FAQ | About Us | Gift Certificates | Consignment | Street Style
Check out our FAQs below. This list will be updated as we get new questions. If you think we’re missing anything, please email us and let us know!
Store FAQs
Fashion/Brand FAQs
Miscellaneous FAQs
Q: What is Tokyo Rebel?
A: We’re a US-based store that sells popular Japanese street fashion styles including rock, punk, gothic and Lolita. See the “Fashion FAQs” section of the FAQ or the “Street Style” page for more info on Japanese and Harajuku street fashion.
You can find our corporate information on the New York State web site here. We are a legally registered corporation.
Q: What is your store concept?
A: We’re modeled on a Japanese “select shop”. We don’t believe a store that sells only one Japanese brand – however popular it may be perceived – is a sustainable business model in the United States. So we have modeled ourselves on the select shops that are popular in Tokyo and other Japanese cities, who pick and choose the best clothes from a variety of popular brands and styles. Our store name refers to Tokyo because that’s the epicenter of this kind of fashion.
Q: Why sell Japanese clothes in the US?
A: Because they’re a lot cooler and more imaginative than anything American brands currently produce.
Q: Do you ship overseas?
A: Yes, though the shipping costs are obviously a bit higher and you are responsible for any and all potential customs fees. Also, since not every country supports the AVS security standard, if we see anything suspicious about your order, we may require you to fax us additional verification before shipping.
Q: What are your shipping costs?
A: See our policies page for shipping rate tables.
Q: Do you do special orders?
A: Yes, though see our policies page for the process and caveats.
Q: I live overseas. Can you mark down the value on the customs form for me? Or mark the package a gift?
A: No, we cannot, as it is illegal for us to do so. Some people will do this, but they are taking a risk, and we cannot take that risk as getting caught could directly affect our ability to stay in business.
Q: Are your items in stock or do you need to order them from Japan? How fast will I receive my order?
A: We will specify in no uncertain terms if an item is not actually in stock. Most out of stock items will display an “OUT OF STOCK” message on the item page and you will not be able to add them to your cart. (This is because we are never sure if we can restock an item until we’re very close to actually receiving it again.) The only out of stock items you will be able to add to your cart are reserve items and sold out items that we’re sure to have back in stock shortly. In both cases, we specify in the item description when the items are expected in stock.
In all other cases, our items are kept in stock in New York and should ship within 1-2 business days.
Q: What is your return policy?
A: We have a 14 day defective exchange policy. If there is a problem with the manufacture of your item, we will take it back for replacement or store credit within 14 days. We cannot take back items for sizing issues, the reason being that unlike a store selling American brands, we cannot send clothes back to the manufacturer for credit. The Japanese manufacturers will not accept returns from us, so we unfortunately can only accept returns if your item is defective. This should be exceedingly rare, as we personally check every single garment we receive from each manufacturer as soon as we get it for just this reason. (And yes, sometimes we find problems and resolve them before selling the item in question.)
Q: Do you have a physical store or only a web store?
A: We have a physical store at 170 Avenue B in New York City. Click here for details.
Q: How long have you been in business?
A: Since February of 2009. We’re a young business, but we have a lot of experience selling things, both online and off. Believe it or not, we have been a PayPal verified merchant since 2000. (Click the link for proof.) Who had ever even heard of PayPal in 2000?!
We’ve also been following Japanese street fashion for many years, being 50% Japanese-owned and operated.
Q: How big is your store?
A: While our store is actually bigger than most Japanese select shops, we are a boutique. Again, while we hope Japanese street fashion gains in popularity over the years, we don’t believe that a large store – even in New York City – would be sustainable at this time. It’s going to take time to grow.
Some people visit us expecting to see Macy’s. There’s no such thing for Japanese street fashion, not even in Japan. The fabled brand stores you might hear about in Laforet or Marui One (which are just malls) are all individual stores, and they are all about half the square footage of our store. This is by definition alternative fashion, even in Japan. Set your expectations accordingly.
Q: What brands do you carry?
A: We are fully authorized retailers for Angelic Pretty, SEX POT ReVeNGe, ALGONQUINS, Atelier-Pierrot, Victorian maiden, Putumayo, Innocent World and Maxicimam.
Q: Do you ever run sales?
A: Sometimes, but sales really exist to clear out slow-selling merchandise. Our goal is to just not stock slow-selling merchandise - that's the point of a select shop - so we usually don't have this issue. But sometimes it's unavoidable. So the short answer is yes, we have sales, though not very often. More often, though, we will put individual items on clearance or list them with a special price, rather than having a large sale.
Q: Do you buy used clothes? Will you buy my old and worn-out shirt or skirt?
A: We currently are not buying used clothes. However, we do consignment in our store.
Q: How do you price your items?
A: We try to stay as close to the Japanese price at the current exchange rate as possible. However, realize that there is more to importing clothes from another country than just the exchange rate. We need to recover all of our costs, plus have some left over for profit, or there'd be no point for us to be in business.
Please note that we do not negotiate prices, either in our store or online. The marked price is the price. By asking us to negotiate prices, you are asking us to take money out of our pocket. If you don't want to pay the marked price for an item, somebody else will. There's no shortage of demand.
Q: I saw something on your web site six months ago but you don't have it in your store - why not?
A: Amazingly, we actually get asked this question a lot. Believe it or not, we do sell stuff. Which leads to...
Q: Why are so many items on your web site sold out?
A: Same answer. As to why we don't remove everything from the site once it's sold out (so only in-stock items would show), first, it's confusing to those who might have pages bookmarked or linked that would suddenly turn into error pages. Second, there's something to be said for showing people what they've missed - we want you to know that if you see something you like, you can't wait for it. It won't be there if you do. Third, it helps with Google traffic - every page we have up is a potential search entry point. It's kind of a balancing act - we do go through and clean things out periodically.
Our product pages are generally organized by the date of entry, so the first few pages are likely to have more items that are in stock, because they're newer.
Q: Why don't you have every Angelic Pretty print ever produced in stock all the time? When will you restock Puppet Circus? Star Night Theater? Happy Garden? Wonder Cookie?
A: Please understand that most of Angelic Pretty's garments are handmade, and very popular relative to the number they can produce. The worst-kept secret of the Lolita fashion world is that every single item - from every brand - is a limited edition. For any given colorway and style of any given print, there are less than 100 in the world - usually far less. That's also why we can't get ten black Milky Planet jumper skirts to make sure we have it for the next 3 months. We can usually only get one of any color and style, because that's all they have to give us.
If you want something from Angelic Pretty, you need to buy it as soon as we have it available. It won't last, and chances are that once it's gone, it's gone.
Q: Do you take Angelic Pretty reserves?
A: Unfortunately no - no one does other than Angelic Pretty, whatever another person or store may say or imply. Here's a blog post we wrote about this. Nobody is authorized to take Angelic Pretty reserves unless they are named "Angelic Pretty". No reserves and no holds on AP series items.
Q: I always see Maki and Asuka at Angelic Pretty events - what do they actually design?
A: Maki does prints, Asuka does solid colors and patterns.
Don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia. They do not only design socks and handbags. They design entire series.
Q: Do you take Victorian maiden reserves?
A: Yes we do. We are fully authorized to do so.
Q: What does it mean when someone says they only buy “brand”?
A: “Brand” just means one of the major acknowledged brands of Japanese street fashion. It’s the same as saying you buy “name brand” when referring to other products, as opposed to no-name or off-brand items.
Q: Who determines what’s “brand” and what isn’t? Is Bodyline or Milanoo “brand”?
A: Obviously any company with a brand name is a “brand”, but “a brand” and “brand” are two different things when talking about Japanese fashion.
In terms of Lolita, there at one point was an actual Gothic & Lolita Association including all of the major Japanese Lolita brands you know (and some you probably don’t). This is really where the term “brand” comes from – these brands collectively represented the fashion and made decisions on where it was headed. A list of brands that were part of the Gothic & Lolita Association can still be found on the Japanese Gothic Lolita Wikipedia page. This association has since been dissolved, although the brands still cooperate with each other to promote the fashion.
Q: Wait, you mean they don't compete?
A: To some extent they do, but most brands get along because there's only really style overlap among a few brands anyway. They often have joint events, for example, they share models, and some brand stores sell other brands' clothes. They all adhere to similar production standards because to do otherwise would be to ruin the reputation of the fashion as a whole, and would lead to their being ostracized from the industry. There's a spirit of "we're all in this together", and they realize that promoting the fashion in general is more important than putting their competitors out of business. Some brands get along better than others, but generally that's the way it is. To some degree, this is just the Japanese way of conducting business - cooperation rather than confrontation.
Q: Are “Gothic”, “Lolita” and “Gothic Lolita” the same thing?
A: No. These are all different fashion styles, although they're related. “Gothic Lolita” is a sub-genre of Lolita, which includes many different styles. Just plain “Gothic” is something else entirely, and older than “Gothic Lolita”. Gothic fashion in Japan grew from the same roots as Gothic fashion in the west – bands like Bauhaus, Joy Division and Siouxsie & the Banshees, with later home-grown additions like Malice Mizer. As Lolita was growing as a separate movement, Atelier Boz and Atelier-Pierrot began blending the two together, making dark versions of Lolita clothing. This became known as “Gothic Lolita”, a term coined by musician Mana of Malice Mizer and later Moi dix Mois. It's a misconception that he "invented" Gothic Lolita - the two aforementioned brands did it first. But he helped popularize it.
Magazines like “Gothic & Lolita Bible” and “Gothic & Lolita Ensemble” continue to separate the two words with an “&” because they are still distinct styles that they feature. Not everything you see in these magazines is Lolita – some of it is “pure” old-school Gothic. They feature “Gothic and Lolita”, not necessarily mixed together.
Q: How about a rundown of the concepts behind the brands you sell?
A: Ok, here goes:
Angelic Pretty – sweet Lolita clothing for girls who want to look like a fairytale princess
SEX POT ReVeNGe – hardcore punk for men and women
Algonquins – cute and dark punk for girls
Atelier-Pierrot – traditional elegant gothic Lolita (EGL)
Victorian maiden – classic Lolita with a focus on adult women
PUTUMAYO – punk Lolita, with a little bit of gothic thrown in
MAXICIMAM – sweet and punk Lolita with an edge
Innocent World – traditional classic Lolita
Q: Why are some of these brands priced so high?
A: You are paying for both quality and design. A lot of people will only consider things like weight or thread count or stitching, but quality is not all that you’re paying for. Somebody designed that t-shirt or that dress or that hair accessory, and their services are not free. In fact, at many Japanese brands, the designers are the top earners at the company and are famous in their own right – and its their designs that actually sell the clothes. The design of these clothes is basically the entire reason we are selling them (it would be easier to sell American clothes), so at least a little bit of a premium is worth it.
Q: Why don't you sell replicas? I can't afford brand!
A: You may as well ask Saks Fifth Avenue why they don't sell the cheap knockoff Coach bags you can buy on Canal Street. It's just not our business and we don't support it. It's almost heartbreaking when you talk to one of the brand designers about replicas; they spend up to six months working on a design, and then somebody goes and steals it and undercuts their price by 80%? It makes them sad.
Save your money and buy the real thing. Even if you don't buy it from us.
Q: Why don’t you sell more mens’ clothing?
A: We actually carry quite a bit of clothing intended for use by both men and women from SEX POT ReVeNGe. Except for obvious things like one-piece dresses, skirts and bare-shoulder shirts, most of their clothing is unisex, both in look and size.
Most other brands in Harajuku just do not produce mens’ clothing. We’d carry more if they did. This kind of stuff is just more popular with girls in Japan, and the manufacturers produce their lines accordingly. But we expect to carry more menswear in the future, when we sign up additional brands.
Q: I bought something from you, now how do I clean it?
A: Check the tag and follow its instructions. Here is a guide to Japanese clothing care symbols.
Q: Why don’t you sell clothes from (insert Japanese brand name here)?
A: Every brand you don’t see here is missing for its own unique reason. We may just not have contacted your favorite brand yet. Or maybe we don’t think their particular style will sell well here. Maybe we did contact them and they just don’t want to ship overseas. Maybe we are in contact with them and just haven’t placed an order yet. For obvious reasons, we can’t tell you everything that goes on behind the scenes.
Q: I’m a designer – will you sell my Japanese-inspired clothes?
A: Please understand that this is not a judgment on your quality as a designer – but the answer is probably no. It's just harder to sell them, and we don't have the resources to put into promoting independent designers.
Q: Do you sell cosplay costumes?
A: No. All of our clothes are designed for everyday wear. They are high quality garments.
Q: I found stuff that looks just like what you sell for about half the price somewhere else. Why wouldn’t I just buy from them?
A: Because you found one of three things: a) replicas, b) cosplay costumes, or c) a scam site. Replicas and cosplay costumes are likely to be lower quality than the real thing, and won’t last. Replicas are counterfeits and, depending on the similarity to the original, may even be a form of trademark infringement (considered bootleg merchandise). Cosplay costumes in particular also look ridiculous when worn outside of a dress-up setting – it’s really obvious that they’re not real clothes just based on the material and poor fit. As for scam sites, you really need to be careful that you’re not dealing with somebody who will take your money and run. If you see “brand” items advertised for well below what you see elsewhere, that is a scam site.
There is always a lot of talk in the Lolita community, especially, about various overseas off-brands, many of which are very cheap. However, you generally get what you pay for. Our position is that it’s better to spend $300 on a dress that you will wear and love for years than waste $75 on a dress that’s unwearable even once. Save up your money and buy quality.
Q: I found another store that says they’re an authorized retailer for a bunch of other brands from Japan. Is that possible? Are they a scam site?
A: It probably depends on the store. Try to search their home state’s department of corporations or office of the secretary of state for a record of the business. Failing that, see what they actually have in stock and whether they take their own pictures. There are various warning flags that a site may not be legit.
That said, we don’t claim to be the exclusive domain of Harajuku fashion on the internet. There are other stores authorized to carry various different brands. However, there are brands that are exclusive to us, like Atelier-Pierrot.
Q: Do you sell Visual Kei fashion?
A: Visual kei isn’t quite as popular in Japan as it once was, and it was never really as big in Harajuku as you might think (outside of the cosplay scene). So none of the big brands describe themselves as “visual kei brands”. You could use their clothes that way, but it’s just not common to see a brand refer to itself with that label. It’s a little too trendy, and the Japanese brands like to set the trends rather than follow them. So it’s more common for them to use broader or more timeless terms, like “punk”, to describe themselves, and then let the designs speak for themselves.
Q: What about “decora” fashion? Do you sell it?
A: Decora fashion was popularized by FRUiTS magazine and is still seen around Japan occasionally. The problem is there’s really no such thing as a “decora skirt” or a “decora shirt” – it is an almost totally DIY fashion style (in fact, that’s the point). You just pick stuff out that’s colorful and coordinates how you like. We certainly sell some things that could be used in a decora outfit, but it really doesn’t make any sense if a store says it sells decora fashion. Even if something’s labeled “decora”, there’s nothing making it specifically decora other than the label. Most people who wear this fashion in Japan don’t even label themselves that way – they’re just wearing what they like. This was a fashion movement that somebody noticed happening spontaneously, rather than anything conscious. But it has died down quite a bit now.
Q: How do you pronounce “Algonquins”?
A: Al-gon-kins. It is not pronounced “Al-gon-quins”. This is both the original American Indian and the Japanese pronunciation – it has always been, and still is, “al-gon-kins”.
Q: How do you pronounce “Atelier-Pierrot”?
A: Like the French – uh-tel-ee-eh pee-air-oh. (The Japanese pronunciation is actually slightly different as a result of importing a French name into Japanese... but it is a French name.)
Q: How do you pronounce “Maxicimam”?
A: Believe it or not, it’s pronounced “maximum”, and that’s the meaning of the name too.
Q: What is KERA?
A: KERA is a monthly Japanese fashion magazine that is the unofficial bible of the brands and styles that we carry. It is hugely popular, and all of the major brands participate in its production.
Q: What is the Gothic & Lolita Bible?
A: The G&L Bible is a “mook” (magazine/book) that’s put out by the makers of KERA. It’s published periodically and focuses exclusively on gothic and Lolita fashion, since KERA often leans more towards punk. The G&L Bible shares models with KERA.
TokyoPop also publishes a US version of the G&L bible that’s based on the Japanese version but includes a lot of local content, however their issues are well behind the originals and it seems like the status of the US edition is in limbo right now.
Q: What is KERA Maniax?
A: Basically a super-duper version of KERA. More pages, more street snaps, more famous covergirls (usually), more expensive photo shoots. Also more coverage of music and events outside Japan. Same brands and models otherwise, though.
KERA Maniax is published periodically.
Q: What is Gothic & Lolita Ensemble?
A: This is a new mook published by the makers of Alice Deco a la Mode, which itself is a magazine for decora-style Lolita. Ensemble is more of a traditional Gothic & Lolita mook like the G&L Bible. It features Misako Aoki in a lead role as “kawaii producer”, whereas she is only a model for the GLB.
Q: Do you sell these magazines and mooks?
A: Yes! We sell them in our store and online.
Q: Do you sell any other fashion magazines?
A: Not at the moment. We don’t make much money on magazines, so it’s not really worth it. (Shipping a magazine from Japan is very expensive relative to the price of the magazine itself.) We carry the KERA magazines because they’re the biggest and most influential, and we want our customers to see what’s going on in the industry and what the trends are so they better understand the clothes in our store. But there’s not a lot of business incentive right now for us to carry other magazines.
