ASA 141
Week 7
In the article "Japanese Teens as Producers of Street Fashion", Yuniya Kawamura discusses how teens are a great influence on the fashion trends in Japan as well as neighboring places such as Korea and Hong Kong. Personal style is often viewed as a way of proclaiming one's identity, and the teens in Japan are doing just that. Asia is known to be very traditional and the fashion trends of the adults tend to follow these traditions. The western view of Japanese style is often depicted as "boringly suited salesmen and their demurely dressed wives". It is hard to portray one's uniqueness with bland uniform clothing, thus the teens go out of their way to style themselves in "cool" and unique ways. Not conforming to the uniformity can also be seen as a way to rebel against it. Asians are stereotyped to be strict and to some extent, that is true. Japanese teens are using street fashions to stand up against traditions that bring them down. How would you rebel against society without showing any verbal disrespect? How would you feel if you were pressured to conform to a uniform style? Personally I love Japanese street fashion. I went to Hong Kong last year, and as the article says, their fashion is highly influenced by the trends in Japan. Although everything is still kept modest, I love how they are more creative and "risky" with their fashion choices. They play around with different layers, combine both loose and fitting articles of clothing, and aren't afraid to go for colorful options. They aren't afraid of looking "weird" and I admire their confidence in doing so.
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