[discussion] Japanese street fashion spectrum chart

I didn't do a post for April as I was getting ready for an overseas trip that was so stressful lol. But I'm back now. I don't want to dress up because it's humid out, but I had this inspired idea brewing for a while and I want to share it before I forget.

[alt text for readers: titled Japanese Fashion Spectrum (effort versus accrual). Left side states lifestyle (gyaru, hime gyaru, agejo) with a picture of a hime gyaru model, captioned "the most effort; hair, makeup, nails or skin upkeep. The center states "vibes" (jirai kei, larme, mori kei, any trend on tiktok probably, western styles - cottagecore, etc) with a picture of a larme kei model, captioned "amount of effort and clothes vary as long as the vibe is recognizable and complete". The right side states wardrobe (lolita, historical styles) with a picture of a lolita model wearing a red jumperskirt, captioned "the most stuff: clothes, accessories, shoes, structure garments"]

 Obviously this is a very high level overview of Japanese street fashion, not including the fact that most common fashion items for Japanese women are baggy neutral clothing straight out of Uniqlo.  There can be variables between substyles within each category, but for a general summary, I think this chart differentiates the most popular fashion trends succinctly for the new or casual fan of Japanese fashion.

Let's start with the lifestyle, or most effort side, in which I placed gyaru even though it's no longer  popular in Japan (although it seems to be making a slight comeback with idols and Korean or Chinese trends.) This includes hime gyaru, hime kaji, agejo, maybe even shironuri, all of the styles in which personal individual effort is required, especially for makeup and hair, and depending on the substyle, skin and nails care.  Clothes and jewelry are of course important, but if you didn't make an attempt with makeup or hair, you really did not complete the assignment, whereas if you have the perfect hair/makeup, you can wear more casual normie clothes and still be recognized as a gyaru.  I call this lifestyle because the time put in makes the style, which takes a part of your day, as you need to either learn the skills or go to a salon or have a friend do it for you.  The question is, if you decide to not wear makeup for a while because you are having a rash or eczema flareup for example, are you in the fashion? Many gyarus would say they compensate by putting extra effort into their hair or nails or clothes and maybe do some gyaru life stuff, like blogging or shopping or socializing.  But the appeal and fun of these fashions is the time/effort in the upkeep of personal appearance. (Addendum, this is not necessarily a daily lifestyle fashion, although it usually is for many gyarus because they love makeup that much, however, some fashions do aim for fairly long-lasting changes to their appearance like bleaching or perming hair or tanning, and that's key to this fashion versus the other 2 categories which are much more temporary or require no change.)

I titled the middle of the spectrum "vibes" for lack of a better word. This includes many smaller street fashion trends that pop up in Harajuku and Shibuya, some of which include jirai kei, larme, mori kei, cult party kei, yami kawaii, menhera, etc although I might classify decora more towards wardrobe.  This category also includes tiktok/douyin trends and western trends, like cottage-core, history bounding, dark academia, royalty core, ren faire, etc.  It does not include established Western subcultures such as goth and punk, which are a little deeper than trends or fashions in my opinion.  What is common about these "vibes" fashions is neither physical appearance nor clothes are more important, as long as the head to toe look is complete and recognized by other people who know the trend.  Although buying a new set of clothes is the easiest way to make the look, many people can start most of these fashions from their existing closet with only a few extra purchases.  Lifestyle is an optional part of these trends; some are more involved such as cottage-core which can encompass your house and daily activities, others are just the right clothes and quick hairstyling for going out with friends.  I also consider these easier for beginners to get into, especially cottagecore or dark academia.

The last part of the fashion spectrum is wardrobe, or accrual, which covers lolita and historical styles (that is not history bounding).  This is where the clothes and stuff you have is the most important, and your physical appearance much less important or doesn't even matter if you don't have the right clothes. For example, you can only truly be called a lolita if you have a complete lolita outfit. It doesn't have to be all brand name, but it needs to be a head to toe coord by definition of any lolita out there.  You do not have to style your hair or have any specific makeup although it would help for historical styles like 1940s retro vintage pinup or rococco era French nobility.  As long as you have the right clothes, including undergarments and structure garments and shoes, that's like 99% of the look and everything else is icing on the cake.  This is especially so now that makeup trends and hairstyles are more natural and inclusive with these fashions, since previously the trends were more over the top layered makeup and artificial hair color wigs, at least for lolitas. (Addendum: what if you only have part of a lolita outfit in your wardrobe, are you a lolita in waiting? Nope, still not a lolita, but most lolita clothes can be incorporated into the other styles in the vibes category and honestly, I think that's just as good and a really great use of the money you spent.)

I hope this helps clarify some of the Japanese fashion styles, especially if you want to explore a trend for yourself, or want to understand what motivates different fans of Japanese street fashion. Again, this is a personal classification system that I made for fun, it's absolutely not the only way of categorizing or describing the fashion out there.  I did try to include the most representative photo to show the differences in appearance all with the same general hairstyle - the gyaru has bleached curled hair and flashy makeup and elaborate nails, the larme kei girl has wavy natural colored hair and soft yet noticeable makeup, while the lolita has (presumably) naturally straight undyed hair and no noticeable makeup. Let me know what you think. And that's that!

[discussion] Summer Hairstyle Ideas part 2

Piggy-backing on last year's entry, I made a new collage of slightly more current hair styles for spring and summer! Just like last year, I focused on hair styles that could potentially be done with natural hair (although I'm sure like half of these are wigs). For example, hair without bangs/fringe, side parts, natural/curly hair, or braids and updos that can bring hair off the back of the neck for a breezy summer look. As quintessential as the dolly look of blunt cut bangs and long ringlet curls is to the lolita aesthetic, sometimes you want options to stand out from the rest of the crowd, or fix up your own hair on an extra hot day when you would rather not wear a wig. I gathered these looks from various Gothic Lolita Bibles, Kera magazines and photoshoots for current release dresses from the brand sites. Hope this is of interest to you!

I am really liking the thick braids, ribbon braids, and puffy twin buns. I kinda wish we could see the back of the head for the up dos in the center!

[discussion] Summer Hairstyle Ideas

[disclaimer: I am not a professional hairdresser by any means, these are merely my observations based on experience and reading a bunch of Japanese fashion magazines, obviously you can do whatever you want and shine on in your particular style, just dooo it]

Hey all, this is a lolita hairstyle overview post for all of you people who wonder if there is anything else you can do with your hair besides the prototypical blunt straight across bangs with varying lengths of curls. Especially in the south, where it is so hot and humid you can bake cookies and fry eggs on your car, lolitas start looking for options to wigs + hair accessories + drowning in sweat.  If you are not dedicated to wearing a short bobbed wig or attaching the perfect fringe to your natural hair, or if you're a lifestyle lolita and just want to wear your own hair with lolita once in a while, please keep on reading for tips and example photos of hairstyles that have apparently been approved by the designers and editors (for better or worse lmao.) Some of these are excellent options to style natural hair without bangs, and some are creative ways to make an updo for natural hair and wigs, with or without bangs, to keep hair off the back of your neck and stay cool.

The latest trends include textured flattened fishtail braids with ribbons and flowers, very popular with gyaru and larme kei the past 2 seasons and also showing up in Western styles. Also you can see here various asymmetrical and symmetrical styles: centered symmetrical hair accessories such as maxi pad style headdresses or centered hairbows look ideal with symmetrical hairstyles (mostly with bangs), but that is just a guideline, side swept hair can still pull off symmetrical hair accessories if you believe enough.

I also highly recommend these youtube tutorials from lolita-tips, especially for natural hair! http://lolita-tips.tumblr.com/post/24798938231/a-guide-to-lolita-hair-tutorials

If you have very long hair with no bangs, Fanny Rosie has tons of coord pics with perfectly styled hair. Unfortunately no tutorials. (Wait she just posted some lol) 

http://fannyrosie.tumblr.com/

For very short hair or ouji, I do not have as many reference photos from the magazines or official sites. Outfits for ouji tend to include hats, which aren't exactly hot-weather items, although styles that are more gothic and visual kei/punk have a little more variety. Faux hawks, colorful extensions and braids, shaved hair are often seen with Black Peace Now, Putumayo and H. Naoto. Otherwise, mostly hats if anything, maybe some flower crowns or mini crowns or bobby pins.

I personally have straight flat hair, no bangs, that does not lend itself to curling or styling, so I am in the group of lolitas who wear wigs no matter how hot. But for casual outdoors events, I do wear a hime gyaru half-updo with a headband and various flowers and hairpins. If... I care that much anyway lol.

Whatever you do, do not pull your hair back into a plain ponytail unless you are wearing Meta's poodle skirts from a while back. Even a bun would be better. While some people may disagree, especially if they're lifestylers, I still believe that a lolita dream dress you spent hours working to purchase deserves at least 5 minutes of hair styling, even if that 5 minutes consists of you brushing your hair and putting on a hat. 

Anyway, if you have good photos or links to share, feel free to comment!

[discussion] Beauty and Hair?

Beauty and Make Up!

Ok, personal opinion time, but I think make-up is important to consider when wearing lolita, especially for a local lolita meet out in a public space, or say, a Japanese fashion-centered convention in which you expect a lot of photos to be taken. There are many personal reasons I have for saying this, mostly because I feel everyone should look proper and put together, like we take the fashion seriously and wish to put it on a level worthy of respect, not something to be mocked or misunderstood by outsiders. I'm not saying you need to pay to have a professional artist do your face every single time you want to wear your lolita outfits, but I believe the more effort you put into looking polished, the easier it is for you to feel good about yourself, and make other lolitas feel good about themselves, and in turn, help the rest of the world not give us so many weird looks because we look schlubby and possibly stole all this jewelry. Alas, appearances are everything in this judgmental society.

Another reason being, I paid a lot of money for a dress, it deserves my best treatment, and so everything from head to toe should look like it matches the value of the dress. So an expensive much desired brand name dress deserves full make-up and wig treatment, but casual handmade t-shirt and Bodyline skirt and offbrand hairbow not so much, unless I really wanted to experiment or something. If I don't do it like that, it feels like I wasted my money and time getting the dress, like someone could have worn it better, like I'm a fraud, etcetera. Let's be real, we got into the fashion so we can feel better, not to feel worse, which is why I take the time to learn about putting on makeup, utilizing the resources in the Gothic Lolita Bibles.

Also because I bought all this makeup and need to use it before it expires and has to be thrown away lmao.

But otherwise, if you're not expecting to have photos taken of you or it's a casual lunch with a few friends, something like that, sunscreen is the only requirement I would say to wear out of the house, and I recommend that as a medical professional, not a lolita.

When I first started out and Mana-sama was our main idol, I obviously did not wear much makeup, Mana-sama's makeup game was (is still) too strong for me. I had clear skin and wore glasses, so I didn't need foundation or powder and any eyeshadow or mascara would be lost behind my glasses. Even in college and graduate school I didn't wear much makeup. Then I was able to afford circle lenses and a smartphone with selfie options and a DSLR camera, and that all changed. Now my old and haggard face was in the spotlight, and so I do what I can to not, you know, embarrass myself later. I read books on makeup, researched articles, bought some non-drugstore and Asian brand stuff; it was a whole new world of pretty packaging and addictive sales!

I love the look I have when I'm completely made up with circle lenses, false lashes, foundation and powder and blush and eyeliner, it's like I'm a different person, a princess worthy of wearing lolita. It's a transformation process which I adore, like a magical girl henshin scene, except slower and painstaking and full of cursing, hahah. I've never actually gone the full route of contouring or bleaching my eyebrows or wearing face jewelry, and probably never will, but most anything I'd try.  That being said, I understand when some girls prefer to go au naturel, for health reasons or whatever, I used to be like that, and it's just honestly better for your skin and eyes to wear less makeup. At least go one day a week without a lot of makeup, definitely. But otherwise, if you have no health problems with makeup, experiment with it, your self-confidence will go way up when you find a look you like! Plus, if things don't work out, you can always wipe it off and start over again.

Hair and Wigs!

I'm no expert hairstylist, and really, I only started wearing wigs when I got back into the cosplay scene after a few years of no cons. But I think hair style is also super important, nay, even more important than makeup. Especially for those of us with sensitive skin and can't wear as much makeup, a good wig or hairdo can boost the look of the coord with no fear of getting pimples, yay. Hair styling can really change your look from classic to sweet to gothic. Since I'm not an expert, all I can say is... do your best and learn from your mistakes, which you inevitably will make like I did.  The signature look of lolita is bangs straight across the forehead, with medium to long waves or curls, as this look works well with most styles and headgear. However, I've seen many great looks with center parts or sideswept bangs or pulled back.

The key is to work with your hair accessories if you're wearing them. For example, if you're wearing a rectangular headdress, this almost certainly requires some sort of fringe in front to make it look symmetrical and intentional. Sideswept bangs look great with more asymmetrical placement of hair accessories, such as Alice bands and flower corsages and mini barettes. Hair that is pulled back off the forehead work well with flower corsages and many hats, but not so much headbands or hair chains that hang over the forehead. One look I really love but no one really does (at least not where I've seen) is multiple coronet style braids wrapped around the crown of the head. Actually, I have done so but have not worn it out yet. Someday!

I personally wear sideswept bangs and a hime-gyaru bouffant if I'm wearing my natural hair, and try to wear wigs with longish straight cut fringe that can be swept to the side as necessary. I feel like that pretty much coordinates with all of the accessories I usually wear. The colors I choose for my wigs is auburn red, brown to red gradient, platinum blond, honey blond (not a great color for Southeast Asians to be honest), light ash blond and medium brown. A bob pageboy cut with a fringe and a medium to long wig with ringlet curls will work for nearly all styles of coordinates, but I know many a lolita who own a pastel color wig with twin tails for the perfect over the top sweet coordinate. And if you're into ouji or male aristocrat, those cosplay wigs for anime and videogame bishounen (but not so spiked of course) will do just fine.

Those are my insights into beauty and hair. I hope that helps someone out!