Japanese street fashion, often referred to as “Tokyo street fashion” or “Harajuku style”, is a fashion subculture that originated in the vibrant Harajuku district. It features iconic styles such as Lolita, Gyaru, Decora, Commes des Garcons, and Neighborhood. These brands combine traditional Japanese aesthetics with modern street culture, influencing the worldwide fashion landscape.
EG, founded by Daiki Suzuki, is known for its generously cut utilitarian pieces, while Visvim, founded by Hiroki Nakamura in 2001, is a popular brand in Japan and overseas. The design quality of these brands is high.
J-streetwear, also known as “J-fashion”, encompasses a diverse range of styles influenced by various factors, including man-made beauty, such as wigs, fake lashes, and nails, and Western fashion. BAPE (A Bathing Ape) is one of the most hyped Japanese streetwear brands, known for its cloud camo print and legendary items like the Bape Kapital neighborhood beams.
Top Japanese streetwear brands include Bape Kapital, Neighborhood Beams South2 West8, Undercover VISVIM Y-3, and VIKA STAR BRANDING. These brands have made a significant impact on the global streetwear scene, showcasing unique interpretations of casual wear infused with Japanese elements.
In summary, Japanese street fashion is a vibrant and influential subculture that has shaped the global fashion landscape. From iconic pioneers like Yohji Yamamoto to innovative newcomers like BAPE, the city’s street fashion continues to evolve and influence the global fashion landscape.
📹 How to | JAPANESE STREETWEAR
How to japanese streetwear (not just bape lmao) INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/vansatthemetgala/ TWITTER: …
What is the popular Japanese aesthetic?
Japanese aesthetics is a set of ancient ideals that include wabi (transient and stark beauty), sabi (the beauty of natural patina and aging), and yūgen (profound grace and subtlety). These ideals underpin much of Japanese cultural and aesthetic norms on what is considered tasteful or beautiful. While seen as a philosophy in Western societies, the concept of aesthetics in Japan is seen as an integral part of daily life.
Shinto is considered the fountain-head of Japanese culture, emphasizing the wholeness of nature and character in ethics. It sets the tone for Japanese aesthetics and has been the main influence until the thirteenth century. In the Buddhist tradition, all things are considered as either evolving from or dissolving into nothingness, which is not empty space but a space of potentiality. Nature is seen as a dynamic whole that is to be admired and appreciated, which has been fundamental to many Japanese aesthetic ideals, “arts”, and other cultural elements.
Wabi and sabi refer to a mindful approach to everyday life, which over time converged into wabi-sabi, the aesthetic defined as the beauty of things “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. Things in bud or decay are more evocative of wabi-sabi than things in full bloom, as they suggest the transience of things. Beauty is an altered state of consciousness and can be seen in the mundane and simple. In Zen philosophy, there are seven aesthetic principles for achieving Wabi-Sabi.
What is Dark Mori?
Dark mori, also known as Black Forest Mori, is a substyle of Mori Girl, primarily worn in a feminine manner, with some masculine coordinates. Its name comes from mori kei, a Japanese fashion substyle. Dark mori was created and worn by international adherents, but it would not exist without mori kei, as it changes its color palette. Unlike other Japanese fashion substyles, dark mori was not seen in Harajuku or Japanese mori forums.
Instead, it was mostly created by tumblr users, with its exact creator unknown. The international community sought to create a darker version of the lighter style, similar to fashion styles like Lolita and Decora.
What is the streetwear aesthetic called?
Urbancore fashion, a style that combines elements of Skater, Art Hoe, Hip-Hop, and Nostalgiacore, is characterized by its active and fashionable clothing. Streetwear, a specific type of Urbancore fashion, emerged in the 1990s, originating from Californian surf and skate culture and incorporating elements of sportswear, hip-hop, punk, and Japanese street fashion. This style is closely related to the Baddie aesthetic, which includes baggy pants, oversized t-shirts, dad hats, fanny packs, short bubble jackets, customized pants, sports bras, overalls, brightly colored socks, sneakers, sweaters over collared shirts, chains, cargo pants, fannels, and plaid skirts.
What is the name of Japanese fashion?
Traditional Japanese fashion has a rich history, encompassing color palettes from the Heian period, silhouettes from the Tang dynasty, motifs from Japanese culture, nature, and literature, and the use of silk for some clothing. The kimono is the most well-known form of traditional Japanese fashion, while other forms include the clothing of the Ainu people (attus) and the Ryukyuan people (ryūsō), which includes traditional fabrics of bingata and bashōfu.
Modern Japanese fashion mostly consists of Western clothes, with many well-known Japanese fashion designers like Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo drawing inspiration from traditional fashion. Their works have had a combined impact on the global fashion industry and within the Japanese fashion industry itself.
After World War II, Western clothing and fashion became increasingly popular due to their availability and cheaper prices. Traditional clothing is now mainly worn for ceremonies and special events, with the most common time being summer festivals. The main groups of people most likely to wear traditional clothes are geisha, maiko, and sumo wrestlers, all of whom are required to wear traditional clothing in their profession.
What is Japanese streetwear style called?
Gyaru, also known as Ganguro, is a Japanese street fashion style that originated in the 1970s and focuses on girly-glam style with man-made beauty elements like wigs, fake lashes, and nails. Ganguro, a subcategory of gyaru, gained popularity in the early 1990s and peaked in the early 2000s. It includes brightly colored outfits, mini-skirts, and tie-dyed sarongs, with bleached hair, a deep tan, fake eyelashes, black and white eyeliner, bracelets, earrings, rings, necklaces, and platform shoes.
Namie Amuro is considered the leading figure of Ganguro style, and the terms “Yamanba” and “Manba” refer to the extreme ends of the style. However, enthusiasts of both styles consider Ganguro as an “easy version” of their style, with the name “Yamanba” now shortened to “Manba”.
What is Y2K streetwear?
The Y2K look, spanning from the late 90s to the mid-2000s, was characterized by scarf tops, boot cut jeans, velour tracksuits, pastels, metallics, cowl necks, pedal pushers, capri pants, and showy accessories. This style was reminiscent of Mean Girls, the early Sex and the City years, and The Simple Life. As someone who came of age in the early aughts, I wore the slogan T-shirt, pink Juicy Couture, UGG boots, and low-rise jeans.
The trend was characterized by playing dress up, experimenting with silhouettes and proportions, and wearing dresses over trousers and peplum tops. Kate Moss first started wearing UGG boots with skinny jeans, but they were unavailable in the UK.
What is 2000s Japanese fashion called?
Harajuku fashion styles experienced a boom in the 1980s to early 2000s, with various subcultures prevalent. The famous FRUiTS magazine, founded in 1997, captured many looks and styles, focusing on stylish people around Harajuku. The magazine provided brief descriptions of the person’s age, occupation, and inspiration for their look. Despite its discontinuation in 2017, FRUiTS continues to document wild Japanese fashion and Harajuku styles on Instagram.
Some of the main Harajuku fashion styles include Lolita, which features dresses with large, ornate skirts and lace, and three popular Lolita styles: classic, sweet, and goth (or dark Lolita). Tokyo Fashion on Instagram showcases examples of current Japanese street fashion, including from the Harajuku district.
What is Mori Mori?
The Mori Mori no Mi is a Logia-type Devil Fruit that grants the ability to create, control, and transform into flora at will, making the user a Forest Human. The fruit’s name comes from the Japanese word for “forest”. The user’s body can partially or fully take on the characteristics of trees, flowers, vines, grass, and moss, making them akin to a living forest. The plants spawned by this ability can grow rapidly and move around freely, seemingly not limited by the rigidity and stiffness of some plants. This Logia is the only known Logia whose element comes from organic matter.
What is coquettecore?
The Coquette aesthetic is a 2020s fashion trend that combines sweet, romantic, and playful elements, focusing on femininity through clothing with lace, flounces, pastel colors, and bows. It draws inspiration from historical periods like the Victorian era and the 1950s, with a modern twist. The term comes from the French word “coquette”, meaning flirtatious. The aesthetic gained popularity on Tumblr and TikTok in the early 2020s and has roots in earlier feminine fashion trends, including Japanese Lolita fashion.
It allows strong women to express creativity and escape femininity without feeling guilty, while being self-aware and playful. The coquette aesthetic seeks to defend femininity without sexualization and celebrates things that were once a source of ridicule or demonized. Similar to the French Revolution, the coquette aesthetic moves away from power suits of the 1980s and the latest aesthetics of oversize, tomboy core, and military core. Proponents argue that the aesthetic can be understood from a disruptive non-heterogeneic interpretation.
What is Y2K aesthetic?
Y2K is a blend of the early internet age and the future-facing excitement of the turn of the millennium. It incorporates nods to space, hip-hop style, and rave culture, with blobby shapes, bright textures, and exaggerated forms. This aesthetic is influenced by the ecnology of the time, with low-bandwidth connections and pixelated images. However, rapid technological development led to designers pushing boundaries and exploring new graphic techniques, such as curves and curvature. Curves reigned supreme in the Y2K aesthetic, as they were not easily done before, adding an appeal of novelty.
What is yūgen?
Yūgen is a concept that has influenced various Japanese arts, including literature, painting, performing arts, and architecture. Originating in China, it was used in Chinese schools of thought like Buddhism, Laozi, and Zhuangzi. From the late Heian to early Kamakura periods, Japanese poet Fujiwara no Toshinari began using Yūgen in his criticisms of Waka poetry. Over time, it became a major word in treatises on Waka poetry and gradually influenced other Japanese arts such as Noh Drama, Zen, Renga, Sadō, and Haiku.
Yūgen is usually translated as “mysterious profundity”, meaning the beauty that we can feel sense into an object, even though it doesn’t exist in the literal sense. It is about enhancing the beauty more impressive by imagining its latent beauty.
Yūgen can be conceptualized as suggestiveness, lingering memory, aftertaste, or implication. Imagination is essential for feeling Yūgen, and many artists have developed methods to encourage viewers to exercise their imagination. Examples of Japanese-style painting include unpainted blank space, simplification, asymmetry, irregularity, imperfection, quiet colors, composition, and gold paint. “Noh” and “haiku” are representative of Yūgen, one of Japanese aesthetic concepts.
📹 The SECRETS of Japanese Fashion & STYLE Westerners NEED TO KNOW
This video explores the unique aspects of Japanese fashion and style, highlighting its minimalist approach, attention to detail, and respect for tradition. The speaker discusses how Japanese designers blend cultural influences and embrace innovative technology, creating a distinctive and forward-thinking aesthetic.
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