Harajuku in Los Angeles: Fashion Walk (2018–2019)

Harajuku (原宿), a Tokyo neighborhood, has become synonymous with Japanese youth culture and street fashion. In 2015, an international Harajuku Fashion Walk took place in Los Angeles, inspiring the formation of Harajuku Day, a monthly Japanese fashion meetup held in Little Tokyo—one of the city’s historic centers of Japanese American culture.

Within this setting, participants engage with the camera through pose, gesture, and accessories, embodying a range of J-fashion substyles. Harajuku is not a single aesthetic but a spectrum of styles rooted in self-expression and visual identity. Through this work, I explore how these forms of dress expand ideas of beauty, individuality, and social norms within a Los Angeles context.

Harajuku in Los Angeles: Fashion Walk is the first of three photographic portrait series chronicling Harajuku-inspired individuals living in Southern California and the communities they shape.