Japan began to emulate Western fashion during the middle of the 19th century. By the beginning of the 21st century, this emulation has formed street fashion, a fashion style in which the wearer customizes outfits by adopting a mixture of current and traditional trends. Such clothes are generally home-made with the use of material purchased at stores.
At present, there are many styles of dress in Japan, created from a mix of both local and foreign labels. Some of these styles are extreme and avant-garde, similar to the haute couture seen on European catwalks. The rise and fall of many of these trends has been chronicled by Shoichi Aoki since 1997 in the fashion magazine FRUiTS, which is a notable magazine for the promotion of street fashion in Japan.
More recently, Japanese hip-hop, which has long been present among underground Tokyo’s club scene, has influenced the mainstream fashion industry.The popularity of the music is so influential that Tokyo’s youth are imitating their favorite hip hop stars from the way they dress with over-sized clothes to tanned skin. The idea of darkening one’s skin to more closely resemble an American hip-hop star or ethnic group may seem like a fad, but this subculture, the black facers, do not particularly set themselves apart from many other sub cultures that have emerged as a result of hip hop.
Click to view slideshow.Although Japanese street fashion is known for its mix-match of different styles and genres, and there is no single sought-after brand that can consistently appeal to all fashion groups, the huge demand created by the fashion-conscious population is fed and supported by Japan’s vibrant fashion industry. Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo of the Comme des Garçons are often said to be the three cornerstone brands of Japanese fashion. Together they were particularly recognized as a Japanese fashion force in the early 80s for their intensive use of monochrome color and cutting-edge design.
As early as the 1950s, there were a few brands specially catered to street fashion, like Onitsuka Tiger (now known as the ASICS), but arguably it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the industry saw a blooming emergence of street fashion brands. The most popular ones include: A Bathing Ape, Comme des Garçons, Evisu, Head Porter, OriginalFake, Uniqlo, Visvim, W)TAPs, and XLarge. Street Fashion brands frequently feature collaborations with popular artists and designers and use limited edition as a selling strategy. There are also brands that target specific fashion groups. For example, Angelic Pretty is for Lolita style and Sex Pot Revenge for Punk style.
Japan is also known for its significant consumption of foreign luxury brands. According to data from 2006, Japan consumed 41 percent of the entire world’s luxury goods.The blue line of Burberry is among the most successful in this arena.
Source: wikipedia/Snap
