TOKYO FASHION – Alternative is the norm.
In the first of our features on Tokyo, Editorista tells us how she experienced the fashion and youth culture: So I’m back, jetlagged and luggageless – but I’m bubbling over with awesome stories from my sejour…The best way for me to explain what I experienced in Tokyo is to put it down as it went through my head – as a constant comparison to how we live here in South Africa and Joburg in particular. I can’t help it, I’m fascinated by how some places are so quirky and how they work so well – I believe that our emerging economy and developing country has a lot it can learn from others who lead the way. Don’t forget that Japan was devastated in the Second World War and that they have rebuilt their society since then… Their real period of urbanisation and social change and reinvention came about in the mid 60s and 70’s – only 20 years after the war and atomic bombs. We’re on year 12 of our journey – interesting comparison to start with…
Anyway – I digress… As you may or may not know, Editorista set off for a week to Tokyo searching for trends and generally finding out what it is that makes Tokyo peeps rock as much as they do. “I was totally overwhelmed, inspired and humbled by the Japanese people and the glowing, pulsing, moving city of Tokyo and I encourage anybody who’s vaguely interested in the East to start saving now! Forget the usual suspects when it comes to travelling and make sure to head on to Japan! Even though I’ve never been to the US and I probably stand corrected, I imagine New York must pale in comparison to this futuristic streamlined metropolis that is TOKYO or Edo as it used to be known. It’s futuristic, organised, clean, mind-boggling and endless. Go GO HAMBANI!” (PS: I’m sorry the site was a little boring and ‘under-updated’ in my absence but I promise that the next few stories of our TOKYO feature will more then make up for it. Ncesi.)
First up, FASHION and the YOUTH CULTURE. Wow. There’s definitely lots of similarities and coherence between the originality and creativity of Tokyo youth and Jozi youth and I often found myself feeling right ekasi. But there are lots of differences as well.
For one, the unemployment level in Japan has reached a shocking “5%” which everyone is up in arms about. Hah Hah. Try our stats for size. This means that most of the youth are employed and therefore have disposable income and a guaranteed job no matter what their education or background – so they get to live it up and spend money on getting creative and trendy every weekend.
According to my insider source, they live a very chilled out life and even though they may appear to work very long hours, they don’t sweat it and comparitively speaking are almost a little unfocused and unambitious – just doing what it takes to get by. Life is good and easy in Japan – no stress, no road rage and few bad tempers were spotted AT ALL!!!
South African youth manage to get creative on very little moolah and very few options and I salute our youth for that but I definitely sensed a lot less of a conservative attitude towards what you wear and how you express yourself in Tokyo – almost like the more wild and wacky you were, the more respect you received… Here we tend to stick to what’s in and those that get a little crazy are seen as ‘alternatief’ or ‘arty’ – in Tokyo Alternative is the norm. Boring is so last year.
One can’t help but notice the strong GOTHIC PUNK and ROCK influence in hairstyles, make-up and clothing in particular (check out our pics here) as well as a huge love of what was blatantly labeled on posters and shopfronts BLACK – “black hair” “black music” and “black style” aka dreadlocks, afros, hiphop, RnB, funk, soul and big baggy US basketball clothing (tres 90’s!). I didn’t see many black peeps in Tokyo, in fact I saw very few non-Japanese peeps in general, but the few black dudes I did see hanging out were apparently Nigerian and Congolese heavies who are there for the moolah and to ‘look after’ Japanese ladies of the night and scare off any weirdos with their BIG pimp-looking bodies. That comes from my Black mate in Tokyo by the way who worded it as: “They’re Black folks giving Black folks a bad name.” Damn. Go make it right Representers!!
But even though we were some of the only GAIJIN (foreigners) we saw, we didn’t “sore-thumb it” – no-one stared at us, looked twice at us, pointed fingers at us (as we had been led to believe) or even bothered us. We didn’t get special treatment either, we just fitted right in… well kind of. As one of my darling travel companions put it, “If you wanna feel fat, big or totally out of fashion, come to Tokyo.” We certainly felt FAT, BIG and UNCOOL but no-one dissed us – we were just some more conservative-looking foreigners doing their thing.
Toyko youth are so freaking trendy it’s intimidating (can’t stress this enough)… We also had the wrong season (wrong information) and I was rocking my summer skimpy vests and only had one mediocre green tracktop to keep me warm which meant that I felt really untrendy and a little lot frumpish and very cold a lot of the time. A freezing end of Autumn not a warm beginning of Spring! Doh. Of course being a fair-sized African woman, there were very few clothes that would have fitted so I had to make do and feel freezingly out of fashion for a few days in my tracktop. Eish. Bad for the Jozi stylie ego!
Judging by the unbelievable number of fabulous small fashion shops EVERYWHERE(not unlike Hong Kong) run by fabulous young people, we’re guessing that a lot of vaguely trend concious youth have opened their own fashion range, label, shop or do the import thing or simply work in one – this probably accounts for the lack of unemployment too – maybe we should try this here! Come on dudes, open your shop! Employ peeps in your shop so they can open their shop and so on…! Help unemployment!
Whenever you walk into a shop, the staff all greet you with a singsongy high-pitched ‘welcome’ : “Irais-shai-MASE!” – every single shop you go into! It immediately makes you feel at home (and less out of fashion) and when you leave, they all thank you for coming with a loud “Arigato gozaimase” Talk about polite and talk about customer service. I went into a shop similar to an Edgars or Woolies and was amazed to find that the (numerous and interested) shop assistants actually give you undying personal attention (but not to the stalking point) and do whatever it takes to make you feel special – which obviously results in sales – CUSTOMER SERVICE – as never experienced on our shores.
Back to fashion – forget boring ‘metallics’ or whatever the ‘fashion guru’s’ tell you is in this season and think Tokyo “mish mash” – we let you know about this here when we were in Hong Kong last year and as you know, we believe global fashion inspiration comes from the East and not the West, so if you like rocking it first, lalelani! The formula was simple but beautiful: Have no fear, be as creative as you can, layer it on, bubble it up and more is more!”
Ladies first – the ladies just amazed me, every single young woman I saw had made an effort to stand out from the rest and be UNIQUE. No looking in magazines to get inspired and borrow from some rich mama from cloud cuckoo land’s style that you can’t afford, rather just make it up as you go along. Start with stockings, skinny jeans, leggings (don’t forget we warned you months ‘go ’bout leggings here – all the way to the ankles in winter) add some cowboy or flat boots (no heels on boots – must be baggy and loose) or low-heeled courts and then layer it with puffs and bubbles all the way up to your accessories and up to your hair which must be cut in the latest most trendy style to get the look. Supa!
Lots of girls were wearing micro mini’s with knee-high or above-knee socks, legwarmers and court shoes and of course the whole ‘volume’ and ‘swing jacket’ with big bold buttons were in too (MR Price has them already for R99 – impressive!). The other winter must-have jackets were fur-lined (not cr*p looking fur) hoodie jackets – padded or in suede, armless or with full arms. Wear belts, badges, hats, caps, bubble arm shirts, lacy shirts, long dress shirts, dresses over leggings or skinny jeans, just layer layer and more layers. No one cared how fat they looked – that’s besides the point. The more mish-mash the better!
Boys – well they all looked different and there were clearly different crews – but hairstyle played a major role (our boys not too bad at that) but there were very few trendy trainers and track tops ala Jozi – its was very skinny tapered low-hung jeans (please note bell-bottomed, flared or cargo jeans so NO NO – move on and get skinny!), big boots, big chain filled and badge filled jackets, suit jackets with white formal shirts and skinny ties, big puffy fur-hooded jackets… Almost a punk, retro hiphop feel. If that makes sense. Second-hand shops abounded and many people wore hip second hand clothes at prices we couldn’t believe.
What we loved were the boys in suits – the salarymen – the sexiest fitted suits you seen ladies (save up and hook yourself up with one dudes) with the most out-there fabulous ties and hairstyles and these long pointy shoes… just so hot. See the pics. Office work doesn’t have to be conservative and if enough of you do it the boss will get used to it…We Love ReBels!
Then there was the alternative scene, which in Tokyo’s case is really way out – here the GOTHIC LOLITA’s, THE GOTHLOLI’s, the Victorian MAID scene, the MANGA scene – the COSPLAY scene – totally far out and wacky – see our pics here – we still have loads to come but our luggage is still in Singapore (long story). Read here for more on the Gothic Lolita scene from Wikipedia… The MAID or NURSE scene is also really interesting – young women dress up as MAIDS or NURSES and work at Cafe’s in the electronic and Manga suburb of Akahibara where all the GEEKS hangout – they offer special massages, reflexology etc (apparently it’s all above board 😉 ) to the loveless and computer obsessed Geeks who visit their cafes many times a week and get served by the subservient lasses… Geeky! Read more here from the Washington post.
We’ll also be posting some videos in the next few days from our trip to highlight the real spirit of Tokyo so keep watching. That’s it for now – but lots more to come – stay peeled! Arigato! = Sharpile!
