Clothing giant Renown Incorporated is mostly known as a company mired in large-scale restructuring, but back in the golden age of post-war Japanese culture, the apparel maker was a leading source of fashion innovation for the masses.

Renown's big break happened in the 1960s thanks to a series of TV commercials targeting stylish young women. The commercials used the song "Wansaka Musume" (something like "all the girls"), originally written by Asei Kobayashi and performed by 1960s pop star Mieko Hirota. The song became so famous and iconic that Renown continued to use the song as soundtrack for its commercials over the next three decades -- only updating the soundtrack to remove all vestiges of non-synthesized instruments.

Viewed today, the commercials make a great way to see the historical changes in Japanese pop culture and Japanese fashion. Here is a collection of the more memorable Renown commercials from 1964 to the mid-1980s.

1. 1964: The original in black-and-white

With the Tokyo Olympics in late 1964, Japan re-established itself as a member of the global community. The consumer economy, however, was still relatively primitive compared to what was happening the United States and the United Kingdom. This state of affairs is reflected in the commercial's low-tech animation. No actual actors or clothing was harmed during the creation of this clip.

2. 1965: Sylvie Vartan starts the idol age

Talk about a "high growth era." In just one year, Renown was able to move from drawings to the actual real life sponsorship of French singer Sylvie Vartan. Bonus trivia: The modern Japanese word for "idol" comes from the Japanese translation (アイドルを探せ) of Vartan's hit "La plus belle pour aller danser."

3. 1967: Renown gets groovy

Although this one does not use "Wansaka Musume," we get Eiko Shuri's equally mod "Ye Ye" with a transistor organ groove in its place. With deep reds and pop aesthetics, the commercial looks like a live action version of a Guy Peellaert comic. Here Japan has caught up to Anglo-American trends -- without having to suffer the social deviancy of actual mods or the Summer of Love.

4. 1978: "Star Wars" mania

Much like Hagoromo and its Star Wars sea chicken commercial, Renown clearly wanted in on George Lucas' galactic battle action. In Renown's adaptation of the space opera, twin blond models play Laser Tag with the help from two sphinx-C-3P0 hybrids. A difference between this commercial and the film "Star Wars": A direct laser hit causes a change of clothing rather than death.

5. 1980s: Art directors go crazy

The Japanese fashion market was expanding so rapidly in the 1980s that not even artsy advertisements could turn away consumers. Actually, many companies were probably convinced that these ridiculous commercials were the force behind sales, leading to an escalation of commercial weirdness.

6. 1980s: Big in Japan

The 1980s was a time of big hair, big bulky sweaters, big shoulderpads and big egos. So Renown needed something a little "bigger" than regular-sized models. For this commercial, the women needed to be literally large enough to straddle giant pieces of infrastructure. Bonus for men: There is a gratutious up-skirt panty shot.

Other commercials from this era also show that Japan was gaining confidence about its own Asian heritage, evidenced by a Renown commercial using Japanese models and a commercial glamorizing Southeast Asia rather than France. Sadly the "Wansaka Musume" commercials started to disappear in the 1990s and have not returned.