SHORT SKIRT, LONG BOOTS

Winter Fashion Focuses Around Legs

 
(Design Research Room of Kyoritsu Women's Junior College)

The city is full of young women walking the streets in miniskirts, despite the cold. Tweeds and checks are the top choices in fabric, and the skirt length averages about 40 centimeters. The favorite footwear to go with these skirts is over-knee boots. Interest in leg warmers has carried over from last winter as well, thanks to their warmth and fashion appeal. Chanel and other brands matched miniskirts with leg warmers in their 2003-4 fall/winter collections, and leg warmers are becoming a must-have fashion item.

Mostly Mini
At the main store of Hankyu Department Stores, located in the Umeda district of Osaka, the assortment of skirts sold in the clothing department for young women between the late teens and early twenties turned mostly mini in fall 2003. In addition to tweed and checked skirts that give a traditional British feel, also popular are pleated skirts and skirts that come with belts and other accessories. Products priced at slightly over ¥10,000 ($91 at ¥110 to the dollar) are in highest demand. Since September, miniskirt sales throughout the store have grown by more than 50% compared to the previous year. Likewise at Daimaru's Kyoto store, which has tripled its skirt selection from last year, skirt lengths are mainly 45 cm or shorter, and popular fabrics include denim, wool, and tweed.

In October leading apparel maker Onward Kashiyama came out with six new miniskirts in its popular flagship Kumikyoku brand, which targets twenty-something women. For the past several years the company had been shying away from selling miniskirts due to their unpopularity. But this year, a sales representative explains, "Miniskirts were taken up at international fashion shows, so we've aggressively introduced them to our line."

The women's boutique Le Ciel Bleu in Kobe is cashing in on the trend as well. It is offering miniskirts in as many as 50 different designs, among which flared types are particularly favored. Many customers shop for skirts that match the tights and boots they already own.

From Hem to Toe
Fashion-conscious women pay just as much attention to how they look below the hem. In particular, extra-long boots that come to above the knees are in vogue. One merit of these boots is that they make the wearer's legs look long. At the Printemps Ginza department store, overall sales of boots (including over-knee types) have tripled over the previous year.  

Leg warmers, meanwhile, were already in fashion last winter among young people in their teens and early twenties. The style then was to wear them loosely around the ankles. This winter leg warmers have won more fans and have increased their repertory to include above-knee designs that fit closely around the legs. Like long boots, close-fitting leg warmers make the legs look slender. The bestselling color is black (which also has a slimming effect), and small polkadots are a favorite pattern. They retail for about ¥1,500.

The boom in leg warmers can be attributed to the comeback of miniskirts, as well as to the proliferation of the layered look. Another theory has it that women in their early twenties, who as high-school girls created the "loose socks" craze in the mid-1990s, have come to seek products that allow them to make their own fashion statement.

(Web-Japan, January 23, 2004)

PSYCHEDELIC REVIVAL

Colorful Designs Feature in Fashion and Video Games

 
Psychedelic shoes (DIANA)

The psychedelic fashions that were all the rage in the United States from the late 1960s through the 1970s as young people engaged in various forms of social protest have made a comeback. Psychedelic designs feature bright multicolored patterns and distinctive curved lines. These designs, which dominated fashion and art in the sixties and seventies, are now showing up again, not only in people's closets but in some surprising new areas as well.

Back in Fashion
Italian design house Emilio Pucci has created a signature print that uses over 150 colors and serves as an expression of the brand's colorful and unique worldview. A design aesthetic that originated as an emblem of hippie culture has spread to the realm of luxury fashion. Pucci opened a boutique in Tokyo's Ginza district in November 2004 and is using the store to purvey its modern take on psychedelic fashion to Japanese customers. The store interior, which has a white motif, houses luxury bags, shoes, and other products with psychedelic designs that succeed in expressing Ginza's hallmark chic.

Meanwhile, in the streets of Tokyo districts like Koenji and Kichijoji, which are lined with secondhand clothes stores, clothing from the original psychedelic boom of the 1960s and 1970s is selling well. Most of those buying these vintage garments are young women aged around 20, who were not even born when psychedelic fashion first appeared. New clothes and accessories are also being designed and marketed to cater to this new generation of psychedelic fans. One difference with the 1960s and 1970s is that most of the products in the current boom are being sold online, showing that psychedelic fashion has truly entered the twenty-first century.

Psychedelic Gaming
The psychedelic revival extends beyond the realm of fashion. Among other places, psychedelic motifs are showing up in video games. A game called Kimi no tame nara shineru (I Would Die for You), created by Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. for Nintendo's new DS portable gaming console, has become a hot topic for its psychedelic visuals and music. The game's story line revolves around a male protagonist who has fallen in love with a woman at first sight and tries to woo her in various ways. The visual depiction of the characters - which makes heavy use of black silhouettes, curved lines, and vivid colors like red, orange, and blue - exemplifies the psychedelic aesthetic. Kimi no tame nara shineru has garnered popularity thanks to its combination of grown-up entertainment and fresh design.

While the psychedelic designs of the sixties and seventies were characterized by bold primary and secondary colors, the recent psychedelic revival has been marked by the slight toning down of those colors. This makes it easier for people to fit the psychedelic look into their wardrobes. In contrast to the original psychedelic craze of the sixties, which was associated with illicit drugs and anti-establishment sentiment, the focus of the current psychedelic revival is on the pure enjoyment of fun, dreamy designs.

(Web-Japan, March 16, 2005)

STEPPING OUT IN WEDGE-SOLED SHOES

Women Choose Cute and Comfortable Summer Shoes

 
A shopper checks out a wedge-soled shoe. (Jiji)

The wedge-soled shoes that were popular among Japanese women in the early 1980s are making a comeback in the summer of 2005. Style-conscious women are adding the thick-soled shoes to their wardrobes as an expression of this spring and summer's fashion watchwords, "resort" and "vacation." And it is not only style but comfort, too, that is a big factor in the popularity of wedge-soled shoes. Many wearers report that the large surface area of the shoes' soles lightens the burden on their feet.

Making a Comeback
Wedge-soled shoes that are narrow at the heel and do not have a raised arch at the sole are selling well. The craze was sparked by design houses like Louis Vuitton and Yves St. Laurent, who showed this style of footwear in their spring and summer 2005 collections. The shoes hit the market in late March. Printemps Ginza, a department store in Tokyo that is a magnet for fashion-conscious women, reports that it sometimes sells over 100 pairs of wedge-soled shoes in a single weekend.

The wedge sole was created by Salvatore Ferragamo, founder of the Ferragamo brand, who produced soles made of materials such as cork during World War II. In Japan, wedges first appeared in the 1970s, but only as a brief fad. A full-blown craze erupted in the early 1980s as part of the new-traditional fashion trend. This trend was defined by a single style: a pump-like shoe with a jute-wrapped sole.

The current wedge craze is marked by much greater variety, manifesting itself in an array of designs and sole materials. As one might expect of a summer fashion trend, sandals that enable wearers to show off the bridges of their feet are popular. Soles also come in a range of materials, including clear plastic as well as cork and rattan. Designs vary widely. The sides of the soles may be embroidered with flower patterns or adorned with ribbon, and the shoe may have a narrow heel and a slight arch at the sole, giving it the elegance of a high-heeled shoe. Or the heel may have a slightly exaggerated curve.

From Resorts to the Street
The current wedge craze originated as an expression of this summer's defining fashion themes: resorts and vacations. Jute and cork soles fit in with this casual look. But now that wedge-soled shoes are coming out in so many different materials and styles - including low-heeled wedges just 3 to 4 centimeters high - many women are incorporating them into their working wardrobes as well. Wedge-soled shoes are the ideal complement to this season's leg-baring half-length pants, cropped pants, and billowy skirts.

Wedge-soled shoes are also finding favor for their functionality. In contrast to the pin-heeled mules that have been popular for the past few years, wedges distribute the body's weight over the entire surface area of the sole, reducing the load on the feet. As shoes offering the leg-lengthening effect of high heels without the pain associated with that style, wedges are finding a loyal following not only among young women buying them for the first time but also among 40-something women who wore them back in the 1980s. Among the latter group, the affection for wedge-soled shoes is no doubt tinged with nostalgia.

(Web-Japan, May 31, 2005)

GOODBYE TO POINTY TOES

Rounded Silhouettes Dominate Winter Footwear

Round-toed shoes come in lots of varieties. (SESTO SENSO)

Round-toed pumps and boots are the favored footwear among women in their twenties this winter. This marks a big change, given that pointy-toed shoes have more or less ruled since the mid-1990s. As early as 2004, trendy designers Chloé and Miu Miu were presenting round-toed shoes in their collections, and footwear with blunt contours was appearing in shop-window displays. Some fashion-forward women adopted the new style, but support for the sharp-toed look was deep-rooted, and the rounded shape did not become a major trend until recently.

Shoe Styles Mirror Clothing Trends
Clothing styles and shoe styles are linked, and the head-spinning pace of fashion trends in the modern era has made this connection more apparent. A new fashion look brings with it a pronounced change in shoe designs.

Thus the billowy circular skirts of the 1950s were worn with heeled pumps; the miniskirts of the sixties with long boots; the bellbottom jeans of the seventies with platform boots; and the body-hugging dresses of the eighties with high heels. The casual fashions of the early to mid-1990s ushered in a sneaker craze. And the trendy young "gals" of the late 1990s teetered around the boutiques and clubs of Shibuya in platform boots and sandals that increased their height by up to 15 centimeters. The 1990s also saw the beginning of a jeans craze, which in turn fueled the popularity of other pant styles among women. As a sleek complement to pants-based fashion, pointy-toed shoes found favor and enjoyed enduring popularity.
 
Shoes as a Harbinger of Fashion
Now jeans and other pants are out of favor, and a newfound taste for classical, refined, feminine styles has brought about a major shift from slacks to skirts. Round-toed shoes have emerged as the footwear accompaniment to these skirts.

Round-toed shoes not only are comfortable but also go well with a variety of styles. These benefits are readily apparent to anyone who tries on a pair. So appealing are the new shoe styles that some women who have never worn feminine clothing before are starting to adopt dresses and miniskirts as the ideal complement to their round-toed shoes. Historically, clothing styles have driven shoe styles. But in this case, it is the other way around.

(Web-Japan, December 18, 2006)

GOLD RUSH

Clothes and Accessories Get the Midas Touch

Gold bags go well with black clothes. (Color & Design Research Room of Kyoritsu Women's Junior College)

Gold is this year's trendy color. Gold buttons are being used on pea jackets and trench coats, gold chain bags and belt buckles are all the rage, and gold-toned clothes and other small items with a touch of gold are now prominent. Gold is even replacing silver, a longstanding favorite, as the metal of choice for earrings, rings, pendants, and other accessories. The world of fashion appears to be on the brink of a gold rush.

From Street to High Fashion
Young Japanese men devoted to hip-hop culture and the "B boy" style were the first to embrace gold, wearing large accessories featuring imitation gold or rhinestones with baggy, everyday wear. Later, when hip-hop caught on among women, revealing outfits with gold accessories and other bold styles were adopted, and gold items were used first by "gals," a group marked by their preference for casual, sexy wear, and later by young women as a whole.

Seemingly in step with this trend, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Yves Saint Laurent, and a number of other haute-couture designers featured an abundance of gold in their 2006 fall & winter and 2007 spring & summer collections, focusing further interest on the metal. Most of the gold items, such as gold metallic dresses, satin gold tight-fitting suits, and blousons with gold zippers, were not ostentatious or showy but radiated a modern, futuristic, and powerful feel.

Gold and Economic Expansion

Gold was popular in the 1980s, at the peak of the bubble era. Just like today, metal buttons embellished navy blue blazers, gold necklaces topped tight fitting dresses with large shoulder pads, and gold was used in other eye-catching ways. Gold that shimmers is stunning and sumptuous and has connotations of lavish wealth, so - not surprisingly - it tends to appear during periods of economic growth.

The current boom in gold coincides with a long period of growth, but another factor is that people are tired of the informality of the longstanding retro style and loose-fitting layered clothes and are ready for something new. And some believe that the growing desire for a new fashion has the potential to serve as a stimulus for further growth.

(Web-Japan, March 15, 2007)

A WINTER'S YARN

Knit Dresses and Other Woolen Garments Selling Well

Knit dresses go well with gorgeous accessories. (Blue East)

Now that the cold weather has really set in, knitted clothes, warming to look at as well as to wear, can be seen on the streets of Tokyo in large number and great variety. Knitted garments particularly popular this year include not only cardigans, ensembles, and dresses but also an array of accessories: bags, caps, mufflers, legwarmers, and necklaces with knitted bobbles.

Design Diversity
Knit dresses are a particularly popular item these days. Many of the knit dresses in the stores right now are attractively priced at around ¥10,000 to ¥20,000 (about $86 to $172 at ¥116 to the dollar), not much more expensive than a sweater or cardigan. When one also considers the fact that knit dresses combine the slightly formal air of a dress with the easy-to-wear quality of stretchy knits, it is no surprise that their popularity is spreading, mainly among women in their twenties.

A distinguishing characteristic of the current knit-dress craze is the wide variety of designs available. The options abound: feminine, form-hugging dresses that hark back to the tight "body-conscious" style of the 1980s; cute, girly dresses with puffy sleeves and tiered skirts; trendy dresses incorporating the balloon skirt style of the moment; dresses adorned with brass buttons or other metal fittings down the front or at the pockets for a traditional look.

The most popular color choices are basic grays, blacks, and whites, but bolder colors like red, purple, green, and mustard-yellow are also finding favor. Textural variety abounds as well, with choices ranging from smooth, fine-gauge knits to chunky cable patterns.

"Layered" Is the Word
The "gals" of ultra-trendy Shibuya, who have confidence in their lithe figures, boldly pair body-hugging mini-dresses with long boots. A key element in the popularity of knit dresses is that they lend themselves to layering, which gives wearers the freedom to put together their own unique look.

Knit dresses are being layered with other garments in original, eye-catching ways. On top, a sleeveless knit dress over a blouse or a turtleneck of knitted fabric is a popular combination. On the bottom, fashion-forward women are pairing knit dresses with the currently popular skinny denim jeans or with leggings - an ideal way to achieve this year's look.

(web-japan, December 18, 2006)