How I got into Japanese Fashion & Why I Love It!

 

My love affair with japanese fashion, brands and designers began with a love of Anime a few years ago. I was introduced to animes like Ghost in the Shell and Blood the vampire through an ex boyfriend. The storylines and the quality of the animations astounded me. The complex characters with their awesome styles and the totally mind blowing original plots had me hooked. From this stemmed my fascination with all things Japanese. From there I discovered Japanese film. Death note is still my favourite ever film and also how i learnt about Gothic Lolita thanks to the super cute character Misa Amana 'Misa Misa'.

Before long i was buying japanese magazines and admiring the fashions and scouring Ebay for Japanese clothing. I had a phase of being primarily into Gyaru which loosely translates as gal. Gal has many different styles to it. I started off loving hime gyaru style which translates as princess gal which means dressing in very girly clothing. Pearls, pink, lace, bows etc. Then I moved onto Oneegal which means older sister gal which is aimed at women in their twenties especially. But I found gal too restrictive and now I don't limit myself to one particular Japanese fashion trend as I love aspects from a lot of them.

 I also have a fondness for Japanese brands like Emoda, Gilfy and Sly and Japanese influenced brand Harajuku Lovers (from Gwen Stefani) but only their shoes. I'm also into designers like Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto and Undercover and I have a passion for Hanae Mori vintage kimonos. I adore Japanese fashion because its innovative, varied and individual. When looking at streetsnaps of Tokyo I'm always amazed by the variety of styles and the uniqueness of the fashions.

 The Japanese know how to really go for it and they don't all look like carbon copies of each other which I love. Their individualism is what draws me to Japanese fashion. Japanese designers are constantly pushing fashion boundaries and I'm in awe of them. If only my bank balance was big enough to afford them but instead I use their ranges as inspiration. I don't think my obsession with Japanese fashion will ever die and I hope through my blog that I'll help more people fall in love with Japanese fashion like I have.

Japanese Fashions Influence on Western Style and Trends

Japanese fashion is influencing westerners more and more these days. Of course everyone knows of Gwen Stefani's love of Japan with her Harajuku girl backing dancers, Harajuku influence of fashion and of course her super cute Harajuku Lovers perfume. But it goes a lot deeper than that. Japanese fashion may not yet e as popular as high end brands like Versace and Louis Vuitton. But it is slowly being adopted as their fashion of choice by more and more by teenagers and young women in the west.

U.S. and European designers watch trends in Japan especially the Shibuya and Harajuku districts of Tokyo. As the Japanese are usually ahead of the trends and those trends tend to eventually find their way into Western fashion. The Japanese are also very accomplished when it comes to mixing and matching garments and they have a strong emphasis on colour compared to the West's love of monotone shades.

A fact that's not well known is that the majority of high end denim is made in Japan. They use a special dye which makes the denim of superior quality so quite a few of the major fashion houses use it.
Product designers worldwide have focus groups with Japanese girls before the release of ranges for their ahead of trend style.

The blue label of Burberry was developed by Japanese designer Sanyo Shokai for Japanese consumers but is now one of their fastest growing divisions within the company.
Japanese women are trendsetters because they are willing to take risks. They sure know how to dress. They also have a high amount of disposable income. Many still live at home even in their mid twenties while working in well paid professions. This enables them to afford the latest fashion and beauty looks.

Burberry Blue Label

The Japanese fashion revolution began in the 80s with designers like Issey Miyake, Kohji Kamamoto and Comme de Garcons. And its completely extended now with brands like Uniqlo, Kenzo and Muji and quite a few high end fashion houses have Japanese designers at the forefront. Designers like John Galliano, Marc Jacobs and Karl Lagerfeld have long been fans of Japanese fashion and regularly go there for inspiration.

Issey Miyake

One current Japanese designer brand to keep your eye on for future trends is Sacai. Headed by former Comme de Garcons designer Chitose Abe.

Sacai

And Jun Takahashi is another. He's been well known in fashion circles for quite sometime. His label is Undercover.

Undercover

Watch this space for more information on these two designers.
I know this was a really long post but its one i wanted to do for quite sometime as i think its a very relevant topic. I hope i didn't bore you too much :)

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