Mondo Tokyo: 
Shibuya/Harajuku Fashion Craz. 
 

Shibuya 109

It is Shibuya in the dead of winter. However, here's a gal striding firmly through town in miniskirt and bare feet. This is the gal mecca of the world, the one that put Shibuya's KOGALS and their culture on the fashion map of the world.

At "109," a vertically-oriented mall, six floors high with five to six boutiques on each floor, hip hop at very large volume is applied to each store. Very noisy like a zoo. There are less GONGURO (dark-skinned) gals on average than a few years ago, though KOGAL density here is still the highest of any place in Japan. You wouldn't know that Japan was having an economic recession here, because the store is full of GALS GALS GALS spending money on clothes. If you want to be conspicuous here, the DASAI (out-of-fashion) style will work well. In the most BLACK TASTE boutique, a video of a gunfight featuring a U.S. BLACK GANG is on display. Japanese Sisters who choose the camisole with lame watching a quite violent video have no comment at all. 

....Innocent?

But of course the best and coolest dressed people are the shop clerks themselves. (They are the leaders of the pack and are known as "charisma salesclerks," the ones who transformed mere GALS into true KOGALS.)

At a cafe near 109, I hear some of the charisma salesclerks talking with their store's owner about sales plans, etc. They're quite earnest, and it was their coffee break. They work hard. Although they seems like hoochie mamas, when a customer goes into their store these boutique salesclerk gals will without exception diligently ask with a big smile, "What are you looking for?ÿPlease try it on!" rain of spangle from make-up.

These red-carpet receptions are given at 109 or any other gal store (it's not like in the United States). Full marks for the service!

OGALS

These gals hang out around in the streets, thinking, "There's got to be something good out here," but mostly talking and chatting about nothing with friends. These gals spending days upon days just hangin' out in the street are increasing in number. These are the "petit running-away-from-home" gals, having only "hung out with a friend for a long time" instead of doing anything that could actually be called "running away from home" or "homeless." Since they have no money, they sleep outside. It's said they're called "O-gal" for "O," the kanji meaning dirty since they don't change their dress and don't brush their teeth, either. They're now the most formidable rivals of GONGUROS of the pure-white-lipstick-matching-deep-black-skin type in terms of being the fiercest gals, fearful of no one.

Cat Street - circulation department of fine arts which connects fashion to music

Harajuku is still the ground zero of so-called YOUNG FASHION. Most of the boys are in to HIP HOP STYLE. But you can find more unique and interesting stores in a small alley than on the main street. Here's a boutique of FASHION said to be the most foppish of boy's styles. That is  MODS or NORTHERN SOUL look. There is an image of "Bowie" in the tag of the store, and of course, there are a LP jackets of The Who, Small Faces, etc. Customers are particular about the kind of thread and material used, and as scrupulous as "MODS" to all details even down to the corners of the cuffs and method of sewing.

The salesclerk here is firmly living in the mind of a "Northern Soul," which started in Britain originally.  Japan is still very good at consuming the subcultures of other countries like this one, which is from Britain.

Lots of used-clothing stores too. And it isn't cheap. Some of ordinary-looking jeans and jackets are already treated as historical curios in these stores. Harajuku, and some other parts of Tokyo, might just be the world's #1 vintage clothing shopping neighborhoods. You can find a lot of "funny English" T-shirts are here, like tiny baby tees that say "Burger Queen" instead of "Burger King," in the BK logo style. Where the hell did they find it?

LoliGoth

In the '80s "New Wave" mixed intellect with glam and punk, mutated, and produced GOTH which spread in music, literature, and fashion culture.

Furthermore in Japan,  the "Shojo Stuff/Virtual Pure Girl" (from otaku culture) was joined with French dolls fashions in Harajuku to create LOLITA GOTH. Fancy dresses which are featured as works of art in of themselves are sold by the Harajuku boutique brand-synthesis specialty store call LAFORET. Loligoth girls  (age unknown) who do themselves up in the same appearance as their dolls express the darkness of their hearts. 

Although from the outside they might be regarded as manifestations of an attitude of remarkable "self-love" too KOGALS expressing themselves and young men who are into MOD or vintageclothes and their fundamental motives might be the same, still, their strong element of narcissism is why many people can't sympathize wth either GOTHS or LOLITAS. 

Maybe they exhibit too much "I am lonely, I am sad" sentiments; it's unavoidable to sense that. 

However, surprisingly, in fact, this attitude (to see and judge GOTHS as egotistic self-expression of dark emotion) has long since passed in Japan. The energy of LOLIGOTH is brought out by the magazine NUBERUGU, which doesn't have a bit of  that "I am lonely, I want to die" essence. There is none of that.

The MOOK of a NUBERUGU,  titled GOTHIC & LOLITA BABBLE has long feature pages about, "Let's carry out handmade brand clothes!" or "Let's have a GOTHLOLI party!" Pages are full of "how to make" lessons all very cheerful. It's a very pleasant magazine made to feature bright hobbies. Moreover, the influence from glam-makeup bands (visual-kei) and comics (shojo manga) are also large in GOTHLOLI. Again, here we have an interesting actual resulting from a mixture of British subculture (New Wave, Goth) and Japanese subculture (Shojo Manga/Figure Doll/Otaku/pop band) in Japan.

No trend no future?

Actually today, kids who read manga in Japan are decreasing in number. And not coincidentally, reading manga is considered an intellectual activity now whereas it used to be considered an intellectually deficient activity. Therefore, can we say that the popular activities of young people reading comics, listening to music, buying and making dress should be recognized as valuable, healthy impulses?

Tokyo perfectly serves as a gathering place for young people's energy. The kids of Harajuku and Shibuya who jump at any new style with no hesitation enjoy culture as hard as possible.

But these are only few samples of current young people's trends in Japan. The majority of kids (mostly outside of main city) are perhaps not doing or not getting into anything. Otaku (which means folks who get into their hobbies heavily) used to be on the dark side of Japan. Nowadays otaku actually look healthier than non-otakus in Japan. Maybe because it's because it's always better to have some energy than none. 

-J. Tack