Has Japan's Street Fasion gaining popularity because of music?

[Pumpkin]

[FONT=Arial][SIZE=2][COLOR="#990033"][b]If you've ever heard any of Gwen Stefani's new songs or seen her videos, you can see she's been creating the latest fad of Harajuku girls. What are Harajuku girls exactly? Well from the jist of it, their girls from the street. The ghetto in Japan I guess you could say. Also Harajuku is a place.The new phenomen inspired by music, of Japan Street Fashion. My questions are what do you think of Japan Street Fashion? I mean they look like characters from a part of an anime. Do you like or dislike the look? And why do you think music helped it expand to so much publicity here in the U.S? If your not quite sure what Japan Street Fashion is...you might want to take a look at this [URL=http://japanesestreets.com/]Click[/URL] and you will see what I mean. Personally, I admire them for being unique, but I don't like the look. It's different to hear about something in another country besides America when it comes to music. Adds some variety. Post your thoughts on it. [/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]

[satan665]

I've actually been to Harajuku and its a pretty cool place. Its basically an outdoor mall with tons of shops (mostly clothes) and teens decked out to try and impress people. A lot of extreme American punk/goth style stuff mixed in with expensive fancy rich people clothes. The younger, teen part is cool but the upscale part is just high fashion crap.

I think that Gwen thinks she's so very cool and stylish, but is basically just exploiting that Japanese subculture. The six or so girls she has in all of her videos are under contract so that they can't speak english and are basically dolls. Its like some retarded form of slavery where you just throw money around and get people to do what you want. Stefani is an idiot (have you ever heard her talk in an interview?) who has the brain of a 14 year old. Its weird if people here start having "Harajuku style" which is just an extreme copy of American style in the first place.

[Manic Webb]

[QUOTE=satan665]I've actually been to Harajuku and its a pretty cool place. Its basically an outdoor mall with tons of shops (mostly clothes) and teens decked out to try and impress people. A lot of extreme American punk/goth style stuff mixed in with expensive fancy rich people clothes. The younger, teen part is cool but the upscale part is just high fashion crap.

I think that Gwen thinks she's so very cool and stylish, but is basically just exploiting that Japanese subculture. The six or so girls she has in all of her videos are under contract so that they can't speak english and are basically dolls. Its like some retarded form of slavery where you just throw money around and get people to do what you want. Stefani is an idiot (have you ever heard her talk in an interview?) who has the brain of a 14 year old. Its weird if people here start having "Harajuku style" which is just an extreme copy of American style in the first place.[/QUOTE]
Free The Gwenihana Four!!

I [i]want[/i] to believe us Americans aren't crazy enough to buy into the Harajuku style, especially since our version of it (or something similar) went out of style around the turn of the century in the hip-hop community.

[Semjaza]

A lot of Japanese modern fashion and music is an emulation and sometimes also a slight alteration of something that happened before in another country anyway. Same with most movements of this type anywhere, really.

I'd question how much of this type of thing is directly stealing from this singular idea in the first place, personally. I see stuff similar to this even still (and have for as long as I can remember) in random sections of Chicago. Depends on the types of places you go. Some of the stuff I see in these linked pictures has direct resemblances to things made over the last few decades elsewhere (like weird Elton John-ish glasses... plus, remember those dumb visor sunglasses from the 80s? people wore those normally). Some people have always just dressed up and looked weird at all times lol.

Although at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a direct copy of that stuff in her case. She seems to be latching on to everything lately.

[Manic Webb]

*actually looks over the above link*

I'd like to note that my earlier comments were directed mostly at the Gwenihana Four (Gwen Stefani's Harajuku girls), and not so much at the styles depicted in that link. Gwen's indentured servant entourage has more of a hip-hopish look, although that might just be the "Holla Back Girl" video.

[i]That[/i] kind of crazy dressing (the photos in the above link) dates back, as far as I know, to at least the Marx Brothers' era. Maybe even the Chapman/Keaton days. Not so much the loud colors (especially not with Chapman and Keaton... for obvious reasons), but the way they clearly dress in otherwise sensible clothing in an odd combination. Like NPC said, people have been dressing strangely all the time.

[Semjaza]

I was looking at some magazine and apparently she is directly interested in that style. She has some camera she helped design that says "Harajuku Girls" on it for whatever reason. I guess she's a specialized case compared to the more general things I was thinking of.

I don't know if it would really make much of a difference in bringing this to more people's attention. Most people would watch that and just be like "oh, she's dressing strange" and leave it at that. I doubt a majority of people would even bother to look into what she got it from.

[Charon]

[QUOTE=satan665]
I think that Gwen thinks she's so very cool and stylish, but is basically just exploiting that Japanese subculture...Its like some retarded form of slavery where you just throw money around and get people to do what you want. Stefani is an idiot (have you ever heard her talk in an interview?) who has the brain of a 14 year old. Its weird if people here start having "Harajuku style" which is just an extreme copy of American style in the first place.[/QUOTE]

Don't you think that's a little harsh? I mean, slavery?
It's basically just a group of back-up dancers with extra camera attention.

As for Gwen, I don't really think it's fair to call her an idiot. Regarldess of how articulate she is in interviews, the Harajuku girls are just her muses of the moment. She's just inspired by them.

It really isn't a complex issue.

[Delta]

[COLOR=#7C0201][SIZE=1]^ A hundred ounces of truth. Yep, yep.[QUOTE]Has Japan's Street Fasion gaining popularity because of music?[/QUOTE]Most probably.

For example, if it weren't for Malice Mizer, I'd still be clueless about the gothic/loli style that's popular among Visual Kei bands.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe these bands showed up when goth culture reached Japanese shores. The emergence of Beyonce Knowles-ish styles artists like Crystal Kay's been sporting lately leads me to believe that Japanese street fashion doesn't evolve independently from what's in with the rest of the world. It's not really unique to Harajuku but perhaps the styles are direct results of adaptation. The Japanese certainly are good at it, don't you think?

BTW, the Harajuku Girls remind me of Betsy Ross.[/SIZE][/COLOR]