Harajuku Girls Info

Harajuku Girls Harajuku girl, used to identify girls who gather in Harajuku district, Tokyo, Japan. Their costumes is in several different styles of clothing that originated in the culture of Japan's major cities.

The term is not only monopolized by those who gather in the district themselves, but has become a relatively popular expression in the United States. Popular use originated from the American singer Gwen Stefani's 2004 Love.Angel.Music.Baby album, which brought attention to Stefani's entourage of four supposed "Harajuku Girls" who were hired to portray the look, three of whom are Japanese and one of whom is Japanese American. These "Harajuku Girls" are not in fact the fashion aficionados or the home sewing hobbyists from whence they derive their name.

Harajuku is a popular iconic placed in the world of entertainment, inside and outside of Japan. It was said that the girls of Harajuku are “beauty stars of Japan”. The American singer Gwen Stefani puts Harajuku reference in several of her songs and incorporated four female dancers, appointed under the name of “love,” “angel,” “music,” and “baby,” dressed like girls with Americanised Harajuku, as her background act. A song is devoted to them on the album which she called after them, entitled of the “Harajuku Girls” and the word “??” (Harajuku) is depicted on the surface of stage during her music video for the

Hollaback Girl. In her songs, Stefani mispronounces the word Harajuku. Instead of the Japanese pronunciation, Stefani spells “hair-ajuku,” although the Japanese loudspeakers on its album pronounce the word correctly. Her use--which critics call her appropriation--of Harajuku girls and Harajuku fashion was criticized by a certain number of Asian-Americans, in particular Margaret Cho, to perpetuate stereotypes of the flexible Asian women.

According to the Jan/Feb 2006 edition of Blender magazine, American comedian Margaret Cho has labeled Stefani's Harajuku Girls a "minstrel show" that reinforces ethnic stereotypes of Asian women. [1]. The Harajuku Girls have continued to appear alongside Stefani in the media, and are featured in the music video for "Wind It Up" (2006). If you search the term Harajuku girls in internet, most probably you will find Gwen Stefani name also as the search results.

Gwen Stefani, singer principal of the pop band No Doubt, has lead Madonna-esque fashion revolt in both her recent video clip for her single What You Awaiting For and her solo album Love, Angel, Music, Baby. Its involving in 80’s inspired popish tunes, platinum blonde hair and Like A Virgin kit outside the art cover of album reinforce her homage to the material girl, though it can be slightly language in the cheek. In 2006, Stefani launched a second clothing line, called the “Harajuku lovers,” she said it is inspired by the zone of Harajuku in Japan. But its her references to the girls of Japanese Harajuku peppered in all the album and on a way in particular which drew the interest from a various range of te commentators. However who are these Harajuku Girls?

The Harajuku District of Tokyo and in particular street of Takeshita, a narrow street furnished with the stores is the brilliant house for these fashionistas. Since the end of the Second World War, the “consumerism” and “consumption” are becoming national past-time for most Japanese and in particular to teenager girls who often live at the house with their parents well until their twenties. Their free existence of rent provides them enough funds to gather at Harajuku each weekend, where they transform themselves into baby doll of Lolita-esque caricatures. Of course it is an extreme-

pretty combination of dressing, but however you will find kind of oase of Japanese dress besides their ordinary-working-day dress which is everything is very ordered and conservative.

Various fashion styles is available among the girls who spend time in Harajuku, including Gothic Lolita, Gothic Maid, Wamono, Decora, Second-Hand Fashion, and cyber fashion. The Japanese street fashion magazine, FRUiTS, features many of the varied clothing styles that are popular in the Harajuku district. They wear fake blood and bandages, and dark outfits often combined with traditional Japanese clothing (kimonos, fans) and modern Japanese symbols (hello kitties, cell phones, photo stickers). What drives these girls to dress in such outrageous outfits in a weekly ceremony that lasts only a few hours? Is there a really great boredom in Japanese society so this is one of their way to release all of those boredom?

Some of the answers are more immediately visible. For example, we know some of them are imitating rock bands such as Japan X. However, as with all cultural symbols, there are likely to be deeper reasons beyond fashion. The weekly play allows them to temporarily escape, within a group, all of the rules of Japanese society. It gives them individuality not as easily expressible while in their weekday school uniforms, it gives them a voice to express, often in very sexual ways (with ripped stockings, garters, and mini-skirts, etc.), the oppression of the female gender in the largely male dominated Japanese society.

It is whole kind of a pop-art meets pop-culture meets decadence kinda street where Western often a t-shirt with a western image like Mickey Mouse can go for several hundreds of dollars a noise. This constant continuation of rock n roll pop star hip ness is prolonged with the boys of teenager too. They turn to choose western inspired hiphop culture of disheveled jeans hanging halfway to their knees, of the hats to all the angles on their heads and surely many, many, many of blings.

So often, the net result resembles something out of a comic book of Manga while the fashionistas of Harajuku compete to look less human and more iconic. Not pay

attention to what we in the west may see like a conflict of fashion above substance, girls of Harajuku is different to Goths, punks and bond girls which became trends previously, is not about rebellion to the society. It is just a crazy-extreme-freedom expression of dressing in certain day (Sunday), free from those ordinary dress which requires them to dress "politely, nice, and good looking".

Harajuku Girls just like most Japanese, are often extremely polite and happy to pose for photographs with the curious tourists who flock each Sunday to take the happy snap of these caricatures of super-model. Just ask them for a photograph nicely, they will do that happily. And as a gratitude you can offer them something, usually they won't ask something out of your reach. For the girls of Harajuku, their most extreme request can be a simple cigarette.

No term corresponding to "Harajuku girl" is currently used in Japan for girls who frequent Harajuku (known as a center for teen and avant garde fashions; see Harajuku). The "Harajuku Girls" represent "Stefani's interpretation of Tokyo street fashion in the Harajuku district".[1] Stefani has drawn criticism for her use of the Harajuku Girls, who some commentators see as promoting negative stereotypes of Asian females.

PROBLEM Slanted View The Harajuku Girls' Poor Taste by Nathaniel Jue Halloween came and went like every other autumn. Unlike previous years, however, there were an abundance of groupings of females, Asian and non-Asian, costumed as the Harajuku girls, Gwen Stefani's now-famous four-girl Japanese posse. As a lot of people have come to learn this summer by watching MTV or reading pop culture magazines, the Harajuku girls are basically Gwen's bitches. They are a quartet of Japanese girls who parade alongside Gwen in her videos, public performances and appearances and promotional interviews. The fearsome foursome are clad in ultra-Japanese alternative pop garb, along with the makeup, hairstyles and accessories that are inspired by the fashion of today's Japanese youth. Gwen admittedly has a Japanese fetish of sorts, and she claims her entourage is nothing less than homage to her adoration of modern Japanese pop style. There has been some ado about whether Gwen is appropriating Japanese culture by showcasing her Harajuku clan. Gwen has essentially hired them as her own accessories, shadowing her wherever she goes. The girls don't speak at all publicly. They simply

strut around in the background of everything that Gwen does, and pantomime obediently like puppets to Gwen's beats. Some Asians have found this mastering slightly racist, as Gwen is viewed as owning four live Japanese dolls. They feel her fixation is closer to offensive than playful, for she is a step below attaching leashes and collars on them and ordering them to sit and heel. There is so much objection to the Harajuku girls that websites have been constructed pleading the public to help free the girls from their owner. Many people have a hard time understanding the meaning of the Harajuku girls. Gwen's humanization of her love for Japanese vogue is a bit disturbing. To see that the Harajuku Four are mere decoration in the form of real bodies doesn't sit well with some Asians. If a pop artist were to have a black version of the Harajuku girls, would there be a louder cry of racism? Maybe. But because Asians are already seen as muted introverts who have little placing in America's popular music culture, the Harajuku girls are simply seen as a fun novelty. My real concern isn't necessarily the assembling of the Harajuku girls. My displeasure stems from the fact that these girls are associated with Gwen Stefani, an overrated pop superstar whose saturation is the real reason I wince when watching VH1. If I could holla back at her, I'd say, "Your songs are crap!" Every time I hear her music I want to shove some b-a-n-a-n-a-s in my ears. The title of her album shouldn't have been L.A.M.B.; it should be L.A.M.E.

People are focusing on the wrong area of offensiveness. Seeing Asians on MTV, even as human wallpaper, is a step up from William Hung. I can't think of the last time there were FOUR Asians in a music video. The fact that Gwen has more than one "hit" song multiplies the amount of air time of Asians on TV. I understand their presence is degrading at times, but at least their construction is categorized as mainstream cool. Isn't imitation the best form of flattery? While I am bothered by the significance of the Harajuku girls, I find the silver lining is an introduction to America of Asian culture. The real protest out of this whole arrangement isn't the ethnic lionization of Japanese culture in the form of humans. It's that this concept of "cool" is linked to Gwen Stefani and her supposed talent. The Harajuku girls should be in conjunction with someone with real musicality, someone who is genuinely gifted. I am sure these girls can distinguish the difference between a bona fide musician and performer and one who rips off other people's tunes and inundates the mainstream with poorly constructed song writing. "I ain't no hollaback girl"? What kind of sentence is that? Isn't that the real travesty in all of this? I am infinitely more offended by the Asian connection to idiotic ditties than the establishment of the Harajuku girls itself. I mean if they were the backup to someone like Ashlee Simpson or Lindsay Lohan would we really be having this discussion right now? And seeing the plethora of females, even non-Asian girls, dressed up as Gwen's women at Halloween isn't insulting, it's just unoriginal and tasteless.