Misha Janette

She was born Michelle Janette Fleming in Spokane, Washington.[1]

Janette graduated from Bunka Fashion College[1] in Tokyo in 2007. "I was apprehensive about going to New York because it actually seemed so ... stereotypical. If I was going to be working from the dirt on up anyway, I decided I might as well start somewhere really left-field and make it interesting."[2]

She started her career as a fashion journalist after graduation, working for The Japan Times as lead fashion writer.[3] She has also contributed to Kyodo News, Numéro Tokyo, Vogue Girl Japan, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Wallpaper, CNN Travel, and covers Tokyo Fashion Week for style.com.[4]

Her blog was chosen in 2011 as one of Tokyo's top-ten fashion blogs by Vogue Japan and she was awarded with a window display at Isetan department store.[5]

She is known for her highly particular taste in edgy, avant-garde fashion.[6] This has led to her working as a stylist for celebrities including actress and musician Nicki Minaj, actress Rinko Kikuchi, and philosopher Shimoda Kageki.[4] She has hosted the television show Kawaii International on the NHK World network from the show's premiere in 2012, through its series finale in 2021.[1] In 2012, she owns and designs a wig brand called Plumb.[7]

In 2012, she was chosen as one of the "power people" from Tokyo for Seibu Shibuya department store campaign, along with Patricia Field. Shot by celebrity photographer Leslie Kee.[8] In the same year, Janette collaborated with Coach on a custom "legacy" bag as a fashion influencer and auctioned for charity.[9] She was the only blogger flown from Japan to attend the 12-13 AW Milan Fashion Week as a guest of Gucci with a trip to its factory in Florence.[10] She was invited as a top global blogger to the Prada Tokyo show with Rumi Neely, Bryanboy, Susie Bubble, and Dane Pernet. The photo report was featured on Prada.com (2012).[11]

In 2013, she was chosen as the Japan representative blogger for the Furla #CandyCool project, with a documentary and custom bag that was to be released in February 2014 during Milan Fashion Week.[12] In the same year, Janette was flown to the Elle Bangkok Fashion Week 2013 as a power influencer from Japan.[13]

Since 2013, she has written a monthly column, "Life in the 2.5 Dimension" in the Japanese fashion magazine Soen.[14] She is also asked to DJ at fashion events and clubs, such as the Opening Ceremony third-anniversary event in Tokyo.[15] She has collaborated with Furla on the #candycool project, making a bag and documentary video.[16]

Janette started a blog Tokyo Fashion Diaries, in 2011 following the Great Hanshin earthquake; the blog is written in English, Japanese, and Chinese. It is a platform for her artistic fashion photo shoots she styles as a fashion director, and as a journalist, she follows both Japanese and Western fashion with a leaning towards avant-garde runways and independent designers.

At the beginning, I was thinking about creating a blog to introduce Japanese fashion to people outside Japan. But the information on young designers that I write about in my blog are often not covered by Japanese magazines, and I wanted Japanese people to know about them too, so I decided to make my blog bilingual.[17] She has since risen to become one of the most prominent fashion bloggers in Japan.

• List of people from Spokane, Washington

• BLOG Tokyo Fashion Diaries
• Facebook Misha Janette
• Twitter @Fashion Tubuyaki
• Instagram @mishajanette
• Zoom Project