Not too long after the announcement of the end of KERA physical publications, h.NAOTO designer Naoto Hirooka announced that a new web magazine titled Jabberwocky (ジャバウォッキー) would be launching on May 10. Taking its name from the Lewis Carroll poem, this magazine will feature gothic, dark fantasy, genderless, steampunk, Victorian, and black lolita styles displaying a unique collection of fashion, hair, makeup, culture, and art. The magazine will publish 4-6 pages daily totaling over 120 pages per month.
The debut cover features long-time lolita model Midori Fukasawa wearing items from h.NAOTO STEAM styled in a very doll-like manner. Other models to appear in volume one include IBI, Yura, Satsuki Nakayama, Yui Minakata, Sarahphina, and Julia.
Magazine Staff
Editor: Mariko Suzuki
Writer: Kageyama Mika
Fashion Design: h.NAOTO
Graphic Designer: Yaegashi
Photo Graphic: MAI
Notably on staff is Mariko Suzuki who previously worked on Eternita, Lolita in Tokyo Wonderland, and formerly KERA, KERA Maniax, and the Gothic & Lolita Bible. Jabberwocky will be her first web project.
Naoto’s announcement and the website were only made three days in advance prior to the launch. Just based on the cover, I was expecting an over-glorified h.NAOTO catalog and that’s pretty much what it turned out to be. Naoto fans will enjoy, but it is pretty boring if you’re not into his gothic and punk aesthetic. The pages are generously sized at 900 x 1200 pixels each which is a very generous upgrade from the tiny pictures that usually come from Japanese sources. Unfortunately, the pages are all in JPG format, so the text can’t be ran through Google Translate which just turns it into a picture blog for me since I can’t read Japanese. I was hoping for PDF format to be able to grab text off the interviews, but you can never expect too much. Compared to KERA, Jabberwocky aims to attract an older crowd. Instead of bright colors, we’re seeing monochromatic colors with minimal text, so the focus is mainly on the clothing. The good thing is it’s free!
I am uncertain about what to expect. Jabberwocky looks like it’s aiming to be a long term magazine, but with Naoto always being inconsistent, it’s hard to tell. Mariko’s last work, Eternita, only had one volume. It will be interesting to see how long it will last since digitial magazines are still relatively new to the Japanese alternative street fashion scene. So far, the contents are clean and eye-catching, so I look forward to their upcoming posts. How are you liking Jabberwocky so far? What kind of content would you like to see?
