“I used to work for Topshop Thailand, and he worked for Topshop Japan,” Gibb Susangkarakan, 36, said about how she had originally met Kazuya Kobayashi, 38, when both were employees of the fashion brand. “We’ve known each other for 10, 12 years,” she added.
The two friends had just left a bookstore in the Tomigaya neighborhood of Tokyo when they strolled by me on a Sunday in November. She lives in Thailand and was on vacation in Japan, where he lives.
The bright accessories she was wearing — like her beaded blue Prada gloves, which he had given to her years ago, and the red chili pepper pendant on her pearl necklace — stood out against her mostly black ensemble. She cares less about clothing nowadays than she has in the past, she said. “But I still like to archive some stuff.”
He has also held onto certain pieces, like the blue jacket he was wearing, which showed considerable signs of wear. “I bought it in a thrift store in Fukushima 20 years ago,” he said, explaining that the coat’s chest patch had been removed before he got it. “My inspiration is from street style, but not too street.”
Simbarashe Cha is a Times photographer and visual columnist documenting style and fashion around the world.
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