Posts Tagged: visual kei

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21
Jan 11

Harajuku: Street Fashion Capital

Tokyo is Japan’s most populous city, so it’s no surprise that there are almost as many different sides to the city as there are people. For instance, there are 23 special wards in the city of Tokyo–just in the most populous area. You may have heard of some of these wards in pop culture references to Japan. These days, Harajuku is one of those pop culture words that’s popular even outside of Japan.

Harajuku isn’t a ward–it’s a section of the Shibuya ward, specifically around the Harajuku Station. But this small section of a Tokyo ward is famous globally as one of the fashion capitals of the world. However, the fashion you’ll find here is different from the high-class fashion you’ll find in other areas of Tokyo. The “street fashion” you’ll find on teenagers and young adults is usually bright, bold and one-of-a-kind.

The fashions tend to gravitate toward one of three styles: lolita, visual kei, and cosplay–however, in Harajuku, anything goes. The young people who show off their clothes in Harajuku take pride in creating their own mix-and-match designs.

Lolita: Lolita fashions (exclusively for women or men crossdressing) are somewhat reminiscent of Victorian-era clothes with much shorter skirts and a few modern accessories. There are a number of subcategories within the style, including “Gothic Lolita,” which makes use of mostly black and dark colors, and “Baby Lolita,” which emphasizes pastel colors and cutesy accessories.

Visual Kei: Visual kei, which we’ve covered as a musical genre, is known for theatrical outfits that mix Gothic black and dark colors as well as Victorian-era type of clothing. Brightly colored hair and kabuki-style makeup complete the ensembles.

Cosplay: Cosplay is short for “costume play” and it refers to dressing up as fictional characters. Most often in Japan, this refers to dressing as characters from anime, manga, video games, and famous bands, but it can also refer to roleplaying by wearing costumes, such as roleplaying as maids, nurses, and even schoolgirls.

Have you ever heard of Harajuku? Have you ever been to Harajuku? What do you think of the street fashion there?

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2
Jul 10

Visual Kei Music: When Gothic Meets Flair

A style of music native to Japan with a sizeable following is Visual Kei (“visual” of course is an English word and “kei” means “style” in Japanese). This type of music is known for its performers’ visual style as much as their music, as they’re dressed in incredibly ornate fashion.

Visual Kei may owe some of its roots to flamboyantly colored and stylized ancient performance styles from Japan, such as kabuki and noh. They may also owe some of their style to glam rock singers, such as Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie). However, their look is largely unique and not quite exactly like any of these influences.

Visual Kei bands typically—but not always—wear clothes inspired by overly colorful or Gothic black-and-white Victorian-era European attire, with lots of ruffles and large, baggy sleeves. Feathers, ribbons and lace are common accessories. The band members’ hair is typically dyed bright colors and is styled in long, wavy or spiky style, but may also be elegantly tied back. The band members may also wear color contacts, since most Japanese people have dark brown eyes and they want to appear a little more European. (However, the contacts may also be a color not found in human eyes.)

The band members’ faces and exposed skin are also typically painted pure white, which is a direct connection to the kabuki and noh style of theatrics. (Pale, white skin is traditionally seen as a sign of beauty in Japan and may represent delicateness.) Perhaps more closely tied to the theatrical traditions of kabuki and noh is the fact that many Visual Kei bands feature at least one band member who dresses explicitly as a woman—despite being a man. All of the band members tend to embrace a sense of androgyny, but some more so than others.

The type of music you might hear from a Visual Kei band might be described as some sort of punk, classical music or operatic music and glam rock mix, with hints of metal. Songs can be both hard-core and upbeat or slow and ballad-like.

Visual Kei debuted in the late 1980s and was quite popular during the 1990s, but the popularity died down somewhat toward the end of the decade. It’s had a sort of revival since 2007, but it’s more popular these days with a core audience than a widespread one.

Here’s a taste of some Visual Kei:

~Versailles, a modern band~

~Malice Mizer, one of the most popular bands from the ‘90s (now disbanded)~

What do you think of Visual Kei music? What about the bands’ style? What do you think is more important to this genre of music, the music itself or the style of the band?