Hey all,
Considering one of the reading comprehensions on the Japanese Leaving Cert paper this year was about Tokyo Fashion Week, I`m gonna talk about something pretty cool about Japanese culture- the fashion.
Japan has so many fashion trends that have really impressed me and befuddled me.
School uniforms are pretty fashionable here, for example.
It`s not unusual
to be loved by someone to see people walking around in their school uniforms, even at the weekend- and really, can you blame them？
Another popular trend at the moment is platform Converse!
They add at least an inch to your height, if not more, depending on the shoes. They are EVERYWHERE in Japan right now, everyone is wearing them. Mad!
A subculture of Japanese culture is Lolita, and while it`s not that common, it`s by no means unusual. I`ve seen a couple of Lolita girls already! Within Lolita there are more subsets, the most popular of which is Gothic.
Lolitas basically dress in cutesy Victorian-style dresses and carry parasols everywhere. What`s most amazing about this fashion is that the girls usually make their dresses by hand, which astonishes me (a girl who can`t even knit a scarf)
From Lolita emerged a fashion that looks very similar to Irish girls at times- ギャル (gyaru- the Japanese pronunciation of "gal" )
Gyaru girls dye their hair light, wear lots of makeup and fake tan, and often wear dolls' eye contacts, which make their irises look bigger and therefore, more Caucasian.
They`re very influenced by American culture. Unfortunately, as with Lolita, there are far more extreme subsets...
That`s "ganguro" and that passes for fashion here.
There are of course fashion trends among men too, such as "host" fashion
This comes from "host bars" which is basically the cat cafe from my earlier post except instead of paying to play with kitties you pay to flirt with effeminate men
There`s also "visual-kei", popular among musicians..
These guys just do their best to look like anime characters.
And my personal favourite, the punks!
Something else amusing about Japanese fashion (as I`ve said before) is the "Engrish". English curse words are on everything, it`s hilarious..
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| I know that`s the name of a Dead Kennedys album, but still... |
On the other hand, I have seen dozens of women wandering around in beautiful traditional Japanese summer kimonos (called yukata)
Japanese fashion is a beautiful blend of old and new :)
Night y`all,
クイーヴァ
Caoimhe
Which look are you going for? Tullamore awaits your return...
ReplyDeleteTullamore has enough Ganguro already thanks. Platform Converse would be very useful in the Foley household :-) Any chance you could get Daire a summer job in one of those "Host" bars? He could be the "Hardy Boy" option on the menu - he'd talk hurling and show off his guns for the women !!!
ReplyDeleteAny chance of a pic in your summer kimono?
I`m saving it for my birthday- we`re going to a traditional Japanese fireworks festival :)
DeleteAlso, if I could sway Daire to start learning Japanese, a Host Bar would probably be his dream job.
Delete"How're ye gurls!" I can just see him surrounded by giggling Japanese gals...
ReplyDeleteLolita and Gyaru are two very different styles so I can assure you that Gyaru did not come from Lolita. Ganguro is a spin off of Gyaru and isn't as popular as it used to be. It takes a lot of effort to get right too. And with Lolita while girls do often wear handmade the different brands are very popular. The girl you called gothic lolita however is wearing Classic Lolita (the dress is by Innocent World)
ReplyDeleteDuring my quick Internet research for this blog post, all sources indictated that gyaru came from Lolita, however I'm obviously not an expert on the topic so cheers for pointing it out. And as for the image of the Gothic Lolita girl, I just googled "Gothic Lolita" and picked my favourite image
Delete