How a small ’90s magazine helped define Asian American style

In 1994, on the shelves of independent record stores and bookstores on the Westside of Los Angeles, the first issue giant robot suddenly it materialized: a 64-page black-and-white magazine that covered the hyperspecific boundaries of Asian American culture like no publication had before.

“We did it without journalistic training. We did it for fun at first,” says Eric Nakamura, co-founder giant robot and founded the influential store and gallery of the same name in the Sawtelle neighborhood of Los Angeles. “There was a rebellion that we were told what we could not do. We were challenging authority. That was the norm.”

The first issue included a write-up on Osamu Tezuka Astro Boy, a feature by Japanese rock band Boredoms and a feature-length interview with underground cult filmmaker Jon Moritsugu. It set the tone for what giant robot It would eventually become: a landing pad for Asian American pop culture topics, covering television and film, comics, manga, music and, of course, fashion, from emerging microtrends on the streets of Tokyo to to the rise of sneaker culture driven by Asian-American designers like Jeff Staple. It was, as chef Roy Choi described it, “a touchstone for the invisible.” fans of giant robot it included actor Randall Park, comedian Margaret Cho and contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.

The magazine would end up publishing 68 issues in total. When it stopped working in 2010, giant robot it had become a transformative publication, especially for Asian Americans looking for deep dives and alternative approaches to topics less covered in mainstream journalism.

This week, independent publisher Drawn & Quarterly publishes Giant Robot: Thirty Years Defining Asian American Popular Culture. The book includes a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of a once-in-a-generation publication, along with reprints of essays and interviews from the magazine’s publication.

GQ caught up with Nakamura about how fashion became a central part of his life, the magazines that influenced him early on, and his favorite stories ever published in giant robotpages of

GQ: What drew you to fashion growing up in Sawtelle, LA?

Nakamura: It came from music. I was getting into Sonic Youth, Minutemen and Meat Puppets. I really liked Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth. We are talking about this second wave of punk rock. I was listening to Nirvana and looking at what Kurt Cobain was wearing. She didn’t wear cardigans, though. In the beginning, fashion was something you didn’t care about. But it was almost like saying you didn’t like fashion was actually a fashion. It was this weird thing. I was into indie rock, it was the grunge era and I wore flannel shirts.

What did you look like in college?

I looked unshowered even though I swear I did. (laughs) I didn’t shave very often, which, as an Asian-American, wasn’t like having too much facial hair. I wasn’t a big Air Jordan person. I didn’t do Converse All-Stars. I didn’t have a pair of sneakers growing up. I think I wore Doc Martens for 15 years straight.

So there was a particular aesthetic.

I just wore a lot of clothes from thrift stores, and that was an aesthetic in itself. You could tell you were saving money, but there was an aesthetic involved. Now it’s no longer about saving money, because vintage is more expensive than new clothes.

Giant Robot’s Sawtelle Showcase, which still works today.

A giant robot feature in Haruki Murakami.

I grew up in the 90s and it’s strange to see a younger generation getting so attached to what I consumed growing up.

It’s a little weird. And the prices. I recently saw an A Tribe Called Quest t-shirt sell for $1,200. It was an original shirt from that era. But for so much money? Wow!

What magazines helped inspire giant robot?

There was relax magazine of Japan i Harper’sthat she had this index, that it was this list of things that she was always so clever and creative. We have also been inspired by publications such as National Geographic and skateboarding magazine big brother

giant robot approach fashion from a unique perspective. It would detail different Asian hairstyles, Japanese fashion subcultures, and you’d have these multi-page interviews with models and designers. How did you want to cover fashion in the magazine?

Martin Wong (co-founder and editor of the magazine) and I were similar in our approach to say, “This isn’t fashion, but it is.” So we might end up writing about sneakers, but we might as well do a story about Gothic Lolitas. If there was a phenomenon, we could cover it.

You also traveled a lot to Asia to cover the fashion trends happening there.

We didn’t go there enough, frankly. Sometimes I would go on a family trip and use it to write as many articles as I could. We couldn’t afford to go on a whim. I couldn’t go just twice a year. So part of it was just reading and researching everything. There was internet, but we also had to use long distance calling cards to interview people.

The elusive Wong Kar-wai once appeared in the pages of Giant robot…

…as did the eternal Michelle Yeoh.

What other fashion trends and stories are you interested in at the time?

I wasn’t a street clothes guy, but I was fascinated by all the things that were going on at the time. I remember interviewing Jeff Staple and talking to Hiroshi Fujiwara and just trying to understand what was real and what wasn’t. It was a fun thing to research at the time. I ended up realizing that part of it was great entrepreneurship, there was a lot of social media publicity, and part of it was luck. Like, say, the people who started Supreme, could they start a new brand now and be successful? Sometimes you learn about these lightning in a bottle situations. i believe giant robot it was the same way. We were in the right place at the right time. I’m not comparing myself to Supreme, by the way; it was the right one everything for us

What was your favorite fashion-related story? giant robot?

I would go with the interview we did with Jenny Shimizu. She was candid about the modeling industry and how she adapted. He talked about drugs and partying and this crazy lifestyle he was a part of. She just laid it all out in the interview and allowed us to print it all out. It was funny because after it was published, there would be bigger news publications that would contact her for interviews and she would say, “They’re not going to have any of this from me.” Part of it was the truth and honesty of how we approached things. giant robot he was a little more honest about things. It was an honor to hear that.

Finally, how would you describe the legacy of? giant robot?

I think we did something different than any other magazine. Our points of view were different. Magazines are the kind of thing most people throw away, but I’m grateful for them giant robot it’s something that a high percentage of people actually maintain. And maybe it changed people’s lives. I like to believe that people read our magazine and decided not to be a lawyer and do something creative. We gave people a portal that made them believe they could do something more than the one thing their parents forced them to do. I think we’ve empowered people to do that. I received so many handwritten letters from people telling me that we changed their lives. That a magazine can change lives is crazy.