Pingmag asked trend hunter Rene Kurita to go to the fashionable neighbourhoods of Tokyo to document “men wearing (women’s) handbags, pocketbooks and soft purses.”
Rene says:
Why do boys wear bags at all? All you need is money, keys, phone – right? Pockets in your jeans will do? Wrong! One obvious reason is practicability here! If you ever lived in Tokyo, one thing is for sure: everybody spends a lot of time travelling on the train from home to the centre of things (think about the greater metropolitan area of Tokyo – this is not Paris!). That’s why people might not come home after work before sports or party activities (and some won’t even come home for days…).
Therefore it does make a lot of sense to keep everything in one decent looking bag. Another thing is culture, I guess. Whereas in Europe boys are just fine to carry their uttermost essentials – maybe they like to feel free, unhampered from any exterior burden such as a bag – let alone the sight of a feminine looking handbag! A Western bloke wouldn’t so easily throw the strap of a small purse over his shoulder to head out in the urban wilderness…
Source: Pingmag
