BEAMS | TOKYO CULTURE STORY｜今夜はブギー・バック(smooth rap) in 40 YEARS OF TOKYO FASHION & MUSIC | 2016
40 Years of Tokyo Fashion History, Flashing By in Five Minutes / BEAMS "TOKYO CULTURE STORY｜Tonight's the Boogie Back (smooth rap) in 40 YEARS OF TOKYO FASHION & MUSIC"
From 1976 to 2016, a single unbroken shot races through 40 years of Tokyo in just five minutes. It's simply overwhelming.
The problem
BEAMS started in 1976 as a tiny 20-square-meter shop in Harajuku, and now it's 40 years on. The client's brief was just one thing: "Make people say, that's so BEAMS." The answer CD Keiichi Motoyama (SIX) landed on was not to announce it loudly, but to show it through action. His conclusion: make a film that archives 40 years of Tokyo street fashion.
The insight
Not the brand asserting itself, but a contribution to culture. Not an ad, but an archive. The paradox is that doing it this way ends up feeling like the most "BEAMS" thing of all. It was also calculated that different generations would be struck by different eras — a setup designed so everyone finds "their own era" in it and feels something.
The idea
They recreated 82 fashion styles using more than 350 items from the actual periods, with stylists who knew each era digging up real collections from the time. For the music, 27 acts across 15 genres remixed "Tonight's the Boogie Back" in a relay format. They filmed for more than 300 hours all across Tokyo, including Harajuku and Shibuya, with 82 models and 1,200 people taking part in total. All of it was stitched together to look like one continuous shot.
What happened
It was recognized both in Japan and abroad — winning two Gold prizes at the 57th ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS, Gold at Spikes Asia Film, and honors at Clio, the London International Awards, and the Brain Online Video Award Grand Prix. A companion book, "WHAT'S NEXT? TOKYO CULTURE STORY," was released alongside it.
Afterthought
"I was knocked out around the SILAS girls part" — that kind of comment really hits home. Watching the fashion of your own youth flash before your eyes like a life-flashing moment is special for anyone. Loving the past while ending on "What's Next?" — that's about as BEAMS an ending as it gets.
