Japanese youth Culture

 Japanese youth culture

Youth culture in japan didn't start developing its own individuality and styles until the mid 1980's.

Throughout the 1990's Japan youth culture continued to grow and separate into different subcultures. Such as;

-Decora

-Kawaii 

- Lolita

- Gothic Lolita

-Aristocrat Lolita

-Ganguru

-Cyber punk

-Visual Kei

-Oshare Kei

-Cosplay

-Shironuri

Decora

Decora's literal english translation is decorative. Which means to dress up decoratively to show the kawaii (cuteness) aspect of self expressionism in fashion. People that dress in the decora fashion usually wear simplistic childish clothes. On top of this they accessorise with anything brightly coloured or fuzzy, anything that symbolises childishness and innocence. The style itself is rather miss matched and built up in layers. Females tend to try and make themselves look as young and childlike as possible, they wear large shoes to make the rest of there bodies seem smaller. They are often seen in baby doll dresses and an excessive amount of bows.

The fashion like many other fashion sub cultures in Japan originated in Harajuku in the late 1990's. In 1997 the magazine 'FRUiTS' was created to show photos of Japanese street fashion. Aki Kobayashi, the cover model for the first issue of 'FRUiTS' wrote columns for the magazine, in these columns she wrote about her style and how she created her own accessories. Her way of looking soon caught onto the youth of Japan and they started to follow and replicating her style. Decora followers started trading items in Harajuku and the style became more well known and is now an accepted fashion style throughout Japan.

Lolita

This subculture is mainly inspired by music. The followers of this fashion usually wear knee high dresses and socks and dress childlike and innocently. They strive to look as young and flawless as possible,

 There are many different styles of Lolita

A few of these include;

Gothic Lolita- Dark frilly ruffled knee length dresses and ruffled headbands. Most accessories and dresses are dark coloured mainly black and heavy eyeliner is often used.

Aristocrat Lolita refers to a more subdued, refined dressing, usually consisting of longer dresses or coats. Often referring to the victorian-esque era.

Punk Lolita - As the name suggests this fashion is heavily influenced by western punk fashion, but is usually a cuter softer adaption. Punk lolits was mostly popular during the early 2000's. This style is often more casual looking than other styles although the knee length dresses and knee high socks are still often a must in with this fashion.

Ganguro

Ganguro fashion started in the mid 1990's. This style is distinguished by a dark tan contrasting makeup and lightly coloured hair. This fashion was started by a rebellious youth who wished to rebel against the traditional concept of Japanese beauty.

Cyberpunk

cyberpunk fashion has often been a fusion of the punk look, leather and pvc with zips chains and buckles. A certain genre of music comes alongside this fashion subculture along with its own style of dancing.

Visual Kei

A brand of Japanese rock music where band members (mostly men) wear elaborate makeup and stage costumes, much of the time cross dressing. Kei translates in english as Style.

Oshare Kei 

Oshare Kei is a Japanese music and fashion style. It means fashion conscience. Unlike visual Kei the bands associated with Oshare Kei ora bouncy and colourful and there songs are often about happy and positive messages. The style is colourful and vibrant.

Cosplay 

Cosplay is short for costume play. People who dress cosplay wear costumes and fashion accessories which represent a character from a game ,anime, comic,book or movie. It is , in its simplistic form, Fancy dressing as your favourite fictional character. 

Shironuri

Shironuri translates as 'Painted in white'. People that follow this fashion paint there face white. This is the only rule associated with the shironuri fashion style.  

In conclusion Japan have many different subcultures a lot of which may seem strange to more western cultures which seem to keep there fashions rather dull compared to that of Japan. Japan has an obsession with all things kawaii or cute.Slowly the Kawaii culture is finding itself more noticed in western culture. In fashion,music,products and human actions. Kawaii has now became mainstream in western countries and has been fully integrated into everyday life. I love the look of many of these fashions the brightness of the colours and accessories attract me. If I keep on top of whats popular and fashionable in Japan I can relate to it and hint on it in my work which could attract a wider audience.