Samurai Girl

Hello Kitty meets CatWoman in Samurai Girl, a collection of hyper-colorful, hyper-playful photographs and graphics from the Tokyo-based fashion photographer Julie, a 25-year-old descendant of an ancient samurai family and ex-pop idol in Japan. The samurai girls in these pages re-interpret the kawaii (cute) look with a dose of Lara Croft to make themselves the ultimate Japanese Lolitas-fatales. Are they sex kittens, live Barbie dolls, cosmic superstars, pop idols, Godzilla schoolgirls or geishas? All of the above. Samurai Girl combines youth fantasy fashion with radical trends, club culture chic and a manga aesthetic, at once documenting and accelerating a new Japanese underground, one that will style the world. Julie has collaborated with some of the most influential style leaders of the otaku manga and anime scenes, and her photographs and designs have gained cult status in Tokyo.