Tokyo Fashion

My observations on Tokyo Fashion

People watching is always fun. As long as there is enough diversity in looks and appearances on the streets. Everybody looking the same would be very boring. Different styles and personalities are fascinating to observe, don’t you agree?

So variation keeps things exciting. At the same time, I also like to spot certain ‘trends’ and similarities while observing street style fashion. Which style elements are popular?

In my home country e.g., the Netherlands, women are known for their ‘practical’ approach of fashion. We bike, we walk, we have rain and wind, so give us some comfortable, solid footwear, pants and a sweater. Let’s go for short hair (easy) and a ‘natural’ look. Aka: no makeup and few or no accessories. No fake eyelashes nor fake nails.
(Those who know me, know that I’m quite atypical for a Dutch woman;-))

I hate traveling with a lot of luggage, so for every trip I choose a small assortment of clothes and accessories that go well together.
For this trip I packed one lightly flared jeans and 4 leggings.
I brought 3 kimono-style tops, 3 tunics and 4 T-shirts.
Sneakers for our 10 km-a-day walks and some other comfy shoes.
A thin and a thick coat.

How different is the Singaporean woman! She let’s her hair grow, has her nails done at nail salons, goes regularly for eyelash-extensions, walks on high heels (or flip-flops) and she loves to wear dresses.

My capsule travel collection contained lots of colors, accessories and eye for detail.

So what is Tokyo Fashion like? What do Tokyoites wear? Let’s have a look.

Style elements of Tokyo Fashion

Tokyoites don’t speak English and shy away when approached, so asking them to pose was Mission Impossible. Hence the poor quality of my pics. Only quick, candid street photography.

1. Salary men (and women)
   Very formal. Dark costume. Walking or biking. Dark briefcase, bag or backpack.
   

   Salary men and woman. Plus one hipster;-)

2. Neutral colors
   Black, white, navy blue, camel, light grey, light brown, dark green. Here and there some pale pink. Less is more is definitely a Japanese thing.
   
   Neutrals are not really my cup of tea, but I have to say that I did not mind the way the Tokyoites wore them. Probably due to the crisp looks, the high quality of the fabrics and the good cut of the clothes. Safe, modest and subdued, yet stylish.
   
3. Denim
   Lots and lots of denim elements. Preferably dark denim. Good fits and good quality.
   

   All sorts of denim items.

   Looking at this wide variety of denim fashion, I have to admit that my use of denim is pretty limited and predictable, as in: I have jeans. That’s basically it. Oh, that’s not true. Now that I think of it, I also have several jeans jackets, a jeans coat, three jeans skirts and I used to have a jeans dress.
   Still, seeing all these less ‘common’ denim styles inspired me, I must say.

   

   Denim on the streets of Tokyo. Also notice the guy in white kimono behind the woman in denim. Was he going to a Halloween party? No idea.

4. Animal print
   Bold animal print looks.
   

   I love the looks of this couple. Especially his pattern mixing is fabulous!

   

   I was less impressed with the way he wore his animal print. What do you think about this look?

   I love animal print. My wardrobe contains a number of items: tops, cardigans, skirt, shoes, belt, fake fur coat, slippers, hat, bag. I have to be careful though, with my long blond hair. Cautious not to look tacky in animal print.

   

   Combining animal print with polkadots and stripes. Why not? Picture credit: Misja Beijers.

   I also spotted these looks on the streets of Tokyo, with subtle animal print accessories as additions to a further neutral look.

   

   Animal print in a hat, and in a bag.

5. Men in shorts
   Ok, to be honest; it was autumn, so we only saw a few. Which was a good thing, as far as I’m concerned, hahaha…
   
6. Girls in shorts and in short skirts
   Clearly it was sort of transitional weather. Nice autumn days; warm in the sun, chilly in the shadow. Some people were dressed as if it was still summer, others were already dressed for winter days, which resulted in strange contrasts on the streets of Tokyo.
   
   The many girls and women with bare legs made me shiver, although I suspect that many of them wore thin, skin coloured stockings.The short looks were combined with heels, sneakers, booties, over-the-knee socks and over-the-knee boots. We saw a lot of the latter!
7. All black
   
8. Kawaii
   If neutrals form one end of the Tokyo Fashion spectrum, then Kawaii-style or Harajuku-style is totally on the other end of the fashion spectrum.
   
   Kawaii style elements are: cute, more is more, theatrical, sweet, pink, fairytales, girly.
   
9. Bold and daring
   Colorful birds-of-paradise. The extravagant ones. The eccentric and artistic ones. Spotting them on the streets brightens my day and makes me happy.
   
   

   My eye was drawn to the girl in black and gold with the platform sneakers.

   

   This lady’s (below) look may not be ‘loud’, like some of the others above, but she wears extraordinary, expensive designer items, like the United Nude heels and the famous Vlieger & Vandam handbag with gun-imprint.

   

   United Nude heels and Vlieger & Vandam handbag.

10. Stripes
    I guess stripes are from all times and from all over the world.
    
    I’m not a fan. Florals are more ‘my thing’. The woman in the left picture created a cool look though.
11. Hats
    Men and women, old and young, I think I never saw so many people wear headwear anywhere else than in Tokyo. And they wore it well!
    
    I adore hats, as I showed you here.
    Frits got inspired by all the hats around him and purchased this hat in Tokyo. It suits him well!
    

    Two pictures turned into paintings with the cool app Waterlogue.

12. Patchwork
    

    Patchwork trousers and patchwork-ish blouse.We also see elements here like denim, hats, stripes and polkadots.

     

13. Kawaii attempts gone wrong?
    Sometimes we spotted women/girls on the streets that had done an attempt in kawaii fashion with not such good results. The worst one was an older woman dressed in a kawaii school uniform with a supershort skirt. My candid picture of her failed, unfortunately, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
    

    Not the best kawaii looks, i.m.o.

     

What do you think of Tokyo’s fashion? Is it what you expected from the Tokyoites? Do you like their style? Which are your favourites? Did I miss any characteristics from Tokyo Fashion?