Fruits (magazine)

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Fruits (stylized "FRUiTS") was a monthly Japanese street fashion magazine founded in 1997 by photographer Shoichi Aoki. Though FRUiTS covered styles found throughout Tokyo, it is associated most with the fashion subcultures found in Tokyo's Harajuku district. The magazine primarily focused on unique, individual styles found outside the fashion mainstream, as well as subcultures specific to Japan, such as lolita and ganguro, and local interpretations of larger subcultures like punk and goth.

Video Fruits (magazine)

Content

FRUiTS featured a simple layout, with the bulk of the magazine made up of single full-page photographs accompanied by a brief profile of the photographed person, which included their age, social position, and a description of what brands they were wearing (if applicable), as well as their self-described "point of fashion" (style inspiration). Most issues included only a couple of advertisements, and typically only for local businesses. Some issues of FRUiTS also included more extensive profiles of frequently photographed people or magazine staff, or reader-created artwork.

Maps Fruits (magazine)

Western reception

FRUiTS helped lead Western interest in Japanese fashion, as some of its photographs became first popular in the fashion community, then synonymous with Harajuku fashion in the West.

A selection of photographs from its earlier issues were showcased in the books Fruits (2001) and Fresh Fruits (2005), both published by Phaidon Press. An exhibition of Aoki's photographs for the magazine, developed by the Powerhouse Museum, has toured museums in Australia and New Zealand.

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Closure

After 20 years and 233 issues, Shoichi Aoki announced in February 2017 that FRUiTS magazine would cease publication because "there are no more cool kids to photograph".