TOKYO STREET STYLE AND ITALO DISCO WEEK! HARAJUKU AND MARUI ONE LOLITA CLOTHING SNAPS.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the blog’s first themed week of 2009! Last year, I dedicated a seven-day series of posts to the Rococo era, Interior Design, and Books (with a clothing giveaway at the end). This time, we’re going for a double whammy: I hereby declare that this shall be Street Style / Italo Disco Week! I’ll be bringing you snaps of Tokyo’s wildest street fashion, followed by an 80s-space-disco-synth Song of the Day.
Let’s get started with Style Arena. Launched in 2002 by the Japan Fashion Association, the website’s goal is “to spread and share Japan’s dynamic fashion-culture and life view to Asia and the rest of the world.” My favorite section is Tokyo New Tribe, which classifies looks by theme and even provides a color chart.
The girls on the “Lolita Fashion” page were snapped on the eighth floor of MaruiOne Shinjuku (which you may recognize from my store photos). The write-up describes the influence of cute, girly DC (Designers & Characters) brands from the mid-1980s: Pink House, Atsuki Onishi, Hiromichi Nakano. Today’s Lolita brands are linked by several common features: “kawaii (cute), good quality and keeping us interested for long time.” I can agree with that!
I wasn’t the only one taking photos of Gothic and Lolita girls outside JCB Hall (at the Marui Fashion Expo). The website describes the influence of Mana, whose outfits “combined both elegance and dark mysterious aspects.”
Before you start typing an “thou art an ignoramus” comment – no, I realize these girls are not wearing Lolita. It’s Akihabara maid style; the short skirts and disposable materials place the outfits squarely under cosplay. I included these photos so that you can play “spot the differences” with Lolita – and because they’re charming nonetheless.
Which tribe would you fall under? More reports to come all week, and you can visit Style Arena for hundreds of Tokyo street snaps. Til then, I’ll share an Italo Disco track I’ve been obsessing over…
Song of the Day #30: Noa Noa – Harry O’ (1983)
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31 Comments
I look at Style Arena quite a bit but had never seen this section..strange.
Looking now my favourite style/sections are probably goth+mode, gothic lolita, fairy-kei and hime.
Fairy-kei is adorable – I love the color-stained hair.
I was wondering on a kind of seperate note, do you ever do sweet loli yourself? I am not a huge fan but looking online it always seems to be the most popular style with english/american fans.
Never… it's not my vibe… but I try to put up Sweet Lolita photos on the blog regularly. ;)
hehe i think the blocks great XD i want all them garments haha XDD
I look at Style Arena quite a bit but had never seen this section..strange.
Looking now my favourite style/sections are probably goth+mode, gothic lolita, fairy-kei and hime.
Fairy-kei is adorable – I love the color-stained hair.
I was wondering on a kind of seperate note, do you ever do sweet loli yourself? I am not a huge fan but looking online it always seems to be the most popular style with english/american fans.
Never… it’s not my vibe… but I try to put up Sweet Lolita photos on the blog regularly. ;)
Do you know any other good resources about fairy kei? Thanks!
What do you think about princess kei?
Marui One's LiveJ Kera Snaps always have some great fairy-kei looks: http://livej.maruione.jp/content/blogcategory/1…
Princess kei… depends. I like hime-lolita, but I'm a little afraid of the Jesus Diamante girls with bouffant hairdos, perfectly manicured nails and $1000 dresses covered in ribbons. I'm convinced that they're fem-bots, haha!
Style Arena is awesome! (big +++ for english :D)
But like chelsea's comment, I've never seen the New Tribes section you mentioned.. 0_o
I like the 2nd picture in Koukama-Kei, her dress is so cute! ^_^
I think visual kei is my favorite, because some of it is similar to J-Punk (like old vivienne westwood-ish! haha)
hehe i think the blocks great XD i want all them garments haha XDD
Do you know any other good resources about fairy kei? Thanks!
What do you think about princess kei?
Marui One’s LiveJ Kera Snaps always have some great fairy-kei looks: http://livej.maruione.jp/content/blogcategory/1/7/lang,en/
Princess kei… depends. I like hime-lolita, but I’m a little afraid of the Jesus Diamante girls with bouffant hairdos, perfectly manicured nails and $1000 dresses covered in ribbons. I’m convinced that they’re fem-bots, haha!
Thank you very much for the link!
Did you know that hime-kei girls in Ageha are not-fem bots but hostesses, haha? Looks like this style comes out of these clubs, and it seems to be more mainstream now than loli, because hime-gyaru like styles appear in many girls’ fashion mags, but I’m not really sure about it being mainstream or not… Have you seen many hime girls in the streets of Tokyo?
Hahah there are a lot of done-up-to-the-nines hime-girls, especially in Shibuya. Sometimes, you’ll see them at the strangest places – like at Visual Kei concerts!
Style Arena is awesome! (big +++ for english :D)
But like chelsea’s comment, I’ve never seen the New Tribes section you mentioned.. 0_o
I like the 2nd picture in Koukama-Kei, her dress is so cute! ^_^
I think visual kei is my favorite, because some of it is similar to J-Punk (like old vivienne westwood-ish! haha)
Style Arena is a great site for street style straight from the source. I especially like the Tokyo shop style section where you can see the interiors of shops and salons.
I just wish they'd update the new tribes section more often!
Style Arena is a great site for street style straight from the source. I especially like the Tokyo shop style section where you can see the interiors of shops and salons.
I just wish they’d update the new tribes section more often!
Thank you very much for the link!
Did you know that hime-kei girls in Ageha are not-fem bots but hostesses, haha? Looks like this style comes out of these clubs, and it seems to be more mainstream now than loli, because hime-gyaru like styles appear in many girls' fashion mags, but I'm not really sure about it being mainstream or not… Have you seen many hime girls in the streets of Tokyo?
Hahah there are a lot of done-up-to-the-nines hime-girls, especially in Shibuya. Sometimes, you'll see them at the strangest places – like at Visual Kei concerts!
Thank you for this post. I’ve enjoyed it a lot! great looks here!
As much as I like to hear about new sites I like to recommend about them too, so today I visited this cool t-shirts site. It has a lot of urban and street wear!
Amy
Thank you for this post. I’ve enjoyed it a lot! great looks here!
As much as I like to hear about new sites I like to recommend about them too, so today I visited this cool t-shirts site. It has a lot of urban and street wear!
Amy
Thou art an igno…nevermind! I would never say that! I'm looking forward to seeing the rest actually…
Hahah! I posted some more street snaps – and there's more to come all week!
Thou art an igno…nevermind! I would never say that! I’m looking forward to seeing the rest actually…
Hahah! I posted some more street snaps – and there’s more to come all week!
nice photos and gorgouse outfits!!!!!
nice photos and gorgouse outfits!!!!!
nice photos and gorgouse outfits!!!!!