The MinoRinRin Talk Show at Hyper Japan

Shush, I know that I procrastinated on writing this one. It’s been a heck of a week last week, as well as a mad end of July. But it’s here now, not even that much after the event itself took place - so let’s spill all the tea on that!

How It Happened?

The short version of this is that it boils down to the people you know. But that sounds incredibly shallow and elitist, like I’m in some sort of Lolita Bullingdon Club. And I’m not. What I do have going for me is that I am reliable and not afraid to step up to organise an event, be it a smaller meetup or something bigger, whether for my local comm or the wider one online. That and being based in the UK - so when Hyper Japan has done what Hyper Japan does, which is not get the communication quite clear enough and the organising not quite right, it started a chain of messages about availability and willingness to step up, which stopped in my inbox where I said “yes, please”. Well, I was away from my place when I got the message and knew I had some plans for that week, just couldn’t remember what I’d put where and my paper calendar was at home, so I actually said that I was 90-something% sure that I could do it and confirmed the next day.

It’s not the most exciting story when told like that, but it’s partly on purpose. I could overdramatise and say how word travelled until eventually a good soul put my name forth (which is true), but again, that sounds so cliquey to me and our fashion community already suffers with enough accusations of cliqueyness as is. My goal is to emphasise that it was a lucky chain of circumstances that led to it (like HJ being known for dropping the ball with some of these things) with a sprinkle of “at the right place at the right time” (especially with who was messaged about availability and who responded at the right time to suggest me). I might even go as far as to say that this was a moment that made me realise what people mean by “networking” because that’s kind of what happened - someone knows someone who knows someone who’d do a good job for this particular project that’s come up.

So next time you’re at a meetup - be nice, introduce yourself, keep on good footing with people. Next time you organise something - do the same, mingle to make sure you talk to everyone and make sure they have a nice time. Next time someone else organises something - offer to help, volunteer, be dependable and polite. Because that’s literally all that I’ve done. You never know when someone might remember that and suggest you as a great candidate for an opportunity. That’s what this lengthy intro boils down to, now that it’s out of my system I can get back to the thing you’re really here for.

The Talk Show

What Minori and RinRin Doll brought to Hyper Japan was a condensed version of this new project they have going called the MinoRinRin Tea Party (which, by the way, is the absolute best name ever, they won the ship name competition hands down!). While the MinoRinRin Tea Parties are open to everyone, for the time being they are organised to suit the US time zones as it’s in partnership with FakeStar USA. I believe the last one worked out at something like 4am UK time, but they are keen to expand if there is interest. Whereas there they have dedicated talks, novelty gifts, raffles, best coord competitions, themes and everything that you’d expect to find at an in-person tea party, the talk show was more of just that - part Minori and RinRin talking a bit more about their ventures and part Q&A. And thanks to how small the HJ event ended up being, with seven participants, it was also a really cosy, intimate hangout as both Minori and RinRin kept the atmosphere relaxed and friendly. My role was to drum up as much interest as I could and to gather up some questions for the Q&A section, which given that it all happened within a span of less than a week - I’d say it went really well.

The schedule for the talk show was as follows:

• Minori’s memories about London
• How we self produce (our take on branding, work ethic, social media, etc.)
• Our current activities
• Posing tips
• About MinoRinRin tea party
• Q&A session (please send in your questions by using the hashtag #minorinrin on any social media platform!)
• Group photo Screen shot time!

“Unfortunately” there was no time for the posing tips, which is something that’s apparently really popular with people at the MinoRinRin Tea Parties - and I use the quotation marks because everything else that they talked about more than made up for that. There was not a boring part to anything that either Minori or RinRin said, though I’m afraid that some things will have to remain a secret. Sorry.

They both looked so cute, but more importantly were really warm and friendly. Exactly the sort of guests you'd want to meet at a tea party.

What I can say is that everyone left that meeting not only having gotten to know Minori and RinRin a bit better, but also with a greater appreciation for what they do individually and for how much work happens behind the scenes that you just wouldn’t know about otherwise. This was a big theme of the segment on self-producing, which is something that they both do a lot of. Minori always had to given that at its very core Minori is an energy and a way to create visual art, be it through handmade items or through the outfits and photoshoots she puts together (apparently when not in shironuri, Minori not only is totally unrecognisable, but also dresses extremely casually - though only people picking her up from the airport etc. would know as she keeps those parts of her life strictly separate). Whereas RinRin sort of ended up self-producing a lot since, in her own words, modelling isn’t work that one can sustain oneselef on and more of a hobby/side thing. Given the current social media culture of people aspiring to be influencers or of the social media platforms themselves assuming that everyone wants to be one, that part of their talk would have been valuable to anyone thinking of becoming a model or an influencer, both thanks to whatever practical information they may have gained and to the eye-opening reality behind such a life. In case Minori and RinRin joining the talk show from the floor of RinRin’s bedroom didn’t make that clear enough, that is.

This is such a candid screenshot, but the energy in it is on point. You can tell exactly the sort of friendship that Minori and RinRin have, it just shines through. And we've also experienced both of those moods ourselves at least once in our lives.

Yet more than the interesting tidbits of information, what was the most valuable for me was that sense of Minori and RinRin genuinely being interested in interacting with us, the attendees, and being themselves. Because they were the guests, they didn’t have to stick to any brand image they may have been representing and whilst no doubt the intimate atmosphere of the event helped foster that further, I feel that they would’ve been just as comfortable sharing their dorky side with us even if it had been seventeen or even seventy people instead of seven. Because in the space of just under two hours (as Hyper Japan were able to accommodate a slight overrun) Minori and RinRin stopped being these distant figures that the J-fashion community admires and became, well, just as close members of that community as you and I might be. Asked about some other places besides Harajuku they’d recommend people interested in J-fashion visit, they offered some of the typical suggestions, like Nippori for fabric shopping or Kouenji and Shimokitazawa for vintage shopping - before suggesting the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi, which they have last visited together to see the My Hero Academia exhibition after Minori got RinRin to binge watch it. Yup, our esteemed models and creators are also certified otaku. And while it’s one thing to respond to a question about their favourite part of what they do with ‘meeting people like yourselves’, by the time that question was even asked we’d already gotten a taste of that: through Minori’s stories of the people she randomly encountered in London and whom she remembers fondly for the time and kindness they’ve shown her; through RinRin’s questions back to us on what sort of Chinese brands are popular with us or on what’s normal within our communities; through both of them talking as we might to a friend, in that sort of “I know right?!” tone; through encouraging everyone to put their camera on, regardless of what they currently wore and making sure that everyone had downloaded the group photo before they left the Zoom call.

One of the official screenshots taken by Hyper Japan, though I've censored people's names.

Considering that the event cost only £10 to join, I feel like everyone got so much out of that talk show. And any other time if I said that about something that I got to attend for free, I’d probably wince myself at the shamelessness of it, but this time I do 110% believe that. I would’ve happily paid a tenner to get all these laughs, that interaction, and the cuteness that is MinoRinRin. This was the day after the now infamous reunion picnic, so I was running a little on fumes from a very emotionally intensive few days, but by the time I’d logged out of the Zoom call I felt so much more emotionally refreshed and reinvigorated, their enthusiasm was just that contagious. And I do sincerely hope that one day, whenever that may be, I’ll be able to either meet both Minori and RinRin somewhere in Europe or even bring them over here myself for a tea party with them as guests.

Casually dropping a picture of my outfit again, in case you missed it in the July's Coord Roundup post (though you'll have to go there for the full outfit breakdown).

Until then, if you’re living in Europe or if European time zones work for you and you’d want to join the proper MinoRinRin Tea Party yourself, let me know, please! If we get enough people expressing interest for one to be viable for our timezone, we could make it happen!