Kyoichi Tsuzuki’s Happy Victims was first published as a book 2008 and has a fascinating backstory. Long out of print, it is now reissued by Apartamento and follows the reissue of the Japanese photographer’s earlier seminal work, Tokyo Style.
Between 1999 and 2006, before fast fashion and social media changed the world forever, Kyoichi Tsuzuki published 87 instalments of his Happy Victims series in the fashion magazine Ryuko Tsushin. This was a strangely radical and subversive fashion interaction that actually engaged with the people who, very literally, bought into the ‘world’ of the brands they worshipped. And they turned out not to be beautifully-dressed people (think models) living beautiful lives in their beautiful homes, but actual and often unusual people – a Buddhist monk with a Comme des Garçons shopping habit and an Alexander McQueen collector listening to neighbours through paper-thin walls, to highlight just a couple. Photographed at home in Tokyo, with their collections before them, these anonymous disciples joyously detail the ritual and the sacrifice of their brand-name obsessions. Kyoichi’s anti-heroes exist in parallel to the fashion universe of fame, fantasy, and glamour.
While the cover and belly band have been completely reworked, in collaboration with designer Han Gao, the book’s interior maintains a simple, documental format: one happy victim per spread, Kyoichi’s photos supplemented by a short commentary on the individual and his or her daily schedule. Not typically members of the leisure class, the goths, Lolitas, and stringent Margiela fans must also go to work and find time to care for their clothes.
The new hardcover design comes with an updated foreword by Tsuzuki and an introduction by Isabella Burley of Climax Books.
Apartamento, 184pp, 30cm x 23cm, illustrated hardback, 2025
