so jealous you got to go to AX! Definitely looking forward to your next posts. 😀

    Btw, just recently got notified that I’ll be moving to bldg 8. Hopefully we can try to grab lunch more often! 🙂

    1. haha yea~ it was an awkward conversation. i think she was from the states? idk, i dont think she really meant it to be mean… because that’s horrible! but i was a little bothered. oh well. i did weigh myself recently and have found that i gained 10-15 lbs, omg! so maybe she’s right =P

      ahhh!! and happy to hear that you are moving to my building! hope to hang out more then. i’ve been meaning to msg you via jabber, but i’ve been so busy @_@

  2. You’re my favorite, S’rah! S’rah’s fashion A++ who cares about those other people whatever.

    1. ahaha thanks, you make my day always 🙂

  3. The girl your husband liked was Sabrina Gruner!

    Did you leave after the NHK thing? Because Ghost of Harlem and Kokokim had their part after~

    1. Oh thanks for letting me know. I will update my post to include her name 🙂

      And yes, I ended up leaving afterwards. I didn’t know that Ghost of Harlem and KOKOkim went on afterwards T-T Wish I could have seen Ghost of Harlem!! Ah well~

  4. OMG I can’t believe that one girl’s hair is REAL! It’s so shiny and long! D: To top it off, it’s PINK?! Idk how she manages to do all that dying without damaging her hair *so jealous* >:3

    1. haha yea i know! i’m so jealouss~ i wish i could have beautiful pink hair. i think for me to get that light of a blonde my super fine hair would fall right off my head T-T

  5. “If you like Liz Lisa, you will like Swankiss’ clothes.” I have to disagree. Swankiss is gaudy, tacky, and more than anything REALLY REALLY BADLY cut and made with cheap fabrics. I wear almost nothing but Liz Lisa but looking at Swankiss’s website I laughed with my mom for a good 20 minutes at how bad everything looked.

    1. I don’t wear either since it’s too girly for me. I do however believe that they are in a similar genre, despite the fact that the quality of Liz Lisa is better than Swankiss’. Anyways, thanks for letting me know~ I’ll keep that in mind when I’m in Japan this month! I might actually buy one Liz Lisa outfit for the heck of it when I’m there, lol.

Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.