Hrajuku Style and Gwen Stefanni

Harajuku is known as a famous shopping destination and fashion centre where you can see the most flamboyantly dressed teenagers.

High fashion in HarajukuThe opening of the Meiji Jingu Shrine in the 1920s first brought visitors to Harajuku but it was the 1964s Tokyo Olympics that transformed the quiet residential area. The excitement surrounding the games attracted young people to Harajuku and it is still the one of Tokyo’s most vibrant and fashionable areas.Harajuku was the birth place of several crazes including “take Nokozoku”, a 1970s fad where brightly dressed people danced to recorded music on the side of the road and similarly rock’n’roller zoku and band-zoku. Between 1977 and 1998 a section of road in Harajuku was closed to traffic on Sundays, creating Hokoten or “pedestrian paradise”. Hokoten happened every Sunday when one kilometre of Harajuku’s main road was blocked to cars; this section of road became a public square. The idea of Hokoten is precious because the concept of a public-square did not exist in Japan. This spread to other days and Harajuku influenced fashion nationwide. Hokoten was terminated in 1998 and Harajuku gradually returned to its original state. The “Fruits” monthly magazine appeared in 1997, this was also inspired by the creative fashion of this area.Coming back to Gwen Stefani’s girls, they are mostly called the “Gothic Lolitas”. It is believed the Gothic Lolita phenomenon is connected to the Japanese “cutie look” which was popularized by Japanese animated characters. The colourful cartoon looks were translated into street fashions by the creative youth culture in Tokyo.A lot of kids in Japan go to private schools and most of them wear uniforms. So when Saturday comes around they go crazy, though in Japan, fashion trends are about stimulation.

So if you are on the hunt for this outrageous style, have a look at the Japanese “Fruits” magazine, or if you prefer try to copy as much as you can from the Sailor Moon’s wardrobe; mimic the Adams family make-up style and above all pretend you speak Japanese!