LONDON – THE STYLE OF JEET KUNE DO

Hey, our rootin’-tootin’ annual fashion issue’s coming out in a couple weeks. There’s a lot of hot girls in tights because they look good and if you want to try to deny that you’re a fucking idiot (do you really want to see girls in sweatpants? thought so), but besides that you’ll get some serious interviews with people whose clothing will get your hand rapped by the headmistress at a store you’re too scared to walk into. In the meantime, here’s Akiko weighing in on the virtues of wearing all-black vs. color as seen through the philosophy of Bruce Lee…

We all know that wearing all black can’t go wrong. It will make you look cool, thin, and rock’n’roll. For example, Robbie the singer from The Big Pink always wears exactly the same clothes. Black hoodie, black leather jacket, black jeans and black boots. It’s great, because it suits him and it’s such an established look by now that everybody’s stopped saying, “You haven’t changed your clothes have you? You are clearly wearing the same clothes as yesterday and the day before and the day before that… Have you ever washed?”

The Horrors, Ipso Facto, Darth Vader… They all wear only black and they all look cool. I did once see Spider from The Horrors wearing a pair of turquoise jeans though. I was surprised so I asked him about it. He said, “It’s my day off clothes.” I also saw Josh from The Horrors wearing a Snoopy jumper a couple of times when he wasn’t in the public eye. I don’t know why, but I was happy to know that they don’t always wear just black.

Personally I find that wearing just black all the time makes me feel uncreative. I love coordinating colour, mixing up different styles and trying new stuff. Here’s today’s outfit. I really love this jumper and check shirt at the moment. I like to think that the way I dress is similar to the philosophy and viewpoints of expressed in Bruce Lee’s martial arts book, Tao of Jeet Kune Do. Here are some of his words that I remember whenever I look in my wardrobe.

Jeet Kune Do favours formlessness so that it can assume all forms and, since it has no style, Jeet Kune Do fits in with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do uses all ways and is bound by no-one and, likewise, uses any technique or means which servers its end. In this art, efficiency is anything that scores.

Self-expression is total, immediate, without conception of time, and you can only express that if you are free, physically and mentally, from fragmentation.

Do you get the idea? That’s how I feel about blouses.

I love Bruce Lee. He’s so cool. Apparently though he was a player who made his wife Linda Lee cry all the time. Which is sad. Apparently he died while he was having sex (and not with his wife) because the sex was so good. Isn’t that the best way of dying? Anyway, this is my drawing of Bruce Lee.

Sorry I went off the fashion subject completely, because to be honest talking about fashion is boring. Just read Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee; you’ll get the my fashion tips from there. I’m so obsessed with him I have one book in Japanese and one in English.

AKIKO