Nightclub dancers, the Japan women’s national football team, and a famous Tokyo landmark are all hidden inside the design. 

For over a decade, Triumph International Japan has been making headlines with their fun and creative one-off promotional bras that reflect trends in Japanese society.

The annual tradition has grown to include full lingerie sets, and this year Triumph is waxing nostalgic over an entire era, as this will be their final instalment for the Heisei period (1989-2019), given that the Emperor will be abdicating the throne on 30 April 2019.

So how does the world-renowned lingerie brand sum up the most memorable trends and achievements from the Heisei period in a lingerie set? Well, like this:

It might look like a racy flesh-baring two-piece go-go girl party dress at first glance, but if you look carefully, Triumph have hidden a number of clever details into its design. The top has been created to resemble Tokyo Skytree, which was completed in 2012, when it became the world’s tallest tower at 634 metres (2,080 feet), and the world’s second-tallest freestanding structure, after Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

The lights on the bra top are the same colour, and have the same blinking speed, as the lights on Tokyo Skytree. Triumph says the light display on the top helps to celebrate “the brilliance of women”.

The top and the skirt both feature the same cross-hatching that appears on the tower, while the skirt harks back to the booming “Bubble Period” of the early ’90s with a fake fur trim. Fur like this was commonly seen on folding fans held by office ladies in figure-hugging bodycon dresses on dance platforms at Juliana’s Tokyo, a Japanese nightclub that ran from 1991-1994 in Shibaura in Tokyo’s Minato Ward.

▼ Juliana’s events still draw crowds of fans nostalgic for the good old days of the ’90s.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqUTx-TFhXS/

According to Triumph, women’s issues have really progressed throughout the Heisei Era, so the fur trim was coloured pink to represent the colour of nadeshiko, a beloved flower whose name is also used by the Japan women’s national football team, who became the first Asian team to win the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2011.

On the model’s legs are a pair of over-the-knee boots with thick soles, reflecting the fashion trends of the late ’90s, and on her hip is a “deco-keitai“, a heavily decorated mobile flip-phone which had its heyday just after the turn of the century, marking the introduction of the digital age, which women have readily embraced.

Finishing off the set is a pair of furry push-up pads, designed to be inserted into the bra to achieve the cleavage-enhancing large breast look made fashionable with the figure-hugging bodycon dress trend of the ’90s. Inside the pad is a mirrored surface, which is said to reflect the modern obsession of needing to check one’s looks, brought on by the rise of selfies and social media.

Like the Branomics Bra and the Super Cool Bras that came before it, the Heisei bra is a statement piece for the company archives rather than a functional piece for everyday wear, and is therefore not available for sale. Which is a good thing, because nobody really wants a cold, mirrored surface on their nipple…or do they?

Source, images: PR Times