Monthly magazine Casa BRUTUS (Magazine House) marked its 20th anniversary; the November commemorative issue (980 yen) went on sale this week. In it, leading Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama shot the Palaceside Building, a modernist masterpiece, with the latest fashion in "Fashion Special 2018 AW / PALACECIDE BUILDING," 18 pages =photos above and right are the cover. ("AW" is autumn and winter — fall/winter fashion
)
The feature's concept is as follows.
Against the Palaceside Building, one of the buildings that symbolize <Tokyo>, models in the latest from nine brands centered on high names such as GUCCI and PRADA, photographed by Kishin Shinoyama
After an opening shot on the roof stressing the contrast of sky, drifting clouds and the white cylindrical cores (elevator towers), he shot male and female models changing outfits and posing at nine spots: Mainichi Shrine, the wall under the east entrance (the round-cut marble between men's and women's restrooms), the roof observation deck (sign), elevator halls, the powder room in the cylindrical core, the view from the rooftop garden (Imperial Palace Hirakawa-mon), the Stairs of Dreams, the stair in the cylindrical core, and the west-entrance large canopy, the Umbrella. One cut per two-page spread, ten cuts, all in monochrome. Indeed — monochrome!!
At the end a spread lines up mini photos of the ten cuts in color and explains locations and the fashion worn.
Shinoyama reminds older generations of 1970s–80s "gekisha," but even for an amateur the photos are superb. At each spot, directing pose and expression, what imagination did he bring to the shutter? Though fashion is the main subject, we were taught again that the building's charm can be expressed this way.
The feature is introduced on page 4 culture of the October 10 Mainichi evening edition =photo at the end. To the reporter who attended the shoot, Shinoyama said each place is refined in a modernist way and has character; as a photographer it feels "delicious."
To go back, this special's unifying theme is "Tokyo, rediscovered," set with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in view. After Tadao Ando's opening essay it introduces new and renovated build
ings and structures under construction such as the new National Stadium from many angles.
Near the back, "100 buildings in Tokyo Casa selected to see" line up, and at No. 028 (the order does not matter much) the Palaceside Building appears =photo left.
Casa BRUTUS centers on design information about living — architecture, design, food, art, fashion, travel — and themes for enjoying life with curiosity. It has featured the Palaceside Building before, for example in the August 2015 extra "Complete-save travel guide to Japan's proud modernist architecture" (see this blog August 4, 2015), and in the July 2018 issue the series "Sho Sakurai's journey to learn architecture," reported by Arashi's Sho Sakurai (see this blog July 19).
