Has anyone picked up Tokyo Adorned by Thomas C. Card? Plus discussion: Jfashion books in general

[milkteamilk]

I've seen it being talked about and I was curious about it. Does anyone personally have it? A lot of the articles I am finding about the book are really typical for the genre (calling the people in the book things like "Kawaii girls" and mentioning Gwen Stefani and Nabokov, etc) but I can't really tell if they're reflecting the book or not. I'm aware that it's mostly a photography book but it apparently also has text about the subject and an analysis which I think might be interesting.

Here's the Amazon page btw (waaay less than $40 on Amazon!)

I'm also curious what people think about these types of books? I always get my hopes up with them but whenever I have the chance to check them out I am often disappointed to find more of the same: a lot of "outsider" speculation and over analysis and very broad general statements. I would love to see one of these types of books that focused more on the the actual people wearing the clothes, I'd love more than a brief blurb about the people being photographed and why they wear what they do.

Over the years I've accumulated a few of these books myself, and always add them to my Amazon wish list when I find them, so I've made a listmania list to keep them in one place: http://www.amazon.com/lm/R23CICNFJVE9WA/ If you know of any other English language book about Japanese street fashion I'd love to hear it! It's a shame that anime and manga often get such thoughtful essay books written by very enthusiastic people who are involved with the topic but Jfashion mostly gets over-analytical lookbooks.