Japanese Men's Fashion
Mode-kei
A style that takes in the latest designs from name, designer’s brands. Also referred to as high-fashion-kei. Most times associated with clothes that appear in various collections of luxury brands. Distinctively on the refined, elegant and classy side as compared to other styles.
Urahara-kei (Street)
Urahara-kei is a generic term that covers a number of street and casual fashion that can be seen in town. It could be considered as part of the extreme fashion (see bottom) but the most characteristic point about this fashion is probably the coordinates with layers (“layered” is the fashion term) similarly to women’s Urahara fashion. Many people especially men enjoying this style like to mix clothes from casual brands with secondhand clothing. It is considered to be the base of the recently established styles including kireime and salon-boy.
Salon-Boy
Salon-boy(s) represents the style enjoyed by hairdressers in the making and students of beauty colleges located around the Uraharajuku area. The fashion coordinate itself is on the stylish “kireime casual” (refined yet casual) freely mixing sport, casual to high brand clothes with the base of secondhand clothing solely by their own fashion sense. More decorative than other styles and many times loose as well. This style is believed to have derived from the so-called Urahara(juku)-kei which share common elements but covers a wider selection of styles.
The immense popularity of salon-boy among the younger half of the fashion generations (teenagers) is even being featured on women’s fashion magazines as the hottest and most fashionable guys today, and is said to have huge influence to the mass (kireime).
Kireime
The mass fashion style these past couple of years particularly among men in their twenties, which is basically simple and neat. It takes in the latest trend elements to some extent but not in a way that they stand out too much, and because of its emphasis on tidiness the style appear attractive to women. “Kireime” meaning neat or tidy is a generic term that can be added to the other fashion styles as seen in kireime mode and kireime street, and the genre also covers conservative-kei described below.
Conservative (aka Onii-kei)
As explained above this style is included in the larger bracket of kireime, and is a style which is neat, soft, natural and mature (as the term “onii” comes from the word “oniisan” meaning older brother) all at the same time. Men’s fashion appearing in women’s fashion magazines such as CanCam and JJ is of this style (women’s fashion of those magazines are called “onee-kei” = older sister fashion). Though this style may be referred more commonly as “onii-kei” it is nothing like the other “onii-kei”, a new style emerging from the “gal-o fashion” below.
Onii-kei (“gal-o” as opposed to the female “gal”)
”Gal-o (gya-ru-o; gal - men)” is a name for the male version of the Shibuya gals (tanned skin, dark make-up, light-colored hair, sexy and decorative fashion) of which their fashion (from head to toe) was casual and inexpensive, vivid-colored and decorative. This original gal-o fashion is gradually fading, and rising instead among the gal-men from around 2006 is this new category called “onii-kei”. Onii-kei men retain the gal-ness of the previous style yet present a little more matureness and tidiness by taking in name brand items. Specifically, they have wolf-hair (asymmetry, slightly jagged, slightly long) hairstyle, wear tops that have a fairly wide opening around the neck, and wear leather shoes that have pointy toes. The coordinate is based on black and is hard as well as tight, some consider it to be part of adult rock fashion rather than a part of the more immature gal fashion. The 5th and 6th floor of 109-2 is said to be their fashion mecca.
Rock
The terms “rock” and “sexy” appear relatively frequently in men’s fashion magazines especially for this Rock style of which the fashion is basically black, hard and tight. This style is said to be rather picky about the brands it chooses which are most times on the more expensive side. Kind of like a combination of high fashion and street casual with a hint of rock (music) look.
Extreme (aka Street)
Hard and simple, also known as street fashion in general. Includes skater-fashion, outdoor-mix and B-kei (hip hop) fashion. Slightly loose and active silhouette. A good portion of men of these fashion favor short sporty hair than the trendy hairstyles.
A style that takes in the latest designs from name, designer’s brands. Also referred to as high-fashion-kei. Most times associated with clothes that appear in various collections of luxury brands. Distinctively on the refined, elegant and classy side as compared to other styles.
Urahara-kei (Street)
Urahara-kei is a generic term that covers a number of street and casual fashion that can be seen in town. It could be considered as part of the extreme fashion (see bottom) but the most characteristic point about this fashion is probably the coordinates with layers (“layered” is the fashion term) similarly to women’s Urahara fashion. Many people especially men enjoying this style like to mix clothes from casual brands with secondhand clothing. It is considered to be the base of the recently established styles including kireime and salon-boy.
Salon-Boy
Salon-boy(s) represents the style enjoyed by hairdressers in the making and students of beauty colleges located around the Uraharajuku area. The fashion coordinate itself is on the stylish “kireime casual” (refined yet casual) freely mixing sport, casual to high brand clothes with the base of secondhand clothing solely by their own fashion sense. More decorative than other styles and many times loose as well. This style is believed to have derived from the so-called Urahara(juku)-kei which share common elements but covers a wider selection of styles.
The immense popularity of salon-boy among the younger half of the fashion generations (teenagers) is even being featured on women’s fashion magazines as the hottest and most fashionable guys today, and is said to have huge influence to the mass (kireime).
Kireime
The mass fashion style these past couple of years particularly among men in their twenties, which is basically simple and neat. It takes in the latest trend elements to some extent but not in a way that they stand out too much, and because of its emphasis on tidiness the style appear attractive to women. “Kireime” meaning neat or tidy is a generic term that can be added to the other fashion styles as seen in kireime mode and kireime street, and the genre also covers conservative-kei described below.
Conservative (aka Onii-kei)
As explained above this style is included in the larger bracket of kireime, and is a style which is neat, soft, natural and mature (as the term “onii” comes from the word “oniisan” meaning older brother) all at the same time. Men’s fashion appearing in women’s fashion magazines such as CanCam and JJ is of this style (women’s fashion of those magazines are called “onee-kei” = older sister fashion). Though this style may be referred more commonly as “onii-kei” it is nothing like the other “onii-kei”, a new style emerging from the “gal-o fashion” below.
Onii-kei (“gal-o” as opposed to the female “gal”)
”Gal-o (gya-ru-o; gal - men)” is a name for the male version of the Shibuya gals (tanned skin, dark make-up, light-colored hair, sexy and decorative fashion) of which their fashion (from head to toe) was casual and inexpensive, vivid-colored and decorative. This original gal-o fashion is gradually fading, and rising instead among the gal-men from around 2006 is this new category called “onii-kei”. Onii-kei men retain the gal-ness of the previous style yet present a little more matureness and tidiness by taking in name brand items. Specifically, they have wolf-hair (asymmetry, slightly jagged, slightly long) hairstyle, wear tops that have a fairly wide opening around the neck, and wear leather shoes that have pointy toes. The coordinate is based on black and is hard as well as tight, some consider it to be part of adult rock fashion rather than a part of the more immature gal fashion. The 5th and 6th floor of 109-2 is said to be their fashion mecca.
Rock
The terms “rock” and “sexy” appear relatively frequently in men’s fashion magazines especially for this Rock style of which the fashion is basically black, hard and tight. This style is said to be rather picky about the brands it chooses which are most times on the more expensive side. Kind of like a combination of high fashion and street casual with a hint of rock (music) look.
Extreme (aka Street)
Hard and simple, also known as street fashion in general. Includes skater-fashion, outdoor-mix and B-kei (hip hop) fashion. Slightly loose and active silhouette. A good portion of men of these fashion favor short sporty hair than the trendy hairstyles.
Comments