At the Tokyo Auto Salon: Bling and pink are in

Pink Porsche from Army Girl PHOTOS BY JEANETTE AND JP TUASON

TOKYO—Getting in touch with one’s feminine side seems to be “in” with car tuners this year. Either that or the Japanese aftermarket industry feels that the strong power of women drivers is here to stay.

After going around the 2015 Tokyo Auto Salon, which is about 4.5 times the size of the SMX halls, I therefore concluded that these two trends will be one of the dominant things to watch out this year. Of course, the predominant performance tuning will still be the bread and butter of the aftermarket industry, but the aesthetics sector will be the cherry on top.

Blinged soccer moms

When Angelina Jolie became pregnant and Heidi Klum modeled for the Victoria’s Secret fashion show six weeks after giving birth, hot moms are replacing the coveted waif body.

Honda Nbox Blinged Console

In Japan, the Honda Nbox seemed to be the car of choice when it comes to accessories for women. The Nbox is keeping up with the global trend of producing mini versions, which is sweeping the branded bags’ market, from the Nano Celine luggage to the 25-millimeter Hermes Birkin.

The Honda Nbox is a Nano version of a van, so to speak. It can seat four to five people, and has ample headroom and luggage space, plus the compactness of, well, a compact car.

We saw blinged shifter plates, rearview mirrors, as well as number bolts for wheels. There was also pink-tinted covers for headlights and all possible sources of illuminations.

Honda Nbox Barbie edition

A Barbie version was also displayed by Honda, complete with the Barbie badge and upholstery. All you needed to do was don on a blonde wig, a blue eye shadow and a corset to give you the size 22 waistline, and you could drive to pick up Ken.

Bling to the extreme

We have seen cars foiled up in different wild colors, but never seen one decked out in crystals from head to toe. Actually, not only one but two: One made you feel like an ice queen either in silver or in gold; and the other was a crystal-encrusted Mercedes convertible with fur car seats, just screaming Chicdriven. They’re definitely eye-catching and very difficult to forget.

If you can’t hack the stress over chipped crystals on the whole car, you can opt to just have your car’s emblem in Swarovski Crystals. We actually did this once five years ago when we used a Mazda bt50 pickup truck to go drifting. We placed 3,000 crystals on the front emblem for added oomph. So I guess we can say we predicted this trend (LOL).

Real men wear pink … shocking pink

Pink seems to be the color of choice in this motor show. A number of modified vehicles and tuner brands had pink as motifs for their display. From chrome trims to seat covers to paint or foil jobs, all followed the sneaker fever which is now trending. Shock value seems to be the “in” thing today.

Crystal-encrusted Mercedes-Benz

Texture

The birth of foiling allowed us to experiment with color without the fear of foregoing the resale value, now with people starting to play with textures. Not just simple patterned stickers but some over-the-top casting.

In line with the Japanese love of “kawaii” (cute), taking the theme to the next level by using plaster molds will be a marketer’s dream come true. Don’t be surprised to see candy-sprinkled vehicles to promote the newest level of Candy Crush.

Modified Nbox with headlight tinted cover

On Philippine shores

Some of these trends might be too much for the Filipino market. We usually move toward subtlety and blending in with the crowd. Fully crystal-encrusted cars would definitely not flourish in Manila unless one would want to chase every pedestrian that would chip a piece for posterity’s sake.

Lamborghini Aventador a la Chicdriven

But we will definitely see the integration of the shocking colors and not-so-wild texture on the vehicles. The question is who would take the first step.

For comments and suggestions, please e-mail me at jnt@chicdriven.com; follow me on instagram/chicdriven, or like our page in Facebook/chicdriven.