‘Happy Victims, You Are What You Buy’ by Kyoichi Tsuzuki
Seigensha, Kyoto, 2008. 178 pp., 85 color illustrations, 10½x8″.
Happy Victims is a photo book that profiles Japanese individuals who are obsessed with one particular designer. In the book collectors range from a Buddhist monk who visits his Tokyo condo filled with Comme des Garcons religiously once a month to an instructor at Bunka Fashion College who goes by the name “Maestro Margiela”. The caption underneath his portrait proclaims that he would rather eat out than risk infusing his clothes with cooking smells so he keeps only eardrops in the refrigerator and has never used the cooker.
The book is part of a large body of photojournalist work by Tsuzuki that includes his seminal work ‘Tokyo Style.’ Looking through Happy Victims sheds light on the sacrifices and eccentricities of the obessed Japanese fashion collector. Fashion often criticized for only highlighting the glitz and glamor of the runway; this book only strives to capture clothes in their most honest of settings : the home.
You can purchase a copy HERE