7 ms·

Tokyo street fashion and culture: 1980 – 2017

298 points by drops 9y ago

throw7 9y ago
god damn it, that website feels like a fashion style itself.
sireat 9y ago
Enjoyable collection but somewhat a little bland. You hear about all the wild stuff you'd see in Sninjuku and this was rather mild. The most provocative was one Ganguroo pic. My uneducated guess was that these pictures represent the "official" and branded street culture. That is these pics represent something you could actually buy with relative ease and not make yourself. I didn't see any gothic lolitas and those are just something that westerners would know about. There must be 100s of substyles that are one-offs and produced by individuals. Anyone know of more "street" pictures?
- charlesism 9y ago
  I thought it was pretty bland too. Figured there'd be at least one or two rockabilly and heavy metal photos from the 1980s.
- franciscop 9y ago
  I agree, I have been in Japan few times and love to see the diversity in fashion there. I think a huge group (and the original reason I got interested in Japan) is the [Neo] Visual Kei (ヴィジュアル系) [1] movement. It was a cultural movement both from music and fashion that isn't even mentioned here. Edit/note: for the more pictures, you surely want to find the fashion "branch", then find the name in Japanese and use that to search them (make sure Google is not limiting your searches as well). That is a part of a culture that mainly uses Japanese IMHO, similar to some parts of robotics that I see IRL but cannot find online. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei
- Larrikin 9y ago
  Seems like it was a slice of fashionable items that a typical person would wear and no one would think was strange/what a lot of people would inspire to dress like. There are some strange styles you'll see in Tokyo, but people there also think they're kind of strange (less so than in the US) and the wearers are trying to stand out.
- noodle 9y ago
  > My uneducated guess was that these pictures represent the "official" and branded street culture. It represents the prevailing trend of an entire year. Which is to say, what is the most popular. So yeah, its going to trim away the fringe, and that does end up being a lot to cut away.
- ekianjo 9y ago
  > There must be 100s of substyles that are one-offs and produced by individuals. There are about as many styles as individuals if you go in Harajuku, so not sure if it makes sense to try to classify them at all in the end. It's changing constantly too, and while there are always trends there is a strong chaotic element to it.
- HillaryBriss 9y ago
  these are the kinds of pictorials that cause me to discard the "America is the most creative" narrative i've been hearing all my life. yes. America is creative. but so is, like, the rest of the world 'n stuff. America is just kind of whatever plus guns.
nomagicbullet 9y ago
What a horrible navigation. You can't freely scroll at your own pace, advancing with the keyboard is inconsistent, and what's worse, zoom is busted with keyboard and trackpad. This is a disservice to people with disabilities and people without them. What's so wrong about regular scrolling? Why do designers feel the need to fight agains the browser? When a site decides to re-engineer basic user interactions (zoom, scrolling), the user has to focus on learning new behaviors instead of consuming your content (which is what they should be focused on). The web has great UI patterns. Use them. Don't fight them. </rant>
- Kenji 9y ago
  Good thing Google lectures us on how we should design our apps and websites, they know how to do it.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Ever since the dot-com days, with print media started thinking they needed a web presence, there have been those that have tried to recreate the experience of flipping pages online. Initially this was done using full window flash layouts. These days it is an abuse of JS and HTML5.
- jsemrau 9y ago
  For exactly this reason I did not go past page 3. If I want to flip pages I buy the book (or make my own).
Animats 9y ago
Aw. Cute. For a good sense of what's happening now, see this walk through Harajuku at 2160p.[1] At that resolution, all the clothing details are visible. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiQ4YDH3g80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiQ4YDH3g80
- sjm 9y ago
  Note that this is from 2014 though. I'd say it's already quite different based on what I saw during my time there last year. For me what I noticed was pretty demure, neutral colours, relaxed fits, back to focusing more on quality of texture, build and fit over everything else. Plus a dash of the streetwear/sneakerhead style that is super popular all over the world right now.
gallerdude 9y ago
What's up with the navigation? Horrific on mobile.
mc32 9y ago
If you want to discover Japanese culture via photography, I would suggest Daido Moriyama[1], [2], [3]. All NSFW-ish. He has a great look into what lies beyond the surface in Japanese culture. For more night culture, Kohei Yoshiyuki[4] [1]http://fotoroom.co/daido-moriyama/ http://fotoroom.co/daido-moriyama/ [2]http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/10/asx-tv-daido-moriyama-senses.html http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/10/asx-tv-daido-moriyama... [3]https://www.moriyamadaido.com/en/ https://www.moriyamadaido.com/en/ [4]https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/kohei-yoshiyukis-the-park/ https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/kohei-yoshiyukis-t...
- rhblake 9y ago
  For any fans of Moriyama I'd also like to recommend Ko-Ji Yamasaki, who's been documenting his life in Osaka for more than twelve years now and publishing everything online: http://www.yamasakiko-ji.com/ http://www.yamasakiko-ji.com/ The book "Setting Sun: Writings by Japanese Photographers" (Aperture 2005) is excellent and contains essays and photos by many of the greats (including Moriyama): http://aperture.org/shop/setting-sun-books/ http://aperture.org/shop/setting-sun-books/ -- however it's out of print now and used copies seem to be quite expensive, but libraries might have it.
- kurthr 9y ago
  I'd include the late 90s books Fruits, and Fresh Fruits... For images there are great finds in Pinterest and Instagram, but I'd start with this Gimages link: https://www.google.com/search?q=fruits+harajuku&ved=0ahUKEwj9y-yGnozVAhWBnRoKHV1NC6UQ_AUICSgB&biw=320&bih=530&dpr=3.38#imgrc=cnAyloOXOhb4ZM https://www.google.com/search?q=fruits+harajuku&ved=0ahUKEwj...:
  - kurthr 9y ago
    I will say from personal experience that Japan is one of the few places in the world I have seen many male fashion victims. To be clear, I enjoy expressive fashion, and I don't mean people who have an expensive or even outrageous or ovewrought sense of taste, instead I refer to those people who read multiple fashion magazines and wear ALL of the things.
  - 9y ago
franciscop 9y ago
Ah I always thought that Gyaru and Gal were the same fashion style slightly lost in translation, but now I see that they were actually different styles!
- ldjb 9y ago
  "Gyaru" is simply how "gal" is pronounced in Japanese, so it's an inconsistency in translation. However, kogyaru and ganguro are different styles. Gyaru is effectively a superset of the two, as well as some other styles. Néojaponisme has an interesting look back at the history of gyaru and the different styles (though unfortunately the pictures are rather few, and I have no idea where Part Four is): http://neojaponisme.com/2012/02/28/the-history-of-the-gyaru-part-one/ http://neojaponisme.com/2012/02/28/the-history-of-the-gyaru-...
  - franciscop 9y ago
    That (and inner links) is an awesome peak into Japanese culture, thank you
rdiddly 9y ago
Well that was surprisingly tiring! I started to imagine keeping up with all those styles as they were happening -- sounds expensive. Fashion is inherently, I think, of the moment... in the "now"... and to lay out 37 years' worth of it in a row like that, has the probably unintended effect of laying bare its impermanence, frivolity (not in a good way) and unimportance. Grandpa comment.
tenryuu 9y ago
I know this has nothing to do with the article, but the UI/UX for this site feels so off-putting It's like a worse version of the windows 8 start screen. Can't even middle click the scroll wheel and navigate with gestures. I wouldn't mind seeing a piece on Shiyuba fashion though
- bamboozled 9y ago
  Agreed, its' pretty unusable. It's also dry and and aesthetically displeasing given the content of the site.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- Macha 9y ago
  Kept jumping up even further after I scrolled up on my android tablet, which made it a total pain when it referenced earlier styles.
- pcurve 9y ago
  Agreed. Very frustrating to use just like many of Google's content oriented sites. The only google property that just works is Maps. Everything else, I feel like they're trying to impose their silly UI standards on you and you have to work around them.
- Asooka 9y ago
  I was confused what you meant because I read it on my phone, where it just scrolls normally - vertically, with pictures followed by text and no scroll shenanigans. Then I clicked the link on desktop.
wst_ 9y ago
Funny thing... Most of these pictures are still valid today.
callumjones 9y ago
What is Google Arts & Culture? How long has it been around?
- emmfr 9y ago
  It's the new name of the Google Art Project, which has been around since February 2011.
doctorshady 9y ago
It seems like a lot of the simpler styles - even as far back as the mid 1980s would probably work without sticking out a whole lot even now. I suppose there's a universal lesson of some sort in that.
pilaf 9y ago
There's a very well put together video about the history of Tokyo street fashion and music from the 70s till today on YouTube. Worth a watch for the visuals alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmsxWmKz-B8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmsxWmKz-B8
jhanschoo 9y ago
For those fascinated on the subject of Japanese fashion trends, I'm pleased to recommend http://neojaponisme.com/category/fashion-2/ http://neojaponisme.com/category/fashion-2/
wyclif 9y ago
Last time I was in Japan, the "wolf boy" haircut (sorry, I can't remember the Japanese word to describe this) was still quite popular even though it was passé. Then I was at the airport in the Philippines and there were some Japanese flying to Tokyo, and all the boys had the same haircut. Man, that cut will never die.
hkmurakami 9y ago
Personally, I think the best way to get a snapshot of the fashion of the times (apparel, makeup, hairstyle, shoes) is to watch a few of the popular TV dramas from each year.
lanius 9y ago
The photos are all black and white until 1984, when they're all suddenly in color. Was there any particular advancement in color photography in 1984?
- mc32 9y ago
  Not really. Most traditional photographers either tried or went color in the '60s. Some traditionalists insisted that real, serious photography was only done in B&W. This sentiment carries on to this day with film photogs. Some continue to think B&W is serious and color is for pop/sugary stuff/commercial. Color was a bit more expensive but I don't think that was the main driver. On the other hand, if the photo was for mass circulation/publishing, printing in color was more expensive --but the photography itself not so much.
jpatokal 9y ago
If you liked the story, you'll like this video of 40 years of Japanese street fashion: https://youtu.be/xmsxWmKz-B8 https://youtu.be/xmsxWmKz-B8
dookahku 9y ago
So, wait, what are we looking at? https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/ https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/ Is this like a Medium.com content publishing platform? From the about page: EXPLORE COLLECTIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD WITH GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE, CREATED BY GOOGLE CULTURAL INSTITUTE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cultural_Institute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cultural_Institute
- AJ007 9y ago
  Their javascript is complete crap. It is a pain in the ass to navigate on the phone and hardly better on desktop.
jansho 9y ago
Just a heads up to UK residents, the BBC iPlayer currently has a wealth of Japanese culture videos, including street fashion
known 9y ago
Check mahole covers in Japan http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/03/the-beauty-of-japans-artistic-manhole-covers/ http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/03/the-beauty-of-japans-a...

298 points by drops 9y ago

god damn it, that website feels like a fashion style itself.

Enjoyable collection but somewhat a little bland. You hear about all the wild stuff you'd see in Sninjuku and this was rather mild. The most provocative was one Ganguroo pic. My uneducated guess was that these pictures represent the "official" and branded street culture. That is these pics represent something you could actually buy with relative ease and not make yourself. I didn't see any gothic lolitas and those are just something that westerners would know about. There must be 100s of substyles that are one-offs and produced by individuals. Anyone know of more "street" pictures?

charlesism 9y ago
I thought it was pretty bland too. Figured there'd be at least one or two rockabilly and heavy metal photos from the 1980s.
franciscop 9y ago
I agree, I have been in Japan few times and love to see the diversity in fashion there. I think a huge group (and the original reason I got interested in Japan) is the [Neo] Visual Kei (ヴィジュアル系) [1] movement. It was a cultural movement both from music and fashion that isn't even mentioned here. Edit/note: for the more pictures, you surely want to find the fashion "branch", then find the name in Japanese and use that to search them (make sure Google is not limiting your searches as well). That is a part of a culture that mainly uses Japanese IMHO, similar to some parts of robotics that I see IRL but cannot find online. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei
Larrikin 9y ago
Seems like it was a slice of fashionable items that a typical person would wear and no one would think was strange/what a lot of people would inspire to dress like. There are some strange styles you'll see in Tokyo, but people there also think they're kind of strange (less so than in the US) and the wearers are trying to stand out.
noodle 9y ago
> My uneducated guess was that these pictures represent the "official" and branded street culture. It represents the prevailing trend of an entire year. Which is to say, what is the most popular. So yeah, its going to trim away the fringe, and that does end up being a lot to cut away.
ekianjo 9y ago
> There must be 100s of substyles that are one-offs and produced by individuals. There are about as many styles as individuals if you go in Harajuku, so not sure if it makes sense to try to classify them at all in the end. It's changing constantly too, and while there are always trends there is a strong chaotic element to it.
HillaryBriss 9y ago
these are the kinds of pictorials that cause me to discard the "America is the most creative" narrative i've been hearing all my life. yes. America is creative. but so is, like, the rest of the world 'n stuff. America is just kind of whatever plus guns.

nomagicbullet 9y ago

What a horrible navigation. You can't freely scroll at your own pace, advancing with the keyboard is inconsistent, and what's worse, zoom is busted with keyboard and trackpad. This is a disservice to people with disabilities and people without them. What's so wrong about regular scrolling? Why do designers feel the need to fight agains the browser? When a site decides to re-engineer basic user interactions (zoom, scrolling), the user has to focus on learning new behaviors instead of consuming your content (which is what they should be focused on). The web has great UI patterns. Use them. Don't fight them. </rant>

Kenji 9y ago
Good thing Google lectures us on how we should design our apps and websites, they know how to do it.
digi_owl 9y ago
Ever since the dot-com days, with print media started thinking they needed a web presence, there have been those that have tried to recreate the experience of flipping pages online. Initially this was done using full window flash layouts. These days it is an abuse of JS and HTML5.
jsemrau 9y ago
For exactly this reason I did not go past page 3. If I want to flip pages I buy the book (or make my own).

Animats 9y ago

Aw. Cute. For a good sense of what's happening now, see this walk through Harajuku at 2160p.[1] At that resolution, all the clothing details are visible. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiQ4YDH3g80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiQ4YDH3g80

sjm 9y ago
Note that this is from 2014 though. I'd say it's already quite different based on what I saw during my time there last year. For me what I noticed was pretty demure, neutral colours, relaxed fits, back to focusing more on quality of texture, build and fit over everything else. Plus a dash of the streetwear/sneakerhead style that is super popular all over the world right now.

gallerdude 9y ago

What's up with the navigation? Horrific on mobile.

mc32 9y ago

If you want to discover Japanese culture via photography, I would suggest Daido Moriyama[1], [2], [3]. All NSFW-ish. He has a great look into what lies beyond the surface in Japanese culture. For more night culture, Kohei Yoshiyuki[4] [1]http://fotoroom.co/daido-moriyama/ http://fotoroom.co/daido-moriyama/ [2]http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/10/asx-tv-daido-moriyama-senses.html http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/10/asx-tv-daido-moriyama... [3]https://www.moriyamadaido.com/en/ https://www.moriyamadaido.com/en/ [4]https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/kohei-yoshiyukis-the-park/ https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/kohei-yoshiyukis-t...

rhblake 9y ago
For any fans of Moriyama I'd also like to recommend Ko-Ji Yamasaki, who's been documenting his life in Osaka for more than twelve years now and publishing everything online: http://www.yamasakiko-ji.com/ http://www.yamasakiko-ji.com/ The book "Setting Sun: Writings by Japanese Photographers" (Aperture 2005) is excellent and contains essays and photos by many of the greats (including Moriyama): http://aperture.org/shop/setting-sun-books/ http://aperture.org/shop/setting-sun-books/ -- however it's out of print now and used copies seem to be quite expensive, but libraries might have it.
kurthr 9y ago
I'd include the late 90s books Fruits, and Fresh Fruits... For images there are great finds in Pinterest and Instagram, but I'd start with this Gimages link: https://www.google.com/search?q=fruits+harajuku&ved=0ahUKEwj9y-yGnozVAhWBnRoKHV1NC6UQ_AUICSgB&biw=320&bih=530&dpr=3.38#imgrc=cnAyloOXOhb4ZM https://www.google.com/search?q=fruits+harajuku&ved=0ahUKEwj...:
- kurthr 9y ago
  I will say from personal experience that Japan is one of the few places in the world I have seen many male fashion victims. To be clear, I enjoy expressive fashion, and I don't mean people who have an expensive or even outrageous or ovewrought sense of taste, instead I refer to those people who read multiple fashion magazines and wear ALL of the things.
- 9y ago

franciscop 9y ago

Ah I always thought that Gyaru and Gal were the same fashion style slightly lost in translation, but now I see that they were actually different styles!

ldjb 9y ago
"Gyaru" is simply how "gal" is pronounced in Japanese, so it's an inconsistency in translation. However, kogyaru and ganguro are different styles. Gyaru is effectively a superset of the two, as well as some other styles. Néojaponisme has an interesting look back at the history of gyaru and the different styles (though unfortunately the pictures are rather few, and I have no idea where Part Four is): http://neojaponisme.com/2012/02/28/the-history-of-the-gyaru-part-one/ http://neojaponisme.com/2012/02/28/the-history-of-the-gyaru-...
- franciscop 9y ago
  That (and inner links) is an awesome peak into Japanese culture, thank you

rdiddly 9y ago

Well that was surprisingly tiring! I started to imagine keeping up with all those styles as they were happening -- sounds expensive. Fashion is inherently, I think, of the moment... in the "now"... and to lay out 37 years' worth of it in a row like that, has the probably unintended effect of laying bare its impermanence, frivolity (not in a good way) and unimportance. Grandpa comment.

tenryuu 9y ago

I know this has nothing to do with the article, but the UI/UX for this site feels so off-putting It's like a worse version of the windows 8 start screen. Can't even middle click the scroll wheel and navigate with gestures. I wouldn't mind seeing a piece on Shiyuba fashion though

bamboozled 9y ago
Agreed, its' pretty unusable. It's also dry and and aesthetically displeasing given the content of the site.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
Macha 9y ago
Kept jumping up even further after I scrolled up on my android tablet, which made it a total pain when it referenced earlier styles.
pcurve 9y ago
Agreed. Very frustrating to use just like many of Google's content oriented sites. The only google property that just works is Maps. Everything else, I feel like they're trying to impose their silly UI standards on you and you have to work around them.
Asooka 9y ago
I was confused what you meant because I read it on my phone, where it just scrolls normally - vertically, with pictures followed by text and no scroll shenanigans. Then I clicked the link on desktop.

wst_ 9y ago

Funny thing... Most of these pictures are still valid today.

callumjones 9y ago

What is Google Arts & Culture? How long has it been around?

emmfr 9y ago
It's the new name of the Google Art Project, which has been around since February 2011.

doctorshady 9y ago

It seems like a lot of the simpler styles - even as far back as the mid 1980s would probably work without sticking out a whole lot even now. I suppose there's a universal lesson of some sort in that.

pilaf 9y ago

There's a very well put together video about the history of Tokyo street fashion and music from the 70s till today on YouTube. Worth a watch for the visuals alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmsxWmKz-B8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmsxWmKz-B8

jhanschoo 9y ago

For those fascinated on the subject of Japanese fashion trends, I'm pleased to recommend http://neojaponisme.com/category/fashion-2/ http://neojaponisme.com/category/fashion-2/

wyclif 9y ago

Last time I was in Japan, the "wolf boy" haircut (sorry, I can't remember the Japanese word to describe this) was still quite popular even though it was passé. Then I was at the airport in the Philippines and there were some Japanese flying to Tokyo, and all the boys had the same haircut. Man, that cut will never die.

hkmurakami 9y ago

Personally, I think the best way to get a snapshot of the fashion of the times (apparel, makeup, hairstyle, shoes) is to watch a few of the popular TV dramas from each year.

lanius 9y ago

The photos are all black and white until 1984, when they're all suddenly in color. Was there any particular advancement in color photography in 1984?

mc32 9y ago
Not really. Most traditional photographers either tried or went color in the '60s. Some traditionalists insisted that real, serious photography was only done in B&W. This sentiment carries on to this day with film photogs. Some continue to think B&W is serious and color is for pop/sugary stuff/commercial. Color was a bit more expensive but I don't think that was the main driver. On the other hand, if the photo was for mass circulation/publishing, printing in color was more expensive --but the photography itself not so much.

jpatokal 9y ago

If you liked the story, you'll like this video of 40 years of Japanese street fashion: https://youtu.be/xmsxWmKz-B8 https://youtu.be/xmsxWmKz-B8

dookahku 9y ago

So, wait, what are we looking at? https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/ https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/ Is this like a Medium.com content publishing platform? From the about page: EXPLORE COLLECTIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD WITH GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE, CREATED BY GOOGLE CULTURAL INSTITUTE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cultural_Institute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cultural_Institute

AJ007 9y ago
Their javascript is complete crap. It is a pain in the ass to navigate on the phone and hardly better on desktop.

jansho 9y ago

Just a heads up to UK residents, the BBC iPlayer currently has a wealth of Japanese culture videos, including street fashion

known 9y ago

Check mahole covers in Japan http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/03/the-beauty-of-japans-artistic-manhole-covers/ http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/03/the-beauty-of-japans-a...