As a fashion professional, there is some disturbing data out there that cannot be ignored. In Japan, the peak year for the highest number of fashion students in here was in 1985. After that, the numbers just get worse and worse. While in 1985 there were at least 500,000 students studying fashion, in 2015 there were only 30% of those numbers at about 150,000. If numbers keep going in that direction, then in 20 years there will only be 5000 students studying fashion in Japan (1/10 of the peak period).
Why? Is it because it’s becoming harder and harder to be successful as a designer, or in any other position in the fashion industry? That simply isn’t true. So then what is it? In fact, other creative fields like beauty, hair, nails, film, graphics, and photography are all also “difficult” fields and yet their number of students are growing. So then… why exactly are students here abandoning the fashion industry?
Right now the huge topic of discussion in the global fashion industry is regarding disruption of the cycle from runway to delivery (usually 6 months) to”see-now, buy-now” (making looks immediately available to purchase). “See now buy now” is a logistical nightmare in terms of production and distribution, but in capitalistic terms it makes total sense. We want what we see right away, and often by the time clothes hit stores, we are on to the next thing. Big brands with cash flow and resources like Alexander Wang are jumping on the bandwagon to hold on-season runway shows and many other commercial brands are following suit.
This is especially true in New York, which has always been the most commercial of the major fashion capitals. The New York fashion week calendar is mostly filled with sportswear and casualwear instead of couture, and thus I predict a “see-now buy-now” fashion week is just around the corner.
And then, after New York gets that ball rolling, I believe Tokyo will become the See-now buy-now destination for Asia. The most creative designers here are already producing on a trunk-show schedule, and the consumers have been attending see-now buy-now fashion shows for over a decade. ..could Tokyo even become the see-now buy-now capital of the world?
It was only a matter of time before a subculture came out of Harajuku that wasn’t just a happy pastel-painted fantasy. What happens when parts of real life seep into kawaii fashion? When people want to project whether they are happy or sad…but in this case, *especially* when sad? That’s when you get a subculture of fashion and design called “Yami Kawaii”. On the surface it’s your average cute, girly style with some twisted humor. But deep down it’s a heavy beast. Dive into this episode of Sick, Sad World….
(above: characters read “sick” and “death”, respectively)
I had been noticing an “anti kawaii” movement for some time in Harajuku. I was introduced to this subculture while writing an article for Z Tokyo, a new bilingual online magazine based out of Tokyo.
In the article, I talk about some otaku-types who wear clothes that say “DIE!!” In Japanese characters, and Harajuku brand MYOB who is popular for it’s cynical taglines (An illustration of a noose reads “I`m 17 and you let me drink here”). If you’re not familiar with this anti-kawaii movement, please read the article there first (and see there Banal Chic Bizarre’s intriguing “YURUFUCK” collection) and then come back to go in deeper with Yami Kawaii.
The word “yami” is the character for “sick” or “ill” and often alludes to physical maladies like pain or even “hospital”(病院)。There are several layers to the Yami Kawaii trend, and the first one is what you’d expect a Harajuku subculture to produce: cute, weird fashion.
Since yami means pain, the yami kawaii subculture revolves around accessories like fake bandages, skulls, pink blood, and gasmasks. It’s a little bit similar to “kowa-kawaii”, which was the “scary kawaii” trend. That one revolved around eyeballs and gore, with a goth spin on it. But Yami-kawaii has a more girly, otaku-spin with lots of pastels and anime-style illustrations for it.
NHK World TV Show Kawaii International’s newest episode is very timely, introducing this subculture as an underground fashion movement. You can watch the episode here until the end of the month. In it, we are introduced to a popular anime character who often gets hospitalized, and happy go-lucky KERA model Ichigo Masui (above), who accessorizes her frilly outfits with pills, bandages, and little devils.
She shops at Harajuku store Nesin (ネ申）which sells pink eye patches and lots of clothes adorned with the aforementioned cynical Japanese messages like “Die!”. Almost everything is pastel, not bloody or gory.
The show is quick to point out that it’s an aesthetic choice, and not a mental one. And that’s totally true, as it doesn’t take permission from one’s psychiatrist to shop at the store. It’s a natural progression from the scary-kawaii trend, and I think it’s actually a lot of fun. Especially being the cynical, sarcastic American that I am, I think this type of dark and twisted Kawaii fashion is actually an easier sell abroad than the fluffy, fairy kind. I mean, who wouldn’t laugh at a neon pink gas mask or a pastel green “DIE!” sweatshirt? It’s all in good fun.
This pastel and frilly style is also referred to as “Yume-Kawaii” (dream kawaii). It’s a fairy style with a heavy dose of dark cynicism. Either way, it’s all kawaii but with a serrated edge.
…but what if it’s not just all in good fun? While yami-kawaii mostly revolves around humor, there is another, deeper layer to all of it. That is when the word “yami” takes on a mental dimension and literally means “mentally anguished”(心に病気を患った人). The Japanese slang word for this is “menhera” which is short for “mental health”. It refers to people who are usually on the fringe, who converge on anonymous message boards like 2chan and who have serious mental issues.
These people used to only “exist” on the internet, but recently there has been a movement where people who are menhera have started creating art and fashion in real life. It has become extremely popular, and it is undoubtedly related to the popularity of Yami Kawaii fashion.
Meet Menhera-chan, the unofficial mascot of the movement. She was drawn by a young male artist named Bisuko Ezaki, who has turned the yami-kawaii popularity into a business. He has almost 100k followers on Twitter, and sends out pictures of his t-shirts and other ventures, like a photo editing app called “Yami Kawa-camera”. But make no mistake, he’s a dark dude and some of his tweets are so twisted, even I squirm a little bit (like asking his followers to play games like on “Where do you think the accident happened?”).
メンヘラチャンとそのLINEスタンプ かわいいながらも、「リスカ戦士」や傷跡などのとこがかなりダーク。 Menhera-chan and her LINE stamps. In the above “map”, notice the wrist scars, the little knife, and the introduction as a “wrist-cutting warrior”. Dark.
Another catalyst is a girl named Aoi-uni, who organizes a yearly art fair called the “Menhera Exhibit”. This is where young girls and boys can exhibit menhera or yami-kawaii inspired art and goods, and sell it for a profit. Aoiuni is a rather cute and attractive girl, but the truth remains; she proudly waves the banner of menhera and even Tweets from her visits to the hospital.
This isn’t all totally new in Japan, as while researching for this, a photo of Kusama Yayoi popped up. She’s known for having committed herself to a psychiatric ward. That is considered somewhat endearing to the public, such as the menhera-chan mascot (the mascot has it’s own LINE stamps).
As for Yami Kawaii, I think that the edgy-ness of it makes it a pill easier to swallow than typical “kawaii” clothing for the West.And in high-fashion, it’s seen at Banal Chic Bizarre, and even in the collage prints at Nozomi Ishiguro. I hope that the girls and boys out there who are truly suffering from menhera can find this to be a cathartic outlet, and meanwhile, you guys can shop for Yami-kawaii at various Harajuku stores.
If you’ve got about 10 minutes to spare, drop everything you’re doing and watch Kawaii International online. Yes, I am serious. If you’re not entirely familiar with the show: It’s one of the most popular shows on NHK World, and as one of the hosts (with Melody Yoko) I love learning and sharing about this really unique part of Japanese culture with the world.
Most recently, they introduced a segment called “Real Kawaii Life in Tokyo” and the first one was about 19 year old girl “Aminyan” from the US who was inspired by a an article about AKB48 to pursue a dream of being a top idol in Japan. The segment follows her daily life, from auditions to somewhat surprising locales in Akihabara.
Bunka Fashion College (called Bunka Fukuso Gakuin in Japanese), was recently named by Business of Fashion as the number two best fashion school in the world.
That’s…incredible. It even beat the likes of Parsons, FIT, and well, everyone but Central St Martins.
As a graduate, BoF reached out to me to find out what makes the school so different from the others, and an article was written all about it. There were a few points that I offered that didn’t make it to the final cut, and I’d like to add them here.
Kids’ clothing is everywhere; even Japanese brands are dressing up their kids, with Mintdesigns putting children on the catwalk at last month’s Tokyo Fashion Week. I don’t have children, but I am no stranger to kids’ clothing, writing about childrens’ designer Caroline Bosmans here on this blog before because her edgy aesthetic appealed even to me as an adult….and that’s what brought me here. I had a revelation…and somehow, it was Karl Lagerfeld’s cat that brought me here. Lead away, kitty cat.
This past weekend was Tokyo Design Week, one of the biggest conventions for design, technology, art and fashion in Japan. Within the week are the Asia Awards, awarded to young creators in a number of fields. For two years I`ve been on the judging panel, and I want to introduce to you the top three winners who masterfully blend concept with art and fashion.
One uses mattress foam to make extremely intricate 3D floral fabric, one created a fashionable piece of confounding art, and then one found the positive side to being a “hikikomori” (a shut-in). Here they are!
“Neo”. It’s no longer just a sad Keanu Reeves, it’s a full-blown fashion phenomenon in Tokyo. Recently, we’ve seen the likes of post-modern gyaru Neo Gal style, the andogynous Neo Ikemen style, and a street-wise girly-girl in Neo Lolita (read about them here). But what exactly is ”Neo Street Style”? To find out, I invited one of the most prominent young icons of this movement, Shoushi Ogawa, for coffee.
Neo Street Fashion is the newest sartorial game in Tokyo town. It’s absolutely wild and crazy, and only for the most daring to pull off. That’s why it’s going to be completely polarizing, since many will have heavy visceral reactions, while other will revel in its weirdness. And that’s absolutely why and it’s one of the most exciting Tokyo styles in recent memory.
Neo Street Style-favorite fashion brand Buccal Cone
