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Jun 28 2012 25 Comments

Retro Tokyo fashion?

The future was once said to be so bright that people had to wear shades, but now it’s presumably just fashion rather than any particular feeling.

retro Japanese fashion

Categorized: Fashion, Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. zoomingjapan says

    6/28/2012 at 11:54 am

    Personally I wouldn’t wear it, but I kind of like it! ^-^

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/28/2012 at 1:38 pm

      Yeah, despite the danger of them just looking like novelty items, she definitely manages to make them look good.

      Reply
  2. Hans ter Horst says

    6/28/2012 at 12:57 pm

    Very cute! Aren’t that the glasses Lolita wears in the film after the book by Nabokov? Hmm, makes me wonder 🙂

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/28/2012 at 1:46 pm

      They are. Here’s the film poster.

      To be honest, I hadn’t even thought of it until I got an email mentioning the similarity.

      Reply
      • Jeffrey says

        6/29/2012 at 3:39 am

        Of course you hadn’t, Lee. Of course you hadn’t. : )

        Reply
        • Lee says

          6/29/2012 at 7:53 am

          Haha! I actually hadn’t, but I fear you won’t believe me!

          Reply
  3. Andy says

    6/28/2012 at 2:00 pm

    My niece wears sunglasses like that and it looks cute on her but then she is 11…

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/28/2012 at 5:55 pm

      Cute knows no such limits in Japan.

      Reply
  4. winnie says

    6/28/2012 at 3:54 pm

    I think she look cute with the sunglasses! 🙂 Some of the ladies like them as it is one of their important Fashion accessories.
    When my daughter is about 4 years old, she would like to wear this. But not now, as she have serious myopia.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/28/2012 at 5:58 pm

      I hope she can still find some fashionable (if not quite so cute) glasses.

      Reply
  5. Steko says

    6/28/2012 at 5:14 pm

    Looks like the old timey mustache meme has escaped North America. I’ll inform the trilateral commission.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/28/2012 at 6:02 pm

      I wondered what the deal was with the moustache badge. Is/was that popular?

      Reply
      • Hans ter Horst says

        6/28/2012 at 8:04 pm

        I was wondering that as well; never seen it before except on an RAF captain.

        Reply
        • Lee says

          6/28/2012 at 8:18 pm

          Yeah, and they probably aren’t all that common on them anymore either…

          Reply
      • David says

        6/29/2012 at 8:17 pm

        This- http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/feel-like-a-sir is the best answer I can found.

        Reply
  6. ameiji says

    6/28/2012 at 10:57 pm

    Yummy colours 🙂

    Reply
  7. Jeffrey says

    6/29/2012 at 3:38 am

    “Fashion”? There’s so much wrong going on in her “outfit” that I can’t name it all, and I can’t even see her legs or feet!

    Gaijin often comment on how there seem to be so many “pigeon-toed” Japanese women. I think the most common Japanese malady must be color-blindness (followed closely by pattern-cluelessness).

    Reply
    • Hans ter Horst says

      6/29/2012 at 8:24 am

      LOL, it is like photography: when you first start you get all these rules of composition you must follow but you end up with the same photos as everybody else; once you start breaking the rules, the more the better, you get a better photograph until it suddenly becomes a snapshot again. I lost track of what I wanted to say, but I guess the girl is either brilliant, or just turned into a “snapshot.” 🙂

      Reply
      • john says

        6/29/2012 at 9:20 am

        or happy?

        Reply
        • Lee says

          6/29/2012 at 3:15 pm

          That’s a very good way of putting it. A description that makes me think of Martin Parr. And so with that in mind, let’s go for brilliant eh?

          Or maybe as John said, simply just happy.

          Reply
          • Jeffrey says

            6/30/2012 at 12:42 am

            I agree, Hans, but it’s such a fine line and few people possess “the eye” for that. Christ, just consider some of the atrocities that designers trot out for the run way, and these people are professionals!

            I know it’s better to be scene rather than herd, but in Japan, the scenesters all run around in herds.

            Reply
  8. john says

    6/29/2012 at 9:17 am

    Moustache meme jumper sighted in UK this very evening!
    So this seems current fashion?
    At least for a little colour clash one can wear shades,
    and what better way to complement them than with a nice moustache 8o{

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/29/2012 at 3:11 pm

      It appears so. I have been reliably informed that the design was first made popular by Tatty Devine. There’s no point me trying to explain, because I can’t, but this link might help.

      Reply
  9. LAObserver says

    6/30/2012 at 9:00 am

    Great photo Lee. Retro is becoming repeat-o. Everything seems to go away then come back again. Then length of women’s skirts, the width of men’s ties and etc. Maybe this little lady is just the start of another fad cycle.

    Reply
    • Lee says

      6/30/2012 at 10:35 am

      Thanks! Yeah, it’s very cyclical, although what part of the process she’s at I couldn’t even begin to guess…

      Reply

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