Who said that being a fashion victim is bad?  For the journalist, photographer and  art curator, Kyoichi Tsuzuki , they are happy people!  During years he traveled around Japan looking for obsessed people that by only one special fashion designer to do pictures of them in their minuscule apartments rounded by their precious collections to publish in the magazine Ryuko Tsushin. Now he organizes an exposition in the National Museum of Modern Art of Kyoto called Happy Victims.

The images are impressive, healthy thousands of clothes and accessories everywhere: in the ground, walls and tables.  The most lawful, however, is knowing  the story of each.

A Buddhist monk, by example, goes to Tokyo religiously every month to buy pieces for his Comme des Garçons’s collection.  Can you imagine it?  A monk  being a fashion victim?  This could only be in Japan.  He even says that the clothes have a miraculous power  so his "delinquent sister was purified and resolved to follow the rules of the society" when started to wear the label.

A English professor began to wear Versace to attract the attention of his students and today has more  than a hundred pieces, beyond a collection of Bulgari jewels.  He lives with his girlfriend that passes all day long organizing the collection!

Vivienne Tma, that began her collection when bought a pair of trousers that did not fit,  describes herself as "the biggest consumer of Gaultier in the Japan".  She said that with all money that already spent buying pieces of the favorite label, she already could have bought an apartment.

The greatest fan of Martin Margiela, known as "master margiela", doesn’t  eat or drink absolutely nothing in his apartment  to avoid smells or any kind of trash in his apartment that would be able to affect the clothes.  So, the only thing that he has in the freezer is a medicine for his contact lenses!  The collector of Hermès keep everything in its original boxes.

The exposition raises a bigger issue, though.  It is noticeable observe the worry of the Japanese with the market of luxury, since analysts established that 20% of the consumption of luxury is in the Japan and others 30% are made by the Japanese in overseas travels.  In fact, the Japanese are responsible 50% of the sales in the luxury market!  Today more from 40% of the Japanese has a Louis Vuitton purse, since their preference are leather goods with evident logos.

But why so much obsession?  Some specialists say that the explanation is simple: durability.  The Japanese culture prey by the quality of the objects, what can be noticed by the story counted by Collasse, a salesman of a company of luxury:  A Japanese returned a dress therefore alleged an unacceptable defect.  He found for a good time until find a two-inch thread dangling from the hem.  That fault was absurd and she wanted another dressed.  He changed the dress and resolved to do an experience.  First, he showed the dress for a French client.  She saw the line and said "Oh, I can cut when arrive at home."  The same dressed was shown an American client that neither saw the defect.  Kyojiro Hata, one of the responsible by  Louis Vuitton in the Japan, had a similar experience.  "During the first 10 years we had to return several products with a written ticket 'this level of quality is unacceptable in the Japan', when they alleged that was in perfect conditions to be sold in Paris I sent others with the ticket 'sale that in Paris'".

Others studies, however, say that the Japanese love by the luxury labels  has a sociological deeper reasons.  According to some researches, the Japanese itself consider a lower class (85% flooded to be of middle class).  However, at the same time, the conformism is a quality admired.  Like this, using products of luxury and exhibiting logos the Japanese is capable of be identified in a level more elevated without breaking the moral of the society that denies the ambition.

The impact of this phenomenon for the industry is immeasurable.  Of this way, is inevitable that the market of luxury takes decisions based in the culture and Japanese desires.  Tourist habits are studied and places as Hawaii a bigger luxury shops concentration by be constant fate of the Japanese.  In those shops, in fact, have salesmen that speak Japanese!  "Never have we taken strategic decisions without before consult our Japanese colleagues about which would be the consequence in the Japanese perception."  – says the CEO of the Louis Vuitton, Yves Carcelle.

In time – Look for  two publications of Kyoichi Tsuzuki:  Roadside Japan (1996), an alternative guide of the country, and Tokyo Style (1993), about the life in the typical minuscule spaces of the city.

National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (1 of April to 24 of May - Kyoichi Tsuzuki) - Happy Victims.