- @TokyoYouthWatch: Hotel Hiro somehow became the only room in Tokyo where a V’ren captain, a fourteen-year-old Harajuku fashion model, Mount Doom’s newest finisher, shuttle crews from Yokohama, three wives, and a cat-obsessed alien teenager all count as normal cocktail conversation.
- @MarshallMaja: You forgot the purple hair.
- @KevinWood: You could have forgotten the purple hair.
- @ChemCorvos: You also forgot the cats.
- @RitaAshburySingh: The cats were not at the reception.
- @ChemCorvos: Their influence was.
- @SkateTokyoArchive: Marshall Maja walking into the reception three days after turning fifteen with #19 on the Mount Doom board and then acting like purple bangs were the important news is elite behavior.
- @MarshallMaja: The bangs are excellent.
- @NaitouAgurishi: The rail was better.
- @OguraRei: Yamamoto agrees, particularly about the ¥.
- @MarshallMaja: He owes me lunch.
- @YamamotoSukeatsu: I can afford lunch.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: Kevin Wood spent ten hours working six looks for the benefit of local creators, showered, put on his SDF uniform, and arrived at Hotel Hiro pretending nothing happened.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: HUSBANDO.
- @KevinWood: This was a mistake.
- @MajaZhang: You looked very responsible.
- @RitaAshburySingh: Especially in velvet.
- @KevinWood: I hate this group.
- @MountDoomLocal: For everyone asking, yes, Yamamoto told Maja about Marmaduke eating concrete on turn three.
- @SkateHistoryJP: Three broken toes and a dislocated shoulder.
- @MarshallMaja: He left that out for YEARS.
- @MattMarmaduke: I did not realize my orthopedic history required disclosure.
- @YamamotoSukeatsu: You screamed creatively.
- @MattMarmaduke: Friendship revoked.
- @TokyoAviationFeed: Several of the young people smiling politely at Hotel Hiro tonight are the same flight crews photographed around T-48s at the Yokohama waterfront this afternoon.
- @PortWatcher: Rita was definitely in one cockpit photo.
- @ShuttleNerdJP: MJ and Y’kem showed up in another.
- @RitaAshburySingh: We fly cargo.
- @YkemTall: Cargo is useful.
- @TokyoAviationFeed: This entire group has already learned how to answer reporters without answering reporters.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: We would like to thank the youth delegation members who wore our kimono-cut evening dresses tonight.
- @TokyoFashionStudent: Sael looked absurdly good.
- @ChemCorvos: Mine had pockets.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: We were told pockets were mandatory.
- @DstanThron: Correct.
- @SaelThron: Civilization advances.
- @SDFCadetJP: W’ren Th’ron asked my name, remembered which video briefing I had been in, and then asked what I thought of the training schedule. I had prepared for “hello.”
- @FlightInstructorKuni: Welcome to being noticed.
- @CadetTwo: K’rem remembered mine too.
- @SDFCadetJP: That is somehow worse.
- @KevinWood: You get used to it.
- @RitaAshburySingh: No you do not.
- @VrenTrustStaff: Tonight was literally just people finally meeting people they have been talking to through screens for weeks, and somehow that was more useful than half the formal events I attend.
- @EmbassyChiba: Faces help.
- @NakamuraAkiyori: Drinks help.
- @KremTall: Correct.
- @WrenThron: You are encouraging him.
- @KremTall: Also correct.
- @TokyoMediaDesk: Reporter: “What do you hope to accomplish in your upcoming meetings?” W’ren: “To meet them in person.” We are going to have to work harder.
- @NakamuraAkiyori: I tried.
- @PressPoolJP: We all tried.
- @WrenThron: I noticed.
- @KremTall: Ask about food.
- @PressPoolJP: He is worse.
- @GreyShogunFans: The funniest thing about Kevin showing up in uniform is that half the room had already seen him in goth aristocrat makeup before HE knew they had.
- @MajaZhang: Correct.
- @KevinWood: Incorrect in spirit.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: HUSBANDO.
- @KevinWood: Blocked.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: Worth it.
- @MarshallCountyFeed: Missouri update: our fifteen-year-old went to Tokyo and got herself written onto an eighty-year-old skate legend board.
- @ColumbiaSkates: Marshall Maja travels well.
- @MarshallMaja: I am not “ours.”
- @MarshallCountyFeed: We are emotionally claiming bragging rights.
- @MajaZhang: Denied.
- @YamamotoSukeatsu: Japan currently has custody.
- @SkateMath: 326 feet is the vertical difference. 569 feet is the rail. Please stop calling Mount Doom a “326-foot grind.”
- @BoardGeometry: THANK YOU.
- @MarshallMaja: It felt longer than 569.
- @FukumaAyumu: It looked longer through a viewfinder.
- @ToshikuniReizei: You complained less while riding it.
- @MarshallMaja: I was busy not dying.
- @TokyoDadAccount: My daughter showed me Kevin’s Harajuku pictures and five minutes later the television showed him in SDF uniform at Hotel Hiro. Pick a career, son.
- @BostonTransitKid: Why?
- @KevinWood: Excellent question.
- @RitaAshburySingh: He has chosen “annoying.”
- @MajaZhang: Professionally.
- @KevinWood: I have notes about both of you.
- @CatDiplomacyNow: Chem Corvos went from eleven hours of cat therapy and seventeen boba drinks to a formal reception.
- @DerpyOfficial: Weak scheduling.
- @ChemCorvos: You slept for six of those hours.
- @DerpyOfficial: Efficient scheduling.
- @DstanThron: He has a point.
- @ChemCorvos: Traitors.
- @TokyoCultureWire: Maja hearing a stranger at the reception call her “Marshall Maja” before her own friends knew about Mount Doom was the moment that nickname became something bigger.
- @MarshallMaja: It was weird.
- @OguraRei: Good weird.
- @SkateTokyoArchive: You do not choose all the names that stick.
- @MajaZhang: I reserve complaint rights.
- @YamamotoSukeatsu: Denied.
- @FlightDeckJP: The Yokohama crews are killing me. “What were you carrying?” “Cargo.” “What kind?” “Equipment.” “For whom?” “Marmaduke Logistics.”
- @PortReporter: I got exactly that conversation.
- @RitaAshburySingh: Accurate answers.
- @YkemTall: Reporters value accuracy.
- @PortReporter: We also value nouns.
- @MJReyes: Cargo is a noun.
- @VrenFirstContactMemes: June 6 summary: Chem chose cats, Kevin chose couture, Maja chose death rail, Rita chose cargo shuttle, MJ chose mystery, and Matt chose to tell Japan he has three wives.
- @RitaAshburySingh: I did not choose the scheduling.
- @MarshallMaja: “Death rail” is melodramatic.
- @FukumaAyumu: No it is not.
- @ChemCorvos: Cats were the correct choice.
- @KevinWood: For once I agree with Chem.
- @KaoriTanakaFans: Imagine finishing one of the most chaotic live interviews of the year, walking into a reception, and discovering your youth group generated three entirely separate news cycles while you were on air.
- @TokyoMediaDesk: Four if you count Yokohama.
- @GreyShogunFans: Five if you count Husbando.
- @MarshallMaja: Husbando is part of Kevin.
- @KevinWood: No.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: YES.
- @SDFObserver: The most interesting part tonight was not the famous people. It was watching SDF staff and V’ren flight personnel finally talk without a video delay or briefing agenda.
- @EmbassyChiba: That was the point.
- @PilotKuni: We solved three tiny problems over drinks.
- @SDFObserver: Exactly.
- @WrenThron: Tiny problems become large ones when ignored.
- @KremTall: Drinks remain useful.
- @FashionAndFlight: Kevin going straight from Harajuku editorial work to an SDF reception is the most 2440 sentence imaginable.
- @GreyShogunReader: Pilot by night, aristocrat by day.
- @KevinWood: This is backwards.
- @MajaZhang: You wore more lace than I did.
- @KevinWood: Also irrelevant.
- @RitaAshburySingh: Extremely relevant.
- @OldTokyoSkater: Some of you are treating Maja like Yamamoto handed her a souvenir. Fewer than one in 328 people offered Mount Doom by a finisher have ever completed it.
- @SkateHistoryJP: Thank you.
- @BoardPurist: And Reizei was the one who offered.
- @FukumaAyumu: I was behind her. She earned it.
- @MarshallMaja: Please stop making me sound impressive.
- @YamamotoSukeatsu: No.
- @BettingEarth: YAMAMOTO PUT $1,500 FIAT ON A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD AT 1000:1 AND WON $1.5 MILLION.
- @YamamotoSukeatsu: Correct.
- @MarshallMaja: Lunch.
- @YamamotoSukeatsu: Yes.
- @MattMarmaduke: I want commission.
- @YamamotoSukeatsu: You failed at turn three.
- @TokyoPoliticalWatch: Interesting that W’ren and K’rem refused to preview the upcoming government meetings beyond saying they look forward to meeting people they have already spoken with by video.
- @PressPoolJP: They gave us nothing.
- @NakamuraAkiyori: W’ren gave me grammar.
- @OguraRei: K’rem gave me “screens do not drink with you.”
- @TokyoPoliticalWatch: That is at least quotable.
- @KremTall: You are welcome.
- @SkepticalTokyo: Am I the only person who thinks having teenagers mingle at a reception full of diplomats, soldiers and reporters is weird?
- @EmbassyStaffer: They are not decorative children. Several are cadets, pilots, pages, translators, or working members of the delegation.
- @SDFObserver: One of them was literally flying cargo that afternoon.
- @MarshallMaja: I mostly introduced people and ate.
- @ChemCorvos: I also ate.
- @SkepticalTokyo: Fair enough on the eating.
- @ConcernedParentEarth: A fifteen-year-old on Mount Doom, a fourteen-year-old in ten hours of fashion shoots, and minors flying spacecraft. Does anyone in this delegation ever say no?
- @KevinWood: Frequently.
- @MarshallMaja: Constantly.
- @RitaAshburySingh: You are seeing the things we said yes to.
- @LolitaNotLoli: Kevin very publicly said no to a photographer the day before.
- @ConcernedParentEarth: That is actually a fair point.
- @AntiMarmadukeAccount: Funny how every “spontaneous” youth story somehow generates excellent publicity for Marmaduke.
- @SkateTokyoArchive: Marmaduke did not ride Mount Doom for Maja.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: Kevin directed the proceeds to us.
- @AntiMarmadukeAccount: Still benefits him.
- @MajaZhang: Existing near Matt is apparently a conspiracy now.
- @KevinWood: Please tell me the conspiracy includes sleep.
- @TokyoCynic: So Marmaduke Logistics buys waterfront property, forty-eight shuttles show up, teenagers are photographed in cockpits, and everyone at the reception says “cargo.” Very transparent.
- @PortWatcher: Nobody said forty-eight were all there simultaneously.
- @RitaAshburySingh: Also yes, cargo.
- @TokyoCynic: What cargo?
- @MJReyes: Equipment.
- @TokyoCynic: I walked into that one.
- @RealJapanFirst: We are supposed to celebrate aliens, foreign cadets, foreign billionaires and some Missouri skateboard girl taking over Tokyo culture in one week?
- @OguraRei: A Japanese skater invited her.
- @YamamotoSukeatsu: My park, my invitation structure, my chalk.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: Japanese creators ran Kevin’s shoot.
- @RealJapanFirst: You know what I mean.
- @NaitouAgurishi: Unfortunately.
- @MarmadukeHater77: “Marshall Maja” is manufactured branding. Her rich friend got her access to Reizei and now everyone pretends she is a legend.
- @ToshikuniReizei: I offered her the run.
- @FukumaAyumu: She rode it.
- @YamamotoSukeatsu: I wrote the name.
- @MarshallMaja: Matt could not even make turn four.
- @MattMarmaduke: Why am I catching strays in my own defense?
- @DefinitelyNotJealous: Kevin Wood is fourteen, rich people dress him up, girls scream Husbando, and now everyone calls it “art.” Sure.
- @AyakaVelours: He worked ten hours.
- @NeedleSaint: He redirected profits to local creators.
- @KevinWood: Also I am not responsible for the screaming.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: FALSE. YOUR FACE CAUSED IT.
- @DefinitelyNotJealous: I regret entering this thread.
Viví Style
Kevin Wood’s Harajuku Shoot Passes $34,000 for Local Creators Before Midnight
**Tokyo, June 7, 2440, 12:08 AM**
Kevin Wood went back to his hotel in an SDF uniform.
His photographs did not.
By midnight, the June 6 Harajuku fashion project built around the fourteen-year-old Boston cadet had generated **$34,568 fiat in profit**, all of it committed under Wood’s original agreement to the **Harajuku Creators Fund**.
The number arrived barely two hours after Wood walked into the Hotel Hiro reception looking so conventionally cadet-like that several members of his own youth group had not yet realized what he had spent the day doing.
They know now.
So does most of Tokyo.
The shoot began as a relatively contained fashion collaboration and ended as one of the day’s fastest-moving youth-culture stories.
Six complete looks.
Roughly ten hours of work.
Street photography.
A Ziggy Stardust-inspired editorial set.
Prince fashion.
Goth aristocrat styling.
A ballroom sequence with a professional dancer.
And, eventually, a group of schoolgirls recognizing Wood in public and running toward him while shouting:
“HUSBANDO!”
That clip did not hurt.
Neither did the photographs.
Neither did Maja Zhang spending part of the Hotel Hiro reception making certain everyone in Wood’s immediate social circle knew about them.
Wood’s financial condition had been established before the first major look was shot.
He did not want the profits.
He wanted them returned to the local creative community whose designers, models, seamstresses, makeup artists, photographers, accessory makers and small businesses were making the project possible.
The Harajuku Creators Fund agreed.
By midnight:
**$34,568.**
That figure represents profit from the project, not Wood’s personal compensation.
He receives none.
The Fund does.
The number is particularly striking because the shoot had not been conceived as a mass fundraising campaign.
Wood did not spend the day giving speeches about supporting small creators.
He spent it wearing their clothes.
He worked.
They photographed him.
The internet did what the internet does.
Then the money went where he had already said it should go.
At Hotel Hiro later that evening, Wood appeared in a clean SDF uniform while the youth group gradually discovered the scale of his day.
Maja Zhang, newly recognizable herself as **Marshall Maja, number nineteen on the Mount Doom board**, was unsympathetic.
“Husbando,” she reportedly called across the reception.
Wood closed his eyes.
The Harajuku Creators Fund has not indicated that embarrassment qualifies as a deductible expense.
At **$34,568 before midnight**, Wood may have more embarrassment coming.
@MattMarmaduke
I believe in the creative endeavor.
Not just the famous parts of it. Not just the finished photograph or the person standing in front of the camera.
The designers. The seamstresses. The photographers. The models. The makeup artists. The people making jewelry, lace, shoes, bags and strange little things nobody knew they needed until somebody made one.
Kevin made a good decision yesterday when he required the profits from his Harajuku shoot to go to the **Harajuku Creators Fund**.
So I am going to make it more expensive for all of you.
I will personally match **every fiat donated to the Harajuku Creators Fund, fiat for fiat**.
The **Marmaduke Family Trust**, as the owner of Marshall, Missouri, home of the October **Lolidayz Festival**, will separately match those donations **fiat for fiat** as well.
Yes, that means if you donate one fiat, I add one and the Trust adds another.
Harajuku is the spiritual home of a festival we host every October. It seems reasonable that Marshall should return some of what it has borrowed.
I am also doing something considerably less subtle.
As **High Lord of the V’ren**, I am making available **250 creator grants** for Harajuku creative teams to attend this year’s Lolidayz Festival in Marshall.
Each grant may cover a team of **up to ten creators**.
Designers, seamstresses, models, photographers, makeup artists, accessory makers and other people actually involved in creating the work are welcome to organize teams however makes sense for them.
Transportation will be by V’ren shuttle, **Japan to Marshall and back**, and the grants will cover the associated costs of attending.
Bring your work.
Bring things to sell.
Bring things to show.
Bring things Missouri has never seen before.
Make friends, steal ideas from each other in the honorable artistic tradition, teach somebody something and go home with more ideas than you arrived with.
And yes, before anyone asks, I was particularly impressed by how good the ladies in yesterday’s photoshoot looked.
Kevin looked fine too.
He has received enough attention.
@HarajukuCreatorsFund
@HarajukuCreatorsFund:We have now confirmed the offer made this morning by Matthew Johnathan Boone Marmaduke.His personal matching commitment and the separate Marmaduke Family Trust commitment mean that every 1 fiat donated becomes 3 fiat for the Harajuku Creators Fund.These are independent matches.We have also received preliminary information concerning the 250 Lolidayz creator grants, each available to a Harajuku creative team of up to ten people, with V’ren shuttle transportation between Japan and Marshall, Missouri, and associated attendance costs covered.That potentially places 2,500 Harajuku creators in Marshall this October.We were having a very normal week until Kevin Wood found us.
- @NeedleSaint: I would like everyone to appreciate that Kevin’s $34,568 shoot just accidentally unlocked a multinational creator exchange program.
- @KevinWood: I did not unlock anything.
- @MajaZhang: You pressed the giant glowing button.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: There was absolutely a giant glowing button.
- @FrillEconomics: So if another 100,000 fiat comes into the Fund, Marmaduke personally adds 100,000 and the Family Trust adds another 100,000?
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: Correct.
- @CreatorEconomics: That is an unusually clean matching structure.
- @MattMarmaduke: I dislike complicated philanthropy.
- @MomoFrills: TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED POSSIBLE CREATOR SPACES.
- @RibbonAndRiot: Marshall is not emotionally prepared.
- @MarshallLocal: Correct.
- @LolidayzFestival: We stopped pretending we were prepared years ago.
- @TokyoDesigner17: Are teams required to be established brands?
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: No.
- @NeedleSaint: Small independent teams are exactly who should be looking at this.
- @TokyoDesigner17: I am suddenly making phone calls.
- @MakeupByKesa: Please tell me “associated costs” includes materials transportation.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: Final grant rules are still being written, but the intent is broad attendance support rather than airfare only.
- @MattMarmaduke: If your work requires tools and materials, bring them.
- @MakeupByKesa: That answer caused six people in my studio to start yelling.
- @LolitaNotLoli: I appreciate that the grant language says creators, not influencers.
- @NeedleSaint: Designers, makers, photographers, models, makeup, accessories, production.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: Correct.
- @TokyoInfluencer88: I have been professionally wounded.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: Does screaming HUSBANDO qualify as cultural production?
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: No.
- @KevinWood: Finally, competent administration.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: Oppression.
- @BostonTransitKid: Kevin went to Japan and created an international arts subsidy by wearing velvet.
- @KevinWood: This is not an accurate summary.
- @MajaZhang: It is extremely accurate.
- @RitaAshburySingh: Missing only the makeup.
- @CreatorCoopTokyo: The real value may be 250 teams building direct relationships with American buyers, makers and festival organizers.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: That is one of the opportunities we see.
- @LolidayzFestival: We want them selling, teaching, collaborating and meeting people.
- @MattMarmaduke: Exactly.
- @DerpyOfficial: Are cats eligible?
- @ChemCorvos: NO.
- @DerpyOfficial: Discrimination.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: We will refer this matter to absolutely nobody.
- @NeedleSaint: I would like everyone to appreciate that Kevin’s $34,568 shoot just accidentally unlocked a multinational creator exchange program.
@LolidayzFestival
@LolidayzFestival:Yes.We have spoken with the Marmaduke Family Trust.Yes.The offer is real.Yes.We are now planning for the possibility that this October’s Lolidayz Festival could host hundreds of Harajuku creative teams and potentially as many as 2,500 additional creators from Japan.Marshall has always treated Harajuku as one of the spiritual homes of Lolita fashion and the broader creative ecosystem that grew around it.This year, we may get to say thank you in person.Also, whoever designed the logistics plan involving V’ren shuttle lifts has frightened our parking committee.
- @MarshallLocal: “Our parking committee” has never faced orbital transportation before.
- @LolidayzFestival: They are adapting.
- @MarshallFireDepartment: They are panicking.
- @MarshallLocal: Same thing locally.
- @GothicTokyoArchive: Please understand that Harajuku creators are going to show up with merchandise.
- @LolidayzFestival: We sincerely hope so.
- @MarshallRetailWatch: Local bank accounts just sat upright.
- @NeedleSaint: Good.
- @MissouriMomThree: My daughter has been saving for Lolidayz since February and just screamed when she heard this.
- @LolidayzFestival: Tell her to hydrate.
- @MarshallLocal: And bring money.
- @MissouriMomThree: She says both instructions are insulting.
- @TokyoStreetThread: How much vendor space does Marshall actually have?
- @LolidayzFestival: Less than we may need.
- @MarmadukeTrustStaff: Temporary space is being evaluated.
- @MarshallLocal: Translation: somebody is about to build things.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: We are interested.
- @LolidayzFestival: We assumed.
- @TokyoFashionStudent: I JUST SCREAMED.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: Please remain professional.
- @OldSchoolLolita: I have attended Lolidayz for twenty-three years. If you turn this into a corporate expo I will haunt all of you.
- @LolidayzFestival: Noted.
- @NeedleSaint: This is why creator grants matter more than giant corporate booths.
- @OldSchoolLolita: Good answer.
- @MarshallCafeOwner: How many extra people should local food businesses prepare for?
- @LolidayzFestival: We do not know yet.
- @MarshallCafeOwner: This is not comforting.
- @ChemCorvos: Make more food.
- @HarajukuMika: Is there going to be space for workshops?
- @LolidayzFestival: Yes.
- @RibbonAndRiot: Sewing, styling, photography, accessory construction?
- @LolidayzFestival: Those are exactly the kinds of proposals we expect.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: Can we apply as Kevin Wood Historical Preservation Society?
- @KevinWood: No.
- @LolidayzFestival: Also no.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: Cowards everywhere.
- @MattMarmaduke: Reminder, Marshall is not importing Harajuku as entertainment. Invite people to make things with you.
- @LolidayzFestival: That is the plan.
- @NeedleSaint: Thank you.
- @MarshallLocal: Also we still want to buy everything.
- @MarshallLocal: “Our parking committee” has never faced orbital transportation before.
Viví StyleMatt Marmaduke Just Turned Kevin Wood’s Fashion Shoot Into a 3-for-1 Fundraiser and Offered Harajuku 2,500 Seats to Missouri
Viví Style, June 7, 2440At midnight, Kevin Wood’s June 6 Harajuku shoot had generated $34,568 fiat in profit for the Harajuku Creators Fund.By breakfast, Matthew Johnathan Boone Marmaduke had changed the scale of the story.Marmaduke announced that he would personally match donations to the Fund fiat for fiat.Then the Marmaduke Family Trust announced a second fiat-for-fiat match.One donated fiat can therefore become three.Then he announced 250 grants capable of bringing teams of up to ten Harajuku creators each to Marshall, Missouri, for October’s Lolidayz Festival, with V’ren shuttle transportation and associated costs covered.The theoretical maximum is 2,500 creators.Marmaduke also concluded his statement by noting that he was “particularly impressed with how well the ladies of yesterday’s photoshoot looked.”The ladies noticed.
- @AyakaVelours: We noticed.
- @MomoFrills: Extremely noticed.
- @KevinWood: Please leave me out of this.
- @AyakaVelours: You were already in the shoot.
- @RibbonAndRiot: He looked at the entire economic mechanism and said “needs more money.”
- @CreatorEconomics: Twice.
- @VivíStyle: Precisely.
- @MattMarmaduke: Money is useful when deployed.
- @FashionHistorianEarth: The cultural exchange grants are more interesting than the matching money.
- @NeedleSaint: Agreed.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: Long-term relationships are the larger opportunity.
- @VivíStyle: Which may outlast the fundraising spike.
- @TokyoMomThree: “The ladies looked good” is such an aggressively middle-aged-man ending to an otherwise serious arts announcement.
- @MajaZhang: Accurate.
- @Tmarithron: Also accurate.
- @MattMarmaduke: I stand by the statement.
- @LaceMerchantJP: Do we know whether commercial sales at Lolidayz remain with creators?
- @LolidayzFestival: Yes.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: The grants are not purchasing ownership of work.
- @LaceMerchantJP: That is the answer I wanted.
- @GreyShogunReader: Kevin accidentally caused all of this by insisting the money go to creators.
- @KevinWood: Again, I did not cause the rest.
- @MajaZhang: Butterfly wings.
- @RitaAshburySingh: Velvet butterfly wings.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: Does Marmaduke’s “ladies” comment include Ayaka because YES.
- @AyakaVelours: I assume my presence was visible.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: VERY.
- @KevinWood: Why am I reading this?
- @GothicTokyoArchive: 250 teams is smart because fashion is collaborative.
- @NeedleSaint: Exactly.
- @CreatorEconomics: Funding individuals alone would distort the workflow.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: The team structure was intentional.
- @BostonArtsKid: Kevin apparently found the most efficient possible way to convert embarrassment into public arts funding.
- @KevinWood: I object to the premise.
- @VivíStyle: Objection recorded.
- @MajaZhang: Overruled.
- @MarmadukeHater77: Billionaire throws money at scene after cameras arrive, everyone applauds.
- @NeedleSaint: Small creators still receive the money.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: And control remains with the Fund.
- @MarmadukeHater77: I can dislike him and admit that matters.
- @AyakaVelours: We noticed.
@NEOKAWAOfficial
@NEOKAWAOfficial:We have received many questions about whether we intend to participate in this year’s Lolidayz Festival following the creator-grant announcement.Yes.Our answer was already likely to be yes.It is now a much louder yes.We are also encouraging independent designers, sewing teams, accessory makers, photographers, models, makeup artists and small labels to consider forming grant teams.Harajuku is not one brand.Please do not let the largest names occupy all 250 grants.
- @NeedleSaint: This is exactly the message established companies need to send.
- @TokyoDesigner17: Thank you.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: Small teams built this ecosystem too.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: Strongly agreed.
- @MomoFrills: Can NEOKAWA please bring the kimono-cut dresses from Hotel Hiro?
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: Variations are under consideration.
- @SaelThron: Mine had excellent movement.
- @ChemCorvos: Mine had pockets.
- @TokyoFashionStudent: “Harajuku is not one brand” should be on the application page.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: You may steal it.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: Noted.
- @TokyoFashionStudent: I have achieved policy influence.
- @IndependentLaceJP: I have three people. Is that too small for a team?
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: No.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: Three creators who work well together may be stronger than ten strangers.
- @IndependentLaceJP: Applying.
- @LolidayzFestival: We would particularly like collaborative proposals involving demonstrations or workshops.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: Excellent.
- @NeedleSaint: Teach, sell, collaborate.
- @MarshallLocal: And eat.
- @AyakaVelours: I would like to volunteer for dance programming.
- @LolidayzFestival: Please do.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: WILL KEVIN DANCE.
- @KevinWood: Absolutely not answering this.
- @GothicTokyoArchive: I want a historical exhibit connecting Harajuku fashion evolution with the Missouri festival.
- @LolidayzFestival: Send us a proposal.
- @FashionHistorianEarth: I would help.
- @GothicTokyoArchive: Well, that escalated quickly.
- @NEOKAWAIntern: Our internal group chat currently contains 417 unread messages.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: Stop reading social media and return to work.
- @NEOKAWAIntern: This is social-media work.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: Unfortunately correct.
- @TokyoCynic: Big brand tells small brands to apply while obviously taking a grant itself.
- @NEOKAWAOfficial: We can afford our own travel.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: NEOKAWA has not requested a creator grant.
- @TokyoCynic: Okay, that shut me up.
- @NeedleSaint: This is exactly the message established companies need to send.
Marshall Lolidays 2440
@MarshallLocal:For our Japanese friends suddenly googling us:Yes, Marshall is small.Yes, Lolidayz is real.Yes, people here have been arguing about lace, silhouette, petticoat volume, tea service, footwear and whether somebody’s coordinate is “actually Lolita” for generations.Yes, the Marmaduke Family Trust owns the town.No, this does not make Matthew mayor.Please stop asking.And yes, apparently up to 2,500 Harajuku creators may be arriving by V’ren shuttle this October.We have begun preparing the coffee.
- @TokyoStreetThread: “The Trust owns the town but Matt is not mayor” requires its own article.
- @MarshallLocal: Several.
- @TokyoPoliticalWatch: I have questions.
- @MarshallLocal: Everyone does.
- @HarajukuMika: How cold is Missouri in October?
- @MarshallLocal: Depends which October.
- @MissouriWeather: Correct.
- @HarajukuMika: This is a terrible answer.
- @MarshallCafeOwner: I repeat my previous question. HOW MUCH FOOD.
- @ChemCorvos: More.
- @MarshallCafeOwner: You are not helping.
- @ChemCorvos: I am giving expert advice.
- @TokyoDesigner17: Is there actually a customer base for Japanese independent fashion?
- @LolidayzFestival: Yes.
- @MarshallLocal: Very yes.
- @MissouriMomThree: My daughter has already reorganized her savings.
- @SkateTokyoArchive: Can Marshall Maja be used as a local guide?
- @MarshallMaja: I will not be available to play guide. I am one of more than a dozen local Qi Lolitas, and all of us are at least half Chinese. We were expecting to reach fifteen to twenty girls this year.
- @MarshallMaja: Because I am persuasive, I asked the High Lord to add ten more teams of Qi Lolitas to the invitation. He agreed, provided their primary models are of Chinese descent.
- @MarshallMaja: More details coming.
- @GreyShogunReader: And Kevin?
- @KevinWood: Also no.
- @TokyoSchoolGirl4: HUSBANDO TOUR GUIDE.
- @KevinWood: I am deleting the internet.
- @OldSchoolLolita: I remember when Lolidayz was twenty-seven people, two borrowed rooms and one very bad tea service.
- @LolidayzFestival: We remember the tea.
- @OldSchoolLolita: Nobody should.
- @MarshallLocal: History must be preserved.
- @CreatorEconomics: If even half the grant capacity is used, Marshall gets a temporary cluster of well over a thousand international creators.
- @MarshallLocal: Which is why people are currently measuring every rentable room.
- @LolidayzFestival: And every usable event space.
- @MarshallFireDepartment: And every occupancy limit.
- @RealJapanFirst: Why should Japanese creators need an American festival to validate them?
- @NeedleSaint: They do not.
- @LolidayzFestival: The invitation is for exchange, not validation.
- @HarajukuCreatorsFund: Exactly.
- @MattMarmaduke: One clarification. Do not make the visiting creators perform Japan for you. Meet them as working artists.
- @MarshallLocal: Pinned.
- @OldSchoolLolita: Good.
- @NeedleSaint: Very good.
- @TokyoStreetThread: “The Trust owns the town but Matt is not mayor” requires its own article.
