The style of Visual Kei consists of striking makeup, unusual hair styles and flamboyant costuming. Androgyny is a popular aspect of the style especially within the entertainment industry. Well known and influential artist include the musical groups X Japan and Dir En Grey.
The stereotypical bosozoku look is often portrayed and even caricatured in many forms of Japanese media such as anime, manga and films. The typical bosozuku member is often depicted in a uniform consisting of a jumpsuit and a type of military issue over-coat with kanji slogans. These are usually worn open, with no shirt underneath, showing off bandaged torsos and matching baggy pants tucked inside tall boots.
Kogal Fashion is another of Japan`s famous street fashion. The Kogal look is based on a high school uniform, but with a shorter skirt. The girls call themselves gyaru (gals). This style was very prominent in the 1990s, but has since declined. The High School fashion or look involves a hitched up uniform and accessories like garters, tiaras and fingerless gloves.
The Ganguro street fashion become popular among Japanese girls in the early 2000s. The Ganguro style consists of bleached hair, a dark tan, fake eyelashes, black and white eyeliner and platform shoes. A typical look for a Ganguro Girl is to wear brightly coloured outfits, mini-skirts, and tie-dyed sarongs.
Lolita Fashion contains many different styles and themes. Lolita has become one of the larger, more recognizable styles in Japanese Street Fashion. This is now gaining interest worldwide. Lolita is seen as one of many different styles that brings the “cute” in Japan. The Lolita look consists primarily of a knee length skirt or dress, headdress, blouse, petticoat, knee high socks or stockings and rocking horse or high heel/platform shoes.
Some of the styles and themes contained within Lolita include Gothic Lolita, Sweet Lolita, Punk Lolita and Classic Lolita.
Japan Fashion has become a hit around the world. Japan is a highly fashion conscious country and has tended to follow European Western fashions, but Japan is now becoming a fashion leader and powerhouse in its own right. A lot of new young fashion is being created on the street of Tokyo and other major Japanese cities and this is influencing fashion around the world. This so called “Street Fashion” is a term used to describe fashion where the wearer customises outfits by adopting a mixture of current and traditional trends. More recently, Japanese hip-hop which has long been present among underground Tokyo`s club scene, has influenced the mainstream fashion industry.
Japanese Street Fashion
Street fashion is still prominent in Japan today. Urban fashion districts in Tokyo such as Harajuku, Ginza, Odaiba, Shinjuku and Shibuya are the centers for this fashion in Japan. Some of the subculture attire that can be seen in these areas include Lolita, Ganguro, Kogal, Bosozoku, Visual Kei and Cosplay.
This month's Easy Japanese Cooking recipe is Japanese Vegetable Tempura
Preparation Time: 25 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
1 cup self-raising flour
2 tbsp cornflour
1 ½ cups iced water
½ tsp salt
Extra self-raising flour for coating
1. Combine flour, cornflour and iced water and whisk to a slightly lumpy batter. Add more water if you want a slightly thinner batter but authentic Japanese tempura is slightly lump.
2. Place extra flour and vegetables into a plastic bag and shake to coat vegetables.
3. Dip vegetables in batter.
4. Heat oil until a faint haze appears and cook vegetables in batches until batter crisps.
5. Drain on kitchen paper and serve with a low sodium soy sauce and pickled ginger.
In Japan we use tempura batter with vegetables like onion, potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, shitake mushrooms, green pepper and carrot. It also works great with prawns and white fish.