Fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto passed away this week. He styled David Bowie, and with Kenzo and Issey Miyake, was among the first wave of Japanese designers to break through in the West.

Yamamoto also played an indirect role in the rise of Japanese Fifties-revival style.

When Yamamoto made his Paris debut in 1974, he invited the rebellious rock band Carol to play as part of the runway show. Carol would go on to become iconic heroes of Japan's working class teenage delinquents, who copied their leather and pompadour style through the provinces.

Another member of Yamamoto's entourage in Paris was bar owner Masayuki Yamazaki of the Shinjuku rock'n'roll dive Kaijin 20 Menso. (very left in photo)

While in Paris, Yamazaki saw the film "American Graffiti" and became obsessed with the Fifties.

From Paris, Yamazaki took a ferry to London, where he saw the Teddy Boy revival. He also visited McLaren and Westwood's "Let it Rock" boutique.

He returned to London in 1975, bought up crates of Fifties vintage, and sold them at a new store called Cream Soda in Harajuku.

Cream Soda supplied Japanese teenagers with everything they needed to dress like the Fifties. (The store also turned Harajuku into a youth fashion neighborhood.) Japan's long-standing greaser culture starts with Carol and Cream Soda both of whom Kansai Yamamoto helped legitimize.