Teen-Age Japanese Fashion Takes Cues From Movies
From 3 o’clock on, they have the run of the place. Japanese teen-agers, some still dressed in conservative school uniforms, take over Takeshita-dori, a walkers-only area in the city’s Harajuku district.
The street itself is as irregular as a paved cow path. There is nothing straight-edged or methodical about it. The stores look like open-face garages, one hooked to another. What they carry isn’t all that different from the inexpensive T-shirts, hats and eccentric accessories seen along the Venice Boardwalk. And the tiny houses sandwiched between the shops are like Venice houses, except for the pagoda-style roofs.
The regulars on the street refer to the most popular Takeshita-dori stores as “singer-shops” because they are owned by Japanese pop musicians who put their name on the clothing labels. Other stores have English language names--”Each Other” and “Gothic Hair,” for example.
You might bump into some big names from the West while you’re browsing. British born, Milan-based designers Keith Varty and Alan Cleaver of Byblos toured the street between last week’s ( fashion shows and seminars for “fashion summit ‘90,” a week-long meeting in Tokyo of designers from around the world.
“I’m surprised everybody looks so, sweet, I guess is the word,” Varty said of the dress styles of the young people he saw in Takeshita-dori.
Sweet as in Ralph Lauren-like, country sentimental. Denim is the common denominator. Girls wear denim work shirts under big, floppy cardigan sweaters and long, graceful skirts, or jeans jackets and denim skirts with authentic Indian moccasins. Boys wear varsity jackets with their jeans. Jeans jackets topped by wilder, leopard-print styles, and sunglasses, berets and jeans are other looks.
“A couple of years ago they wanted slick Italian suits, now they want casual denims,” notes Shinji Yokoi, who was raised in Tokyo but now lives in Los Angeles. A project supervisor for Dentsu, L.A., a division of the Tokyo advertising agency known for the life style research it conducts, Yokoi says Americans flatter themselves believing that denim dressing is an homage to the United States.
“Most Japanese don’t make a distinction between English, American or French,” he says. “They think western, not necessarily American.”
For new fashion trends, he says, Tokyo’s teens scour American and European movies, which they rent and watch on their VCRs. “Bat Man” and “Ghost Busters II” are the red hot titles right now. No shortage of interesting fashion ideas there.
