It seems Harajuku was actually promoted by Gwen Stefani as a prototype for Japanese street style culture.
Under many names and resulting from numerous inspiration sources, the Japanese fashion sense couldn’t have been imported as such because it would have been too complicated for the average style consumer from the non-japanese-world.
For instance hereby are three pictures. All three of them fantastic and equally impressive. But two of them represent what it’s called cosplayers (the two red-headed).
Dressed like manga characters, the “costume players” tend to expand their inspiration to international films (such as Harry Potter), however I think that here it was all Japanese…But my favorite is the so called Harajuku (in fact, if you know what actual inspiration she’s representing, it would be useful to share) with the green hair and the fabulous eyelashes.
(via odditycentral, Wikipedia)
16 comments
I think she may be a cosplay too. Harajuku is an area in Tokyo where a lot of fashion store congregate and Harakuju fashion congregates various types of subcultures.
Hm.. This is the kind of style mess you get into when you’re practically an outsider.. It’s fascinating, all their inspiration, all their sources, all their final output, but it’s puzzling. So you think the green-haired one is inspired by some anime project too? At least she doesn’t look so warrior-like.
Kpriss, I think that beautiful fairy is anime inspired. Though not all Japanese fashion is Manga, Anime, Hentai inspired. It is often a mix too. Or speaks for itselfs. Even in Japanes movies long ago I came out the dark like: “Wow, what a great fashion!”
It is puzzling indeed. I think one has to visit Japan and especially Tokyo to really get it and to be amazed by these looks. Someone I know who lived and worked there for a year was and is still puzzling……
loove it its beautiful..their like walking breathing pieces of art!!! it compltely inspiritional !!! although nothing so eccentric and daring can be seen walking in the streets of america..we are lagging in so many areas >.< okay well maybe a few places anywho the cosplayers are flippin awesome and its a little bizarre but who doesnt love it i know i do..although im more into harajuku however cosplaying is defenetly an great opportunity for an individual to express their love and devotion to their favorite anime/manga characters..
I only wish there could be a way to call the character they’re impersonating choosing a certain outfit. Like a writing somewhere with the name of that character.. (of course then I would be presented with another problem – I’m a complete ignorant in any Asian language so I’d still would have no idea about what character inspired the outfit). It’s rather impossible to know all manga/anime, thus the characters within, I think that’s why all the confusion.
Or maybe one day harajuku and cosplay will blend into one style…
this is trully amazing.i am a harajuku fanatic.
really impresive!!! i’m a fashion designer student and i’m doing some research about harajuku fashion, but i have found that lots of people think that harajuku fashion is only inspired by Anime and Manga, do you think that’s true? could you give me some examples? i would be very grateful if you could help this latin fashion desginer who wishes to design for harajuku people
<33333
omg.
most.. i like the last one…
and yes.. they are breathing walking blah blah pieces of art.
Just to let you know, the two redheads are cosplaying as a guitarist named Daisuke (AKA Die) from the band Dir en Grey.
HarajuKu bwT gu3 is the beSt………i Lov3 u…..
band fvrt gue gazEttE and p!eRroT pKk_a Key deCh……..
@ Jessicka:
Thank you for recognizing that. Not that I have anything against people posting about Harajuku “fashion”, but I cannot stand it when people speak about the subject without specifically mentioning Visual Kei. It’s like trying to talk about Heavy Metal without mentioning any band names… You just wouldn’t know what your talking about.
very artistic. i like how they show their own sense of style.
but i dont have the patience or time to think about, then apply and take off all of that makeup in just a day.
it frazzles me.
Harajuku is a fashion district near Tokyo. Within the district are many styles of harajuku fashion, ranging from the cosplay (as seen in the above pictures), gothic lolita (which in itself has a multitude of sub divisions), Kawaii and many more. Once you know all the different styles (and there are HEAPS) then picking one inspiration from another becomes simple. Actually finding out what they all are is the hard part.
I would just like to point out, that unlike in America, anime is not all that popular among the general population of japan and to have an interest in anime makes you really “uncool” over there.
So I figure that most of the cosplaying done in Harajuku is likely visual kei costumes.
There’s way more to japanese fashion than this trash. These harajuku styles like cosplay, ganguro, and loli arn’t even the norm and seen as wierd. The only people that think this stuff is objectively japanese fashion are the non-japanese anime freaks with biased views.
Want to know real japanese fashion? Think Burberry or maybe YSL. In fact, go to dowtown Chicago or New York and just look around.
The first red-head is in fact a cosplay of a person in a J-rock band called Dir en Grey. His stage name is Die, because it is pronounced the same way as the first part of his name which is “Daisuke”.
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