{"id":5295,"date":"2010-04-28T00:31:38","date_gmt":"2010-04-28T04:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=5295"},"modified":"2015-12-14T19:22:12","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T00:22:12","slug":"things-are-easy-when-youre-big-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/things-are-easy-when-youre-big-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Things Are Easy When You&#8217;re Big in Japan&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve got the 1984 song &#8220;Big in Japan&#8221; by Alphaville stuck in my head.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tl6u2NASUzU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Before it was a song, &#8220;big in Japan&#8221; was a mocking description of rock bands that weren&#8217;t successful at home in the U.S. or U.K., but were popular in Japan. The Japanese fans were considered a poor consolation prize.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Personally, I&#8217;d be happy to big in Japan. I&#8217;m certainly thrilled to be big in Scotland, thanks to gorgeous blogger\/client Queen Michelle of <a href=\"http:\/\/kingdomofstyle.typepad.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kingdom of Style<\/a>. When the Sunday Mail of Scotland &#8212; read by 1.5 million people &#8212; interviewed Michelle about her &#8220;top shops,&#8221; the story was illustrated with a picture of her wearing my <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/pro-detail.php?colid=33&amp;collect=true&amp;id=504\" target=\"_blank\">swear rings<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5296\" style=\"width: 452px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sundaymail1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5296\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5296   \" title=\"sundaymail1\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sundaymail1-1023x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"442\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sundaymail1-1023x680.jpg 1023w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sundaymail1-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sundaymail1.jpg 2006w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5296\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Closeup<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_5297\" style=\"width: 452px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sundaymail2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5297\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5297   \" title=\"sundaymail2\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sundaymail2-1023x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"442\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sundaymail2-1023x680.jpg 1023w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sundaymail2-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/sundaymail2.jpg 2006w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5297\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Full-page view<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;m also big in Italy, thanks to my gorgeous husband, MrB, who was interviewed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lastampa.it\/_web\/CMSTP\/tmplrubriche\/giornalisti\/grubrica.asp?ID_blog=2&amp;ID_articolo=1012&amp;ID_sezione=&amp;sezione=\" target=\"_blank\">La Stampa<\/a>. The<a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/jewel-of-the-month-freudian-links\/\" target=\"_blank\"> silver Freud cufflinks<\/a> I gave him got another shout-out (they were previously mentioned in a story about MrB in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalpost.com\/news\/canada\/story.html?id=2648599\" target=\"_blank\">Canada&#8217;s National Post<\/a>). MrB also told gorgeous interviewer Anna Masera that I&#8217;m big in New York because my <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/wendy-brandes-earrings-in-sex-and-the-city-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cleopatra earrings are worn by Samantha in Sex and the City 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I know for sure I&#8217;m big in New York because a jewelry &#8220;designer&#8221; is trying to ride on my coattails. Many of my gorgeous blogger friends &#8212; offended on my behalf &#8212; forwarded me a letter that some publicist chick is sending out. The pitch name-checks me and uses the same screen cap of Samantha that&#8217;s been on my blog in order to promote rhinestone snake earrings that look nothing like my work. They look more like something you&#8217;d find at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.claires.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Claire&#8217;s<\/a>. Remember, if you&#8217;re not ready to spring for my original <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/pro-detail.php?colid=28&amp;collect=true&amp;id=246\" target=\"_blank\">gold and diamond Cleopatra earrings<\/a>, you can buy a silver pair for $450 <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/wendy-brandes-earrings-in-sex-and-the-city-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">right off the blog<\/a>. My silver earrings are made one at a time here in New York with my <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/get-smart-about-quality\/\" target=\"_blank\">usual attention to quality<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You know who really <em>was<\/em> big in Japan? The &#8217;70s all-girl rock band <a href=\"http:\/\/therunaways.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Runaways.<\/a> Recently, their story got the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1017451\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hollywood movie treatment<\/a>. I wanted to like that movie &#8212; I did love the music and fashion &#8212; but it pulled its punches.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/runaways.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5315\" title=\"runaways\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/runaways.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"392\" height=\"604\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/runaways.jpg 490w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/runaways-194x300.jpg 194w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 392px) 100vw, 392px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In an early scene, we see underage, future Runaways lead singer Cherie Currie getting pawed by her sister&#8217;s boyfriend. Right after, Cherie chops her long hair into a <a href=\"http:\/\/styleinspades.com\/2010\/03\/22\/love-cherie-curries-idolization-of-david-bowie\/\" target=\"_blank\">David-Bowie-as-Ziggy-Stardust &#8216;do<\/a>. I suspected a sexual assault had been left out, so I got Cherie&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Neon-Angel-Runaway-Cherie-Currie\/dp\/0061961353\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1272426424&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\">Neon Angel autobiography<\/a>, which indeed portrays Cherie&#8217;s rape by the boyfriend as a formative experience. The haircut was a reaction to the attack: &#8220;That day I&#8217;d decided that I wasn&#8217;t going to be told what to do anymore, and that nobody was going to just take what they wanted from me,&#8221; Cherie wrote.  &#8220;As the pile of hair on the floor grew bigger and bigger, I found myself feeling stronger and stronger.&#8221;  Damn. Why bother to make a movie about sex, drugs and rock &#8216;n roll teens if you&#8217;re going to soft-pedal the ugly truth? I can&#8217;t respect that.<\/p>\n<p>I totally respect the Runaways themselves. Here they are performing their big hit Cherry Bomb &#8212; IN JAPAN &#8212; in 1977. Cherie is the hard-looking blonde singer stealing guitarist Joan Jett&#8217;s spotlight.<\/p>\n<p><center><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/cBDMthZ0c80&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/cBDMthZ0c80&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Cherie&#8217;s pale corset makes me think of the Jean Paul Gaultier corset that Madonna wore in the &#8217;90s.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5316\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/madonna-in-gautier-bustier-blond-ambition-tour-1992.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5316\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5316\" title=\"madonna-in-gautier-bustier-blond-ambition-tour-1992\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/madonna-in-gautier-bustier-blond-ambition-tour-1992.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/madonna-in-gautier-bustier-blond-ambition-tour-1992.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/madonna-in-gautier-bustier-blond-ambition-tour-1992-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5316\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Madonna on her Blonde Ambition tour.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>More recently, my goddess <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/category\/lady-gaga\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lady Gaga<\/a> did her version of the look.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5317\" style=\"width: 370px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.harpersbazaar.com\/fashion\/fashion-articles\/lady-gaga-fashion-1209\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5317\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5317\" title=\"lady-gaga-1209-4-de\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/lady-gaga-1209-4-de.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/lady-gaga-1209-4-de.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/lady-gaga-1209-4-de-234x300.jpg 234w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5317\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy of Harper&#39;s Bazaar.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Great minds think alike about corsets. That&#8217;s okay. Just keep your little mind off my jewelry, wannabe WendyB!<\/p>\n<p>UPDATED TO ADD: What timing! Right after I discovered a PR chick using my name and SATC2 connection to promote her client&#8217;s earrings to my blog roll bitches, Christina Binkley of the Wall Street Journal wrote about small designers&#8217; looks being ripped off in a story called <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/cAMEjf\" target=\"_blank\">The Problem With Being a Trendsetter<\/a>.  I especially relate to scarf designer Elle Sakellis. Her Otrera evil-eye scarves were knocked off by Raj Imports. Kitson, the store that carried Elle&#8217;s original scarves, dropped her line to sell the Raj imitator.  Elle says, &#8220;Everyone always says that imitation is the best form of flattery. But it happened too soon. I&#8217;m not Louis Vuitton. It&#8217;s not like when someone buys a Raj scarf that they know it&#8217;s an Otrera knock-off.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fraser Ross, the owner of Kitson, claims carrying the Raj copy is no different from carrying a diffusion line. He says of the higher-priced originals, &#8220;I&#8217;m always telling these designers, &#8216;Knock yourself off. They&#8217;re knocking you off, so do it yourself.'&#8221; However, anyone who has read my <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/get-smart-about-manufacturing\/\" target=\"_blank\">Get Smart (About Manufacturing)<\/a> post knows that it&#8217;s not that simple &#8212; or inexpensive &#8212; to start producing quantity instead of quality.  If you haven&#8217;t read my old post, check it out now.  Follow it up with my <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/get-smart-about-quality\/\" target=\"_blank\">Get Smart (About Quality)<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/get-smart-about-custom-work\/\" target=\"_blank\">Get Smart (About Custom Work)<\/a> posts. Learn to appreciate good workmanship. And, if you want an evil-eye scarf, please buy the original from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.otrera.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Otrera<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve got the 1984 song &#8220;Big in Japan&#8221; by Alphaville stuck in my head. Before it was a song, &#8220;big in Japan&#8221; was a mocking description of rock bands that weren&#8217;t successful at home in the U.S. or U.K., but were popular in Japan. The Japanese fans were considered a poor consolation prize. Personally, I&#8217;d&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/things-are-easy-when-youre-big-in-japan\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,298,54,42,16,470,302],"tags":[326,480],"class_list":{"0":"post-5295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blogs-and-bloggers","8":"category-great-minds-think-alike","9":"category-lady-gaga","10":"category-madonna","11":"category-music","12":"category-press","13":"category-sex-and-the-city-2","14":"category-swear-rings","15":"tag-kingdom-of-style","16":"tag-the-runaways","17":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5295"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31086,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5295\/revisions\/31086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}