Japanese Fashion

So let me tell you about shopping in Japan. First of all, throw out any ideas you have about the proper SHAPE of clothing. Japanese people don't seem to have a concept of things "fitting" properly. In fact, if I could explain Japanese fashion in one word it would probably be something like "shroud." Yes, this "shroud" might be pink with polka dots and have adorable black bows all over it, but it's a shroud nonetheless. It might also only come to mid thigh, under which would be worn NOTHING but some adorable knee high boots, but the description of "shroud" remains.



Now, imagine me trying to look good in any of these outfits...it's hopeless.


I once had a friend who told me a particular shirt dress looked good on me because it concealed my chest so as to make everyone wonder what I had under there. The J-fashion takes this logic and run 50 Kilometers with it. Since there is little to "show off" on top for most Japanese women, they dress in bags and call it good. The truth is, it generally looks alright on them. There legs are cute and skinny, their arms are tiny, their faces delicate. They put on this bag and get the sort of affect of an angel running around in a cloud. But think about it from my perspective. I go to the store and SEARCH the clearance rack for ANYTHING that is shaped in any way appropriately. The whole bag-thing may work for most Japanese girls, but it doesn't really work for me, not everyday at least. I'm sorry if I feel silly running around in a poka dot sweatshirt dress that goes to my hips and has a flouncy ruffly skirt attached that only reaches to my mid-thigh. I like shirts to hit just above my hips, not below them. And I prefer to swim at the beach and not in my own clothing.




Don't let the cool glasses fool you - this would not look good on me.


This gets even worse when one is trying to shop cheap. Cheap, quality fashion exists in ONLY ONE PLACE in Japan, and that is Uniqlo, the J-GAP. And Uniqlo is great for sweatshirts and sweaters and tights but if you're looking for anything else, it's a little limited. So if you thought you could "shop around" in Tokushima, you are gravely mistaken. I have tried, and tried, and tried again. I can COUNT the items of clothing I have purchased in Tokushima - it's a very small number and I haven't really been thrilled with any of these purchases. In almost EVERY case, I paid more money than I would have in the States, and all that, for something inferior. Cute clothes exist in Japan, but they're quite a bit more expensive than I'm used to paying, and even though I have more money now than I had before, paying more for something that I don't even like that much totally kills the joy of shopping. I'm one of those "hunt" people. However, the thing about hunting is that one generally gets the enjoyment of finally triumphing. That almost never happens here. I feel as though I'm losing my shopping sense and my style sense simultaneously.



This isn't bad...but still, not going to work for anyone bigger than a size 00.



Pretty cool - but going to cost a considerable amount of money to work up this little ensemble.

The other thing about Japanese fashion is the "cute" factor. But in Japan, "cute" has a different meaning than in the States. In the U.S. "cute" can be a pair of skinny jeans and a cute sweater and boots, in Japan "cute" means any or all of a number of other things: pink, polka dotted, ruffled, bow-encrusted, fake-jewel-encrusted, satin-encrusted, lace-covered, fake-fur adorned. For the most part I can avoid these things if I want to; however, you have NO IDEA how many times I've seen a pair of cute shoes I liked only to pull them off the wrack and realize they had satin ruffles at the back of the heel: totally kills it. This is AFTER I avoided all the shoes that had jewels or bows or fur on the toes.



Ummm. Are you kidding me? No.



I HATE this style of shoe. They are everywhere!



I could live without ruffles FOREVER after being in Japan...

The truth is a lot of this struggle is due to a lack of variety and options. I live in Tokushima. We don't even have Starbucks here. If I were near any bigger cities, my complaints would be quite heavily diminished. But I'm not. And so...I complain. One of these days I'll take a camera shopping with me and give you all a real taste of what this is like. For now, I had to search the internet for rather pathetic examples of what I'm referring too.

Well, I have a car now. The next trip I'm making is probably to Takamatsu, about 2 hours up the road where I'm told they have much better shopping.