Never wore an Issey Miyake although I do love the colour black as a fashion choice. His clothes were too expensive for me although even I heard about this Japanese designer who came up with the duds for a lot of celebrities (and perhaps the vast majority of citizens in chic Daikanyama, Tokyo) including the mercurial Steve Jobs via those black sweaters. It's been unfortunately a crowded week with celebrity deaths including the one for Olivia Newton-John, and as was reported a few days ago, the one for Miyake. He died on August 5th at the age of 84 due to liver cancer.
The late Miyake for me was immortalized in music thanks to a shoutout given to him in Pet Shop Boys' March 2004 single "Flamboyant" which was also included in the duo's big BEST compilation, "PopArt: The Hits". Being a fan of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, I was more than willing to part with my yen when the album came out some months ago in late 2003. As soon as I heard the mighty bass thrum of those synthesizers with the following suspenseful arrangement and Neil's familiar warblings regarding the enticement of celebrity, I just thought that "Flamboyant" was the catchiest PSB song which I'd heard in a good long while. Considering some of the amazing hits that they've provided since the early 1980s, that is indeed saying a lot. Ironically, the whole sound of the song made me think that this would have been the ideal theme for a master thief or assassin, someone who would absolutely eschew celebrity.
"Flamboyant" on its own is a great song but the music video takes the message of the song and puts it on its ear via the wonderfully wacky world of Hollywood stars and Japanese commercials. For those who have been their fair share of silliness with folks like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver spouting out nutty catchphrases surrounded by surreal images while hawking everything from isotonic drinks to ramen to real estate, this really hits the spot. But interspersed with PSB going WTF with the J-ads is a story of a salaryman trying to grab his fifteen minutes of fame by appearing in a real NTV contest show called "Kasou Taishou"（仮装大賞...Kinchan and Katori Shingo's All Japan Costume Grand Prix） despite the disapproval of all around him including his wife.
The whole video used to be on YouTube but for whatever reason, it was taken down (even the Wikipedia entry on "Flamboyant" mentions that it isn't currently featured in my nation). Maybe there were copyright strikes involved or Neil and Chris were just a little too embarrassed about their tongue-in-cheek shenanigans (personally I thought the latter looked great with long flowing hair). However, it can be seen on Vimeo. The video above just has the Boys' appearances which is hilarious enough.
Although nothing is mentioned about how "Flamboyant" did in either America or Canada, it did hit No. 3 on Ireland's dance charts. As for what else was doing fine on the Japanese Oricon charts in March 2004, it looks like I'll be going with multiples of 3 for this week's Reminiscings of Youth.
No. 3 Ayaka Hirahara -- Jupiter
No. 6 Ai Otsuka -- Sakuranbo （さくらんぼ）
No. 9 Yo Hitoto -- Hanamizuki （ハナミズキ）
It's also sad to note that another legendary fashion designer, Hanae Mori, passed away on August 11th.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, the skit won.
ReplyDeleteKasou Taishou is such a hard creature to find good copy of that I think the MV is the only source out there of that specific episode's awarding to the winner.
Hi, Jenard. Yep, the skit won. As for what happened with his family and company following the win, I hope that the folks there were more understanding.
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