If you’re searching for the latest fashion trends that rock the closets of the young, the red carpets and white ramps of the high fashion world is the last place you should be looking. The fashion of the young has always been influenced by society’s countercurrents whether in entertainment media, politics, or culture. Young people of every epoch continue to create and reinvent the fashion alternative. From the 70s to the late 90s the success of the alternative music scene spawned the youth subcultures of grunge, punk, metal, and goth. The media and mass production outlets were all too eager to feature the blossoming alternative rock fashion center stage what with the continuing decline of disco music pomp. In the early 2000s emo stole the limelight with the all black-ensemble of mascara-lined sorrowful young €uns making heart shapes with their hands to a Dashboard Confessionals song. But now it’s 2011 and the emos are fast becoming a fad. It’s time yet again to sniff out the streets for the latest in alternative fashion.
The catchphrase is simple: expression is in and glamour is out. Look up that word sophisticated in your dictionary and start shredding it to bits because the latest alternative apparel of the young is all about taking things to the extreme. Say good bye to the dressing down of the 90s in dirty torn rags. Leather, lace, and everything in between will be rocking the streets once more.
With the rise of Asian economies and the decline of Western counterparts in the foreground, the same upheaval is taking place in the fashion trends of the young. Born from the streets like any true alternative fashion trend, Japanese street fashion is romping out with a quirky, hybrid, and absurd jive. The Japanese youth brought mixing and matching back with a vengeance, this time by meeting East and West in creating highly customized and alternative clothing suited solely for the personality of one.
Enter the Lolita, the rightful ambassador of Japanese street fashion. The embodiment of youth’s immortality or as others argue, the insolence and refusal of youth to grow up and become dull and boring, the Lolita is the most popular street character. The Lolita has gained interest not only in the streets of Japan but also in countries from all over the globe. From the slow-to-smile, long-suffering dark Gothic Lolita to the bubbly, and gregarious Summer’s Day Lolita, this girl-woman character also has the most range. Sweet, shy, and soft-spoken to short-tempered, violent, and foul-mouthed the Lolita character can suit any personality. She can even be innocent, sultry or malicious. It’s really up to the youth who dons the Lolita dress.
Not to be outdone, Japanese street fashion has vamped up and remade the punk, and he’s got the taste for black and leather. From leather shoes to tight leather pants and a tight leather jacket, the Japanese street punk is sleek. The look is topped not with a Mohawk, but a long warrior braid reminiscent of Chinese terracotta soldiers.
