Fashion Show #2
I am constantly and repeatedly impressed with the Japanese sense of fashion. It appears to me that Japanese fashion isn't so much a separate entity from world fashion, but rather the concentrated culmination of every style one could imagine. Japanese people take Italian, French, and American designs, wear them all at once, and make the clothing look real good.
Furthermore, the proportion of fashionable people is much higher than I ever experienced in America. Most of my classmates are carrying Louis Vuitton wallets and purses on a regular basis, and in the city you can't go anywhere without seeing someone that seems to know a little something about good (or at least outrageous) fashion. Girls wear short skirts with high boots, large frilly parkas, and t-shirts with ridiculous English plastered on the front.
When offered, I jumped at the opportunity to go to the Chugoku Design College's fashion show in Okayama with Katrin (the exchange student from Germany), Michelle (from Canada), and some of their friends from Joto High School.
We all met outside Okayama Station around noon, and then did some shopping and a little eating before the show began. We hit Loft, a six story department store filled with postcards, food, tableware, furniture, office supplies, costumes, cell phone accessories, and crazy pop art curiosities. It happened to be the day before Valentine's Day, so the 4th floor was crammed with girls buying last minute gifts (in Japan, girls give guys gifts on Valentine's Day, while guys get a whole extra month until March 14, White Day, to return the favor).
We then walked past Symphony Hall to where the design college was located, arriving just in time as two huge projectors and a fleet of strobe lights flashed while Bjork pump-up music played in the background. As far as I can tell most Japanese fashion shows (and this could be true all over the world) have the same format:
A very high beats-per-minute song plays while searchlights and colored strobes blind the audience (with the ultimate goal of distracting the onlookers from the clothing they came to view). Tall, stone-faced models then powerfully stride onto the stage, walking in rhythm to the music alongside their equally stone-faced cohorts. Usually one model will be the center of attention and will carry an accessory such as a devil's pitchfork or princess's wand to augment the clothing on display.
All of the clothing I saw was themed, with about 10 or 12 small performances ranging from Jamaican dancers sporting red, yellow, and green to a spooky "Men in Black" type outfit with fake smoke and sleeves that reached all the way to the floor.
I don't ever aspire to be a fashion designer, but I did get a kick out of the stunning display.
Furthermore, the proportion of fashionable people is much higher than I ever experienced in America. Most of my classmates are carrying Louis Vuitton wallets and purses on a regular basis, and in the city you can't go anywhere without seeing someone that seems to know a little something about good (or at least outrageous) fashion. Girls wear short skirts with high boots, large frilly parkas, and t-shirts with ridiculous English plastered on the front.
When offered, I jumped at the opportunity to go to the Chugoku Design College's fashion show in Okayama with Katrin (the exchange student from Germany), Michelle (from Canada), and some of their friends from Joto High School.
We all met outside Okayama Station around noon, and then did some shopping and a little eating before the show began. We hit Loft, a six story department store filled with postcards, food, tableware, furniture, office supplies, costumes, cell phone accessories, and crazy pop art curiosities. It happened to be the day before Valentine's Day, so the 4th floor was crammed with girls buying last minute gifts (in Japan, girls give guys gifts on Valentine's Day, while guys get a whole extra month until March 14, White Day, to return the favor).
We then walked past Symphony Hall to where the design college was located, arriving just in time as two huge projectors and a fleet of strobe lights flashed while Bjork pump-up music played in the background. As far as I can tell most Japanese fashion shows (and this could be true all over the world) have the same format:
A very high beats-per-minute song plays while searchlights and colored strobes blind the audience (with the ultimate goal of distracting the onlookers from the clothing they came to view). Tall, stone-faced models then powerfully stride onto the stage, walking in rhythm to the music alongside their equally stone-faced cohorts. Usually one model will be the center of attention and will carry an accessory such as a devil's pitchfork or princess's wand to augment the clothing on display.
All of the clothing I saw was themed, with about 10 or 12 small performances ranging from Jamaican dancers sporting red, yellow, and green to a spooky "Men in Black" type outfit with fake smoke and sleeves that reached all the way to the floor.
I don't ever aspire to be a fashion designer, but I did get a kick out of the stunning display.
2 Comments:
That picture of all the girls buying Valentine's Gifts is crazy!
By Bernard, at 2:26 PM
and to top it off everyone looks mildly annoyed with the painful ritual purchase of candy
By Benjamin, at 11:47 PM
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