Latest Street Fashion in Japan

WA
Internet becomes so popular today that it is easy to learn about styles and fashion from other cultures. In this technology era, young Japanese people are not just following overseas fashion trends; they are also looking with renewed interest upon traditional Japanese motifs and techniques. This is when “WA” street fashion emerges, a fusion style of Western and Japanese elements.

The style – Attention to use Japanese motifs and traditional techniques. Incorporating traditional elements like Japanese materials, decorations, or fabrication techniques into modern styles. Specific examples are cherry-blossom patterns on jeans and t-shirts dyed by Kyo yuzen dying technique; kimono-inspired wrap cardigans, and stickers for decorating cell phones.

WA Street Fashion on High Runway
A growing number of overseas designers are taking an interest in elements of WA as well. Famous designer like Alexander McQueen introduced dresses inspired by construction of kimono. French designer Marie Bouvero sets her eyes on furoshiki, a renewed traditional square cloth that used to wrap objects into modern and edgy bags.

Salon Boys
Salon Boys represents the style enjoyed by hairdressers and students of beauty colleges located around the Uraharajuku area. The fashion defines itself as refined yet casual. Based on one's fashion sense, a Salon Boy mixes freely of sport, casual, second hand and high end clothes together. The immense popularity of Salon Boy trend have huge influences to the mass fashion especially in teenage fashion. This styles is featured on women’s fashion magazines as the hottest and most fashionable guys today.

The style - Metrosexual trends symbolized by fedora hats, narrow ties, and long cardigans.

Salon Boy on High Runway

Famous fashion brands such as Comme Des Garcons and Cerruti incorporated Salon boy's signature elements, the fedora hat and long cardigan into their spring/summer collection. Comparing to Cerruti clean and preppy image, I like Comme Des Garcons' funky and stylish image.

8 Popular Street Trends and the connection with High Fashion Runway

1)Zoot Suits
Zoot suits were popular in 1930 in the jazz music or dance scene. The style of high waisted baggy pants and long coat considered a fashion statement in dance clubs particularly.
The style - high-waisted, wide-legged trousers, a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. The signature zoot suiters wore a felt hat with a long feather and a pair of pointy. It was a style for dance and party.

Zoot Suits on High Runway-

John Galliano

John Galliano creatively imposed snakeskin and denim into zoot suit. I like he transformed the snakeskin into checkered pattern top with a felt hat, reflecting the spirit of a funky and flashy zoot suiter presented in a dance scene.

2) Teddy Boys
Young people had increasing disposable income during the post-war years. They began to accept the Teddy Boys style that encouraged them to show off their look. they care and maintained a presentable dress all the time.
The style : long drape jackets in dark shades; high-waisted "drainpipe" trousers and bright color socks.

Teddy Boys on High Runway -

Comme Des Garcons

In the fall 2005 collection featured a teddy boy’s dream of a drape jacket with velvet trim collar and cropped black nylon trousers. The "young boys" look are presentable and ready to go for show or party.

3) Beatniks
A sociocultural movement started in the 1950s and early 1960s. The concept of Beatniks was to promote anti-materialistic lifestyle.
The style: men in their goatees and berets; women wore black leotards and kept their hair long, straight and matched with black turtlenecks and berets.

Beatniks on High Runway- Marc by Marc Jacobs

The Beatnik collection included oversized houdstooths, girly dresses and skirts, berets, hobo handbags and black tights. The colors accented the funky and slouchy silhouettes.

4) Mods
Mod culture originated in London in the late 1950s and became popular in the early to mid 1960s

The style : Female mods kept short haircuts; wore flat shoes, little makeup and false eyelashes; extremely short miniskirts.Famous designer Mary Quant was known for her miniskirts design that promoted the Mods fashion.

Mods on High Runway

In 2007, retro Mod dresses was brought back by Hollywood stars. They wore a short dress with high heels for an evening glamorous look or a pair of cute flats for day look. They were inspired by Mary Quant who revolutionized the world of fashion with her short sexy designs.

5) Hippies
The hippie was a youth subculture that began in the United States during the mid-1960s. Hippies valued their own communities, listened to rock music, supported the sexual revolution, and used drugs to challenge the states of consciousness.

The style : Men and women in their jeans and long hair; wore sandals or went barefoot. Men often have beards,while women wore little or no makeup, with many going braless. Hippies like bright colored clothing and unique styles for example peasant blouses, long full skirts, tie dyed garments and etc.

Hippies on High Runway
The high fashion designers transformed the hippies elements (bright colors, sandals, unique prints and embellishments) into modern feminine young hippies style.

6) Disco
Disco was the first club and dance fashion. People treated it as the weekend fashion when they went dancing or party. Movies that make clear statement for disco fashion are Saturday Night Fever and Thank God It's Friday.

The style : Men in their figure hugging suits, wide flared trousers worn, platform shoes; using shimmering fabrics like satin, velvet and PVC. Women wear skintight garments such as catsuit with black tights.

Disco Fashion on High Runway- L.A.M.B.
Gwen Stafani's L.A.M.B. Spring 2008 collection is a lot more refined than her previous spring collection. With Spring 2008, L.A.M.B. has really embraced the new electro disco movement and went dark and sparkly. There is a lot of bold and linear mod influence with a touch of plaid patterns reminiscent of the grunge days.

7) Punk
Punk is a fashion and also a state of mind. It made great influence from music to fashion, graphic design to politics. Punk started out in London from 1975 to 1978. The pioneers of punk fashion were Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren.

The style : "Do it yourself" to make your own statement on the clothes that decorated with bad taste item; school blazer worn inside out and held together with safety pins; the signature bondage suit and pants, accessorized with a plastic Hoover ring and T shirt with provocative print.

Punk Fashion on High Runway- Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren

White cotton T-shirt with provocative slogan and prints are signature Punk garment. In the right picture, McLaren in his Seditionaries collection, created the black cotton terrycloth bondage pants that hobbled the legs together with knee strap matches with a blank white T-shirt where McLaren scrawled statements to confront and shock the public.

8) Hip Hop
Hip Hop fashion belongs to the tradition of street style. It represents fashion for urban spaces and is an expression of the socially marginalized.
The style-The oversized clothing : men in their oversized football jerseys, baggy jeans, and bling; the women in their skintight minidresses, colorful tube, halter tops, low rise jeans, and the bling.

Hip Hop on High Runway -LACOSTE

Lacoste was known as an iconic sporty and preppy label. But in Fall 2006 Ready to Wear collection, creative director Christophe Lemaire took on some hip hop street elements and created the oversized retro-looking zip up track suit, miniskirt and moon boots.

Fashion Influences from Historical Artistic Styles

1)Surrealism Art Fashion
The leading Parisian fashion designer of the 20s and 30s, Elsa Schiaparelli represented the surrealism art fashion. Schiaparelli often worked with Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. She created outrageous hats, invented shocking pink, and the first to use shoulder pads and animal prints fabrics.

Schiaparelli fused inventive creativity and romance into art. She took willful illusion and pounded it into wearable apparel. Her accessories often became fashion statements to be admired.

Visit Schiaparelli website to see how she incorporate Surrealism into her art world-
http://www.schiaparelli.com/intro.html

2)Art Deco Fashion

Erté, was the icon of the Art Deco style. Born in St. Petersburg and moved to Paris in 1912 to work in fashion, he briefly collaborated with couturier Paul Poiret. In 1915 he signed a contract with Harper's Bazaar and there after created 240 covers for the magazine. Erte is most famous for his elegant fashion designs which capture the art deco period in which he worked. His delicate figures and sophisticated, glamorous designs are instantly recognizable, and his ideas and art influence fashion into the 21st century. . His love of color and his elaborate couture designs put the magazine at the forefront of creative innovation. Erté also crafted scenery and costumes for stage productions like the Folies Bergère in Paris and Broadway musical Stardust.

3) Art Nouveau Fashion

Art Nouveau developed between 1890-1914. The art Nouveau fashion explored a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the nineteenth century.

In Prada 2007 collection at Milan Fashion week, Prada opted for a soft feminine look with Art Nouveau stylised florals and jewel tones. This collection was packed with elements from the 20s-style filtered through the 70s. I personally like the organza dress in batik print wore over the chequered tights that reflected a folksy noir vibe while giving a light and soft touch to the dress.

4)Pop Art Fashion- The Wearable Art
Pop art emerged about 1960 in New York and London where artists were painting bold and colorful images of objects. Many of the famous paintings were became icons and being used as motifs/prints on clothing. Famous examples are Andy Warhol and his Campbell’s soup can, Coca-cola bottles, portraits of Marilyn Monroe. Among all artists, Andy Warhol were closely connected to fashion and began to produce wearable art. On the other hand, the best pop art fashion, was designers like Yves Saint Laurent and Betsey Johnson who copied pop art iconic look.

5)Gothic Fashion

Goth is a dark and morbid subculture. Typical Gothic fashion includes black dyed hair, dark eyeliner and nail polish, red and black clothes. The fashion styles are mostly inspired from the Elizabethans and Victorians. Goths often have a deeper and different view of the world. They were deep in literature, poetry, role playing games, fashion and arts.
Examples shown above is Alexander McQueen’s 2001 Voss Collection. Using feathers and black ostrich plumes, the delicate nature of the dress is offset by its hardened shell bodice.

Another designer who always associated with Gothic fashion is John Galliano.This cotton gown had been texturized to look like red leather. I love the volume and the asymmetry of the skirt, and the staked cross necklace is the perfect accessory for such a strong piece.

Fashion influences from historical artistic styles

6)Abstract Art Fashion

Contemporary designers like Dolce & Gabbana took inspiration from modern painter Julian Schnnabel who specialises in abstract art, created a mix of shapes and colors of Fifties style evening dresses. Chloe which is known for its design femininity and simplicity also took influence from abstract art and created this white skirt with pink multi color abstract print.

The Genealogy of T-shirt

What is T-shirt (or tee shirt)? It is a garment that is so popular in the modern era. T-shirt is available for babies, teenagers, adult men and women. To define T-shirt, it is a buttonless, collarless, and pocketless shirt, usually with a round neck and short sleeves, pulled on over the head and covers one upper body.

1. During World War I and II

During WWI, European soldiers were wearing a comfortable and light weighted cotton undershirt in the hot summer days. American soldiers noticed it and impressed by its simple and cooler design. The cotton undershirts were more comfortable than the usual wool uniform that American soldiers wore. Soon, these shirts became known in the USA as "T-Shirts".

During World War II the T-shirt had become common underwear for both U.S. Army and the Navy. Soldiers often used it without a shirt covering it while doing heavy labor in a hot climate. As public was exposed to pictures of armies wearing pants and a T-shirt, these shirts became gradually more acceptable.

2. 1950-1955 The Big Screen

During this period, the T-shirts were worn by movie stars John Wayne, Marlon Brando and James Dean on national TV. In 1951, Marlon Brando shocked Americans in his film "A Streetcar Named Desire" when his T-Shirt was ripped off of his body revealing his naked chest.

In 1955, the T-Shirt which known as under garment was worn without another shirt covering it. In movie “Rebel Without A Cause”, James Dean projected a cool image with T-shirt, making T-Shirt a significant icon of rebellious youth.