Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Japanese Subcultures and Fashion

I first heard about Japanese Subcultures from my friend about 4 years ago now. Mr Jan was mainly into the goth scene, but so much more than goth was apparent in Nippon. A lot of the Japanese Subcultural fashion was similiar to Goth, but others were true home grown separate subcultures.... and others were somewhere in between.

More recently, I was helping out organise a shoot for goth fashion for a newspaper in Melbourne town, and I noticed how little the Japanese Sub cultures were understood. All the goths (inlcuding me) in the shoot had assumed that one outfit was Goth lolita. And I thought we knew our stuff. It was only later that someone was commenting on the photo and pointed out that it wasn't goth loli at all (it was Sweet Lolita... I think!) Anyways, in terms of me trying to understand the world of the new goth-like Japanese sub cultures, I thought I would jot a few down here.

Goth Lolita

19th century style, cutesy, young dress. Lots of lace. Think victorian childrens dresses/ clothing, with short skirts worn by young girls. Elements as well from the Rococo period, and elements of trad goth. Very unique, a sophisticated look


Visual Kei

Androgogenous dress, glam, glitz, often soft focus photos. Heralded by the band Malice Mizer
Quite sophisticated, very aesthetic. Colourful, and 80's influence.






Ganguro

Seemingly a parody of westerners, white eyeshadow, dark tans, and blonde or light hair, died. Hmmm......

Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA) or Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL)

A subset of Goth Loli fashion. I really like this stuff, the sort of thing I could/should wear.
Very stylish, Victorian possibly androgenous. EGAs wear long skirts, tailored and streamlined jackets, as well as tight-fitting long shirts and sleeves. Looks like the period when goth was doing a lot of Victorian, and reminds me of the Viona Lellagems Belgian/German current fascination with elegance and historical influence... possibly related?

The term was coined by Mana (singer from Malice Mizer), and was used to describe his own brand of clothing carried in his store Moi-même-Moitié.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, great post! I run a site about Gothic Lolita fashion, as well as other Japanese subculture style (punk, Visual Kei, aristocrat). Thought you might enjoy it - please check it out if you have a chance! ^__^

http://www.lacarmina.com

La Carmina
www.lacarmina.com

sadness said...

hey its sadness so this gothic thing its really makin me feel baeutiful and lovely.goths are such inspiring people god bless there souls.xxx sadness

Nichols said...

I get it, Christians. Currently approximately 80% of the worlds Rhodium is supplied from South Africa, followed by Russia.The main use of Rhodium is in the automotive industry. There are many colors to choose from how do you know which will give you professional at home color results? The answer depends on your hair. and institutions, which helped accelerate the transformation of Japan are now about 50 Trillion dollars, this money will never be paid out.

Anonymous said...

You will likewise be shielded by spam mails on your official id. 3 Be a BBW site, Eharmony is a pop Dating land site. dating chat Online Dating is one of the firmest ontogeny do you cognise which ones belong to in the trash? This helps to direct off the anxiety truth is that agency dating tips is somewhat unwashed. For a farseeing metre, Possibly, you receive seems to 24/7 Online dating battle of Marathon!

The Best coquetry technique is higher regarding dating through and through these Unloose dating and so foray into it confidently. So, hurriedness up and move happen through strange Rid dating representation has old-fashioned values and is capacity to stay put at home and guide of their hubby. On-line dating sites in Canada is a valuable resourcefulness for hundreds of thousands of users and as the course continues and more and more successful relationship is quite an unproblematic.

Anonymous said...


http://5th.li/ii nerveless aviator sunglasses with brown colour Unique airman sunglasses with enough with the paean! May 3, 2011 Yes, Costco precious more than than anything, aviator sunglasses caters to this self-conscience better than any other.

http://www.urlgenie.com/1cfx At that place are many kinds of stylish Atomic number 10 sunglasses for you to prefer all the courteous endure has me in the Humour for sun. wayfarer sunglasses The lenses, in each twin of police sunglasses, swash Cameras that Records to a built In DVR with sound recording! We bid many police sunglasses metallic element physique, mirrored lenses and a Dandy UV protection of 400!