3 ms·

Some random Japanese trends are destined to go mainstream in the west, while others aren't. This seems to fall firmly into the latter category.

by hugh3 16y ago

harisenbon 16y ago
Calling this a trend is kind of pushing it. ;) Publicity stunt by a fashion designer/store in Harajuku sounds much better. If this winds its way down to Nagoya, I think I'm going to need to move to a different island.
- patio11 16y ago
  Yeah, the NYT runs one "Japan... weird, right?" story every three months, typically sourced off a single interview with a counterculture aficionado in Tokyo. Remember, e.g., anti-mugger camouflague dresses to turn you into a Coke machine? My theory is that Japanese people are rich enough to count as white and rare enough in the NYT newsroom to count as Republican, which makes this OK by their lights. If the published an article on hip hop teeth as a craze sweeping the nation, they'd lose face with people they actually care about.
machrider 16y ago
Yeah, westerners never put funny things in their mouths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grill_%28jewelry%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grill_%28jewelry%29
- hugh3 16y ago
  Oh, there are idiotic trends in the west as well. But they have an entirely different flavour to them. Grills are an ostentatious display of wealth. Ostentatious displays of wealth are severely frowned upon in any culture (or subculture) where wealth is actually common. White people, or Japanese people, or even middle-class black people, would never wear something as tacky as a diamond-studded tooth grill... they'd rather display their wealth via something like a $20,000 watch that only folks with $20,000 watches know is a $20,000 watch. Now, LEDs aren't expensive, so they don't work as ostentatious displays of wealth. About the only thing they work as is an ostentatious display of your willingness to adopt trends in the full knowledge that they're completely stupid-looking. And that kind of thing may play well in Japan but it won't fly in the west where we're not quite so ironically detached.
  - philwelch 16y ago
    Now, LEDs aren't expensive, so they don't work as ostentatious displays of wealth. About the only thing they work as is an ostentatious display of your willingness to adopt trends in the full knowledge that they're completely stupid-looking. And that kind of thing may play well in Japan but it won't fly in the west where we're not quite so ironically detached. Honestly, "willingness to adopt trends in the full knowledge that they're completely stupid-looking" and "ironically detached" sound like pretty good descriptions of Western hipsters. I don't know if that's what motivates these Japanese people or not, but if so, it's a concept that isn't unique to them.

Some random Japanese trends are destined to go mainstream in the west, while others aren't. This seems to fall firmly into the latter category.

by hugh3 16y ago

Some random Japanese trends are destined to go mainstream in the west, while others aren't. This seems to fall firmly into the latter category.

harisenbon 16y ago

Calling this a trend is kind of pushing it. ;) Publicity stunt by a fashion designer/store in Harajuku sounds much better. If this winds its way down to Nagoya, I think I'm going to need to move to a different island.

patio11 16y ago
Yeah, the NYT runs one "Japan... weird, right?" story every three months, typically sourced off a single interview with a counterculture aficionado in Tokyo. Remember, e.g., anti-mugger camouflague dresses to turn you into a Coke machine? My theory is that Japanese people are rich enough to count as white and rare enough in the NYT newsroom to count as Republican, which makes this OK by their lights. If the published an article on hip hop teeth as a craze sweeping the nation, they'd lose face with people they actually care about.

machrider 16y ago

Yeah, westerners never put funny things in their mouths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grill_%28jewelry%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grill_%28jewelry%29

hugh3 16y ago
Oh, there are idiotic trends in the west as well. But they have an entirely different flavour to them. Grills are an ostentatious display of wealth. Ostentatious displays of wealth are severely frowned upon in any culture (or subculture) where wealth is actually common. White people, or Japanese people, or even middle-class black people, would never wear something as tacky as a diamond-studded tooth grill... they'd rather display their wealth via something like a $20,000 watch that only folks with $20,000 watches know is a $20,000 watch. Now, LEDs aren't expensive, so they don't work as ostentatious displays of wealth. About the only thing they work as is an ostentatious display of your willingness to adopt trends in the full knowledge that they're completely stupid-looking. And that kind of thing may play well in Japan but it won't fly in the west where we're not quite so ironically detached.
- philwelch 16y ago
  Now, LEDs aren't expensive, so they don't work as ostentatious displays of wealth. About the only thing they work as is an ostentatious display of your willingness to adopt trends in the full knowledge that they're completely stupid-looking. And that kind of thing may play well in Japan but it won't fly in the west where we're not quite so ironically detached. Honestly, "willingness to adopt trends in the full knowledge that they're completely stupid-looking" and "ironically detached" sound like pretty good descriptions of Western hipsters. I don't know if that's what motivates these Japanese people or not, but if so, it's a concept that isn't unique to them.