Real Clothes
Real Clothes was a Japanese TV Drama series that played last fall. Starting on October 13th, its last episode aired on December 22nd, a few days before Christmas, and just a little more than two months ago. The DVD will be released in the middle of next week on March 3rd. Simply described, the story has everything you ever wanted to know about high fashion, or to be more exact – it is about selling high fashion which is really the selling of dreams. If they had a tag-line, it might have been, To be your best, you have to look your best.
Karina has the lead role and is just one of many Japanese beauties lighting up the screen in this 11 episode series. She does a superb job as Kinue Amano, a girl who was doing quite well selling bedding in the fictional top of the market Echizenya Department Store in Tokyo. Then one day she finds she’s been transferred to the Women’s Clothing Department.
Karina as Kinue Amano, looking like a plain Jane in Episode 1. This scene is in Paris where the series begins.
Kinue is clumsy, klutzy, and without any fashion sense what so ever. That’s her in the above picture by the River Seine in Paris, France which is where the series begins. She’s just like the Andy Sachs character in The Devil Wears Prada. Her new boss is Chief Manager Miki Jinbo who is played by Hitomi Kuroki, and her role is styled to be like the Meryl Streep role as the world’s numero uno fashionista, Miranda Priestly, in TDWP. So the stage is set. This looks like it could be The Devil Wears Prada re-worked Japanese style.
Hitomi Kuroki as Chief Manager Miki Jinbo
But this is series, not a two-hour story for a single movie. So they had to open it up, give more characters more depth and bigger parts as well as adding in the department store wars. Think Nieman Marcus vs Bloomingdales vs Bergdorf-Goodman.
Plenty of nice threads to see, and these are worn by some of Japan’s most beautiful actresses. So even if high fashion isn’t your cup of cha, watching beautiful women is what you get week after week in this series.
Specifically, Kinue’s task is that she must attempt to balance her workload, her relationship of 8 years with her boyfriend, and navigate her way through the minefield of satisfying a very tough boss. It is a lot to put on anyone’s plate, and when you factor in that she knew nothing about style or fashion, the task seemed even harder.
As the series progresses, and Kinue grows personally, professionally, and of course , at the same time she becomes much more stylish, the story seems to veer away sharply from TDWP model.
I think if you decide to watch this, just don’t expect TDWP. Even with the similarities and the fact that it starts as if it would be the same it simply wasn’t the same.
As a guy, I’m not particularly interested in fashion as a topic. Nor am I knowledgeable. I couldn’t tell you one designer’s style from another. They’re just names to me. But I did see TDWP back in 2006 in the company of a woman who worked for a major Chinese fashion magazine, and I liked it so I thought I’d give this series a chance.
Kinue Amano played by Karina now looking much more stylish
You should consider this one as there’s plenty of eye candy in this show.
To borrow Miki Jinbo’s trademark phrase in the series – Kekko! (Fine!). I thought this was a fine series which seemed to hit a lot of different areas – success in the work place but not without a struggle for some; and broken hearts or broken dreams for others, and so forth. The ensemble cast was really good.
Elegant, stylish and very desirable
It played well as a drama, as a comedy, and as a life-affirming story. The only department that it failed in, and this was done intentionally, was the romance department.
It’s not as if it tried and failed, the romance had to be jettisoned otherwise the character of Kinue could not have grown in multiple spheres of her life.
Beauties on the Sales Floor
To summarize, this was a nice series to look at, it was entertaining, and at times a lot of fun. I liked it. Alot.
It’s ironic that an industry based on superficiality can have so much depth,though in fact,not so ironic,considering all the egos involved. Hitomi Kuroki looks great, and if Karina is a plain Jane in the beginning,then hold the window dressing,I’ll take mine plain any day!
@bigmak
Right you are bigmak. Karina is just too good looking to be called a plain jane. I guess my intent was to call her a plain jane to set up how good she looked later in in the show.
As the show opened in Paris, and Karina and boyfriend were dressed in sloppy clothes and they went around sampling not Paris per se, but the best of the foods of Paris, the producer and director’s intent was to show the viewers how Karina was completely distanced from the world of fashion (she was selling bedding in the department store) in order to make her transformation much more dramatic.
Hitomi Kuroki as Miki Jinbo saw something in Karina (as Kinue) that would serve her well in this new phase of her life and career. She also said that excellence is inside all of us – you only have to work hard to bring it forth.
The show goes to great lengths to point out that the flip side of fashion is really business. And everyone from creative designers, to head buyers, even to the head of the Women’s Clothing Division, all have to answer to the suits and the bean counters in the end.
jmm