THE HISTORY OF HARAJUKU FASHION (Exposé on the Harajuku Fashion Culture. By Edward Merrin)

Thanks to Wikipedia and books like FRUiTs, I’m able to provide you some basic information on the Harajuku fashion.

Before Y2K had hit, big things were popping and starting to change in Japan— specifically in the Harajuku district in Tokyo. According to FRUiTs, from the early to the mid 90’s, Hokoten, which is also known as the pedestrian heaven, was the place to be. It served as a foundation and a Mecca for all the newest trends in Japan’s music and fashion. You can see the music and fashion parallel each other as you saw more kids dressing accordingly to the particular genre music (i.e. punk rockers, rockabilly, hip-hop etc…)

But having been bored with all the conventional looks that everyone had in Japan, people started to feel more individualistic. Out of all the same old uniform styles, a need to express oneself came about. The Japanese folk suddenly didn’t want to wear the clothes that everyone was wearing just because it was a popular brand, or it cost this much, or this magazine said it was cool. Like the Punk Rock movement, disregard towards the traditional and societal norms of the way you look became hip.

Those that embraced this mentality and the spirit would later become either Harajuku girls or Harajuku boys. To these folks, what was considered cool didn’t even matter anymore. They believed in picking their own style— wearing the clothes they wanted to wear, and looking the way they look. And out came these Harajuku girls…

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