My brother Kimo is in town from L.A. with his friend Ryk, who’s apparently a big star in the hardcore silver jewelry business, and who has just opened a showroom dedicated to his designs, called Starling Gear, in trendy Tokyo neighborhood Daikanyama. I wrote earlier that I thought my brother was tagging along as “official photographer” to document the store’s opening, but it turns out that my brother actually designed the lighting for the store, and some of his photographs (of Ryk’s jewelry work) feature in the store’s decor. Before my brother became a freelance photographer and assistant to Ryk, he worked in Hollywood as a lighting best boy and grip, including a five-year plus stint on NYPD Blue.
There was a party last night to celebrate the opening of the store, and as luck would have it I had the evening off due to a schedule change, so I went down to the party with a couple of friends. The photos in the composite above were taken with my mobile phone (it was fun showing it off to folks for whom the concept of a camera-embedded mobile phone is still a “wow” novelty — my brother was particularly impressed when I was moblogging from the party). I also took my “proper” digital and snapped a few more shots (see below or click the above composite), though in between catching up on things with Kimo and being introduced to way too many people, I neglected to get a shot of Ryk, nor really any shots of the merchandise, which was impressive, even though it wasn’t quite my style. Perhaps most impressive however, were the prices of some of the pieces: 28,000 yen ($235) for some chopsticks (this was probably the cheapest item in the place), 500,000 yen ($4,200) for a silver walking stick/staff sort of thing, and 980,000 ($8,235) for a table made from a chrome car wheel (rim).
My friend K-san, who couldn’t stop telling my brother he was kakkou ii (“cool”), told me later that these prices were probably less than what other manufacturers are selling their goods at, and that at any rate Ryk shouldn’t have a problem selling his stuff. This kind of hardcore jewelry is very popular here, led by a company called Chrome Hearts (do a search for “chrome hearts” on Google and you’ll get pages and pages of Japanese sites related to this brand’s jewelry). Apparently, Ryk at one time apprenticed for the guy who started Chrome Hearts.
(Click on the above composite to see a few more photos from last night’s party).