ASA 141
Week 7
In her academic journal "Japanese Teens as Producers of Street Fashion," Yuniya Kawamura states that Japanese teens are the main key players directing the trend in the Japanese fashion realm. Japanese fashion culture is unique as its structure does not follow "the conventional model of fashion business" (785) as the rest of the world does. While designers are fashion trend drivers in any other country, Japanese teens are the pillars of Japanese fashion. It's interesting how business owners want to hire them and take their voices when designing and manufacturing clothes as their trend and taste are quite extraordinary and difficult to fully grasp. I like how the author started off her study by giving her readers the background of this whole phenomenon: When Japanese economy went down in the 1980s, teenagers expressed their thoughts - that individual identities were more crucial than maintaining oneself in a group - in a form of their clothes, makeup, and accessories they wore.
At one point growing up, I remember some Korean celebrities showing up in Gyaru, one of the popular trends in Japan, makeup. As briefly mentioned in the article, Asian countries have been influenced by Japanese fashion and its street trend, probably because of the proximity. Here I share this screenshot of a TV show called "Gag Concert," my childhood favorite show.
I used to think that this segment of the show was funny, but now that I have been exposed to the idea of cultural appropriation versus appreciation, I wonder if it falls into more an offensive side.
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