Konichiwa, Japan: Harajuku Daymare

Gwen and her girls

Martin introduced me to the Gwen Stefani hit of 2004 "Harajuku Girls", and we saw for ourselves that the image of these school-uniform-meets-punk-meets-geisha-meets-ballet dancer-meets-football player girls and their outfits have not only stood the test of time but have developed further, just as the Mary Quant girls and punk rockers did in London's from the 1960s on through the 1980s.

So we joined a horde of teenaged Japanese girls paying homage to the heart of Harajuku, similar to those flooding Carnaby Street years after the fact, all taking photos and cramming down a tight little street just off from Harajuku station.

This area is now known internationally as a center of Japanese youth culture and fashion. Perhaps fad is a better word, as fashion has jumped ship and fled in fear for its life. Here there are tee-shirts and caps, shoes, and scarves, all cheaply made and all covered with photos, slogans and images of cats, animated and otherwise. Well, hello kitty. There are more places selling ice cream and sweet crepes than original clothing. Cat cafes abound as well, with a premium spent for time with kitties in this popular zone. For about $2 you can spend a whopping 10 minutes among felines, with all you can drink for another $3.50. Cat treats cost $5. The whole Harajuku thing was not new in 2004 either. After the second world war, with its presence of American GIs prevalent, young Japanese teens found a different sort of goods being sold to a different sort of people from a different sort of culture living in this neighbourhood. As fashion designers later settled in the area, calling themselves “the Harajuku tribe,” they started to sell their works to the tourists visiting during the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. But it really came of age at the dawn of the 21st century, and adherents can now be more definitively cast according to their style variations:

Cosplay (i.e., costume play) involves assuming the persona of a well-known character from a movie, game, band or manga (comic book). This means not just dressing up in a costume to look the part, but also acting the part.

Lolita has none of the Western sexual connotations the name evokes, but embodies a modest look based on Victorian-era fashion. The typical Lolita wears a cupcake-shaped knee-length skirt with petticoats and knee-high stockings, though the style often includes full-length skirts, corsets and headdresses.

Punk features leather, piercings, chains, zippers and boots, with clothing generally in dark colors or plaid.

Gyaru style is typified by an overtly childish, girly look, a caricature of the typical American teenager. Bleached or dyed hair, and garishly decorated makeup and nails are de rigueur. Clothing styles vary, based on which gyaru sub-style is chosen.

Ganguro (roughly translated as “black face”) takes the girly-glam gyaru style to a whole new level. You can tell a ganguro girl by her deep artificial tan, hair dyed orange, blonde or silver and black-lined eyes surrounded by white eye shadow. This look is often accessorized by facial gems and stickers, false eyelashes, platform shoes and brightly colored clothing.

Yamanba/Manba for their part take ganguro to an even greater extreme. The tan is much darker, often brown; the makeup is even more radical, almost clown-like; hair colors are usually neon, often in dreadlocks. This style’s name, unsurprisingly, originates from “Yama-uba,” a mountain hag from Japanese folklore.

Visual Kei (“visual style”) includes garish costumes, flamboyant hair and makeup and an androgynous look. Originally a movement within Japan’s music scene, the style was adopted by fans emulating their idols, making it in some ways a form of Cosplay.