It's all about what you wear

There are not enough words to tell about Japanese pop-culture. Especially extraordinary I find to be street fashion. The clothing styles are beautiful, astonishing, bold, strange, bizarre, original, and you can go on and on trying to describe them. Osaka’s America Mura is one of the districts where you can find great variety of street fashion. Some styles fall under the specific trend, some appear to be a mix of several trends, and some do not seem to have a known origin. My attempts to figure out the style illustrated in this photograph were in vain. However, when I asked my Japanese host-family if they knew what fashion it was, and my siblings said that it might be men’s version of Gothic Lolita style adapted by women, but the girl on the right also may be soft punk. Here is a video which in short summarizes what this style is all about:

This outfit also presented a challenge for me. When I showed this photograph to my Japanese friends and host-family, the most common response was "Eeeeeh," you know the one Japanese use for "What in the world?" However, one of my friends said that this is Furugi Gyaru, trend that uses second hand clothing. Also note that the variety of bright colors in these outfits is very particular to Osaka fashion.

This next style, called Ganguro, is well-known, and in literal translation it means "black face." It is one of the sub-trends of Gyaru, which essentially stands for “gal” or “girl”. Typical characteristics of Ganguro are dark tanned skin, dyed blond hair, and high platform boots (Talarowska-Kacprzak 2001). This look was very popular in 1990-2000 time periods, but it still can be seen on the streets today. Shoichi Aoki, creator of FRUiTS magazine, in his interview with Tony Barrell said about Ganguro, “Where they came from is actually a mystery, no one really knows but there is some speculation that they were girls who were infatuated or fascinated with Janet Jackson or black American musicians or perhaps Naomi Campbell, the super model, but it’s still a mystery what their origins were.” However, Talarowska-Kacprzak in her paper argues that Ganguro was created by media with intention to contradict traditional gender roles, where women played a peripheral part, and “promote a new style of being a woman.”

Overall, when you end up in one of these street fashion districts, it seems that here in Japan it is all about what you wear. There are always things to look at and to be amused by.

References:

"Shoichi Aoki Interview." Interview by Tony Barrell. The Night Air. Brent Clough, 9 Mar. 2003. Web. 6 Oct. 2009. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/nightair/stories/s788802.htm.

Talarowska-Kacprzak, Kinga. "Media and the Construction of the Ganguro Trend in Japan." Journal of Mundane Behavior (2001). Web. 6 Oct. 2009. http://www.mundanebehavior.org/issues/v2n1/kinga.htm.