A sudden interest in JPop, Japanese teen pop culture.



It started with an awarness brought on by the movie Wasabi. It stars the actress Ryoko Harosue who dresses in a very unco ordinated style with attitude. The missmatch of textures and fabric become an expression of their own. very flashy and against all the rules of fashion.

My daughter has been discovering her own personality in these pre teen years. She discovered her dad's "hippy" roots over the summer during our combined involvment in a preoduction of Shakespeare's "AS You Like It" The play was set in the 1960's and brought out lots of costume and social information of the era. I'm afraid my daughter got to discover just how deeply her dad had been involved in those times. On her own she seems to have embraced the look of those times and has begun to dress in tie-dyes and loose rennaisance clothing. She is doing this without any support group at school, setting herself up as an outsider. We have talked of this and I hope she will have the strength to stand against the sorts of peer pressure she is about to encounter.

In gathering images from the web showing the street wear of some of the more colorful teens in Japan we have become aware of a sort of division in the expression. There are the bright,, colorful mismatched, almost clownish, outfits. And these stand along side the gothic/lolita styles (fashion writers terms). The gothic seems to stress cuteness rather than morbidness or sexiness. It is clearly consumer oriented with highly crafted outfits available in specialized boutiques. the other, more poppish wear looks a bit more home spun but I may be wrong in this.

I inquired for an opinion from a friend living in Japan and got the following response:

"As far as I can say about the fashions of teenagers here, they do run
around wild in whatever they think cool (or hot?) beyond imaginations
of adults in the media for sure. From 60-70s influenced bell bottoms
or surfer? baggy pants barely hanging over their hip bones showing
off their panties, lacy skirts over jeans, and the most freaky ones
are with bonnets and petticoats with frills and flower prints. Their
shoes are of course with straps or laced up boots, and in their hands
carry parasols to complete their fashion. I once in a while run into
this group on weekends, and you think it is some kind of costume
parade. There must be a boutique somewhere that sells these stuffs to
these girls.
I think it has been for almost 20 years from when a whole bunch of
kids used to dance in the streets in kung-fu like fashion. I remember
once watching TV interviewer asking the kids if they had come out of
home in the costume, but the kids said they change clothes in public
bathrooms.
And then, there came girls hiking up their school uniform skirt just
enough to cover their bottoms, loose saggy sox around their ankles
and Burberry tartan check mufflers around their necks.
Then some years ago, there were girls in long bleached out hair
painting their face dark with bright eye shadows and heavy mascara.
Their skirts were short and jackets were fake fur. They were so
ugly. They have disappeared now.
I tried a quick search for some photos but could not find any on the
net.
Unlike 20 years ago, I think parents of today have no power over
these teenagers that they come straight out of home in whatever
fashion they please. It has a lot to do with media giving them the
carte blanche."