Whenever I go to Tokyo, I start to pay more attention to my surroundings when the train hits Omiya, a large city on the outskirts of the sprawling capital. This is the point that all the Japanese females around me start to become extremely fashionable, with expensive name-brand clothes, tall leather boots, expertly styled hair and a general air of elegance I’ve found nowhere else in the world. While New York or Paris might be ahead of Japan when it comes to setting worldwide fashion trends, I don’t believe there’s anyplace where females spend more energy on looking oshare (oh-SHA-reh), the catch-all term for being stylishly dressed. One of the most enigmatic groups in Tokyo’s fashion world are the gyaru, or “gals,” the young women in Shibuya or Harajuku who feel compelled to place fashion before all else. This general social trend has changed and morphed many times, starting out with the Amullers who imitated popular singer Amuro Namie, moving through ganguro or “black face” girls who spent hours at tanning salons, the older and more sophisticated one-gyaru, and finally the current age-jo (ah-gay-joh), named after a butterfly called ageha that’s become the symbol of their generation. I’m extremely interested in the socio-fashion phenomenon known as gyaru mama, essentially extremely stylish girls who have gotten pregnant and become mothers, but since they’re not willing to relinquish their love of beautiful clothes and make-up, they share this world with their children. It’s quite interesting to see these girls, wearing the most flamboyant outfits while they push their baby carriages, and I can tell it really takes an inner strength to resist the never ending pressure from society at large to conform. If you’re interested in the Japanese fashion world, be sure and browse the magazines like Egg and FRUiTs and S Cawaii, available either as revolving subscriptions or as single issues.
