/fa/ - Fashion

just did a section of my trend report on this tbh.

uh, so basically it boils down to this: japan used to have p similar attitudes towards fashion w/regards to luxury and glamour when they were enjoying the fruits of their industrialization and tech booms of the 80s. Then the mid 90s hit and their bubble popped and economy tanked - basically what happened in the US in 2008 only really more affecting them.

after that they sortof switched gears and refocused on what they did best, that sortof detail oriented pragmaticism, v similar to the germans. they closed a LOT of their economy with regards to trade and influences so a lot of Japan is sortof stunted - for example their websites are trash and they the fashion magazine is still young men's primary sources for staying informed (wheras here it's moved online).

But the fashion mags there really like it like that. Popeye, 2nd, BRUTUS, Leon, Free & Easy, etc. You flip through them and they're all incredibly information dense, they don't focus on "editorials" or anything fanciful, no celeb focus. It's really more like a fashion field-guide.

they pride themselves on knowing their shit. everyone knows their shit over there. the designers study western cultures, trends, and individual details since their inception so when they implement something in a garment, they fucking know how to do it and its there for a reason. that's why most of their stuff follows this "more than meets the eye" deal, Nanamica for example, real classic looking peices, but made with CORDURA and GORE-TEX, electroceramic downs, WINDSTOPPER etc. Most of those fabrics are either produced there or have HQs there so they have a close relationship with development. If you think about it, that's a really Japanese thing. That sortof dilemma of what to preserve in the past and what to progress forward to the future.