Throwback Fashion

Lately, there's been a romanitism with bringing back the old and making it new again. I'm not talking about things from a decade ago. I'm talking about an era of time that's almost TWO decades old. Whether you're someone who grew up in the late 80s/early 90s and want to feel young again or if you're born in the late 90s/early 00s and never experienced the the craziness that was the eccentric and very experimental fashion boom of the late 90s/early 00s-it's back and with a fury like no other. 

I've been inspired by gals' recent Alba Rosa revival and fixation on Super Gals again. The Esperanza x OK shoe collab also didn't help! 

Throwback fashion is definitely way more popular among teens and young adults who can't recall the era of carrying Tamagotchi, the metallic aesthetic of Y2K, off the shoulder peasant tops from the boho era, and a 60s/70s revival that consisted of earth tones and bell bottomed jeans.  

However, what's even harder to make a grasp at is Japanese fashion from this era of time. Most people are limited to google images and Fruits magazines. However, Fruits was into quirky fashion and less of the mainstream. Also as time as went by, it's hard to find an online archive of older fashion from both Shibuya and Harajuku. 

Lately I've been on a hunt for very old magazines in good condition in hopes of having a record to go off. However, if you don't have access to such things and still want to rock Shibuya/Harajuku fashion especially-there are some things you can reference online. While it's vague, it will help! 

Thankfully, I'm old enough (at age 27) to recall some of these trends even though I would have been small. Also some of the older images still existed and are now lost. 

Tip 1: Look at old concerts and PVS. If you really want to know what Japanese fashion was like in the late 90s and early 00s-look no further than J-Pop lives. I recently watched a couple of Ayumi Hamasaki's lives from 2000-2001 and screamed at how many fashion trends that I found that got lost in time. Ayu is definitely an iconic trendsetter neighboring beside Namie Amuro at that time. However, other artists lives to look for eccentric style choices io Shiina Ringo who was very young back then and had a wild sense of style at that time! Others I recommend would be the old era girl-groups like DREAM and Morning Musume for a Y2K feel, BoA who rocked baby doll tops and bell bottoms, and if you're really into that 60s Shibuya-kei revival stuff and love the sounds of Kyary...look up Capsule! 

Tip 2: Much like PVs, look up old J-Dramas and movies that were geared towards a young audience. This one is slightly harder to do. I primarily watched dramas from the mid-00s so I can't exactly recommend any old ones for you. Avoid housewife soaps/medical dramas or things that take place in a specific era of time because that's not what you're going to want to be looking for. You want things that take place in the "present".. You want slice of life, romance, idols...maybe even sentai...? Point is, a good way to find fashion is to lurk on what people were doing in films! 

Tip 3: Along with film, another really effective way that I learnt about Japanese fashion was through manga. Primarily through shoujo/josei manga and even yaoi manga. Manga geared towards females tend to sometimes be fashion focused. I remember before I got into J-Fashion I really admired the clothing designs in manga. Most were very detailed. The same applied to J-Pop PVs or live outfits, I thought the eccentricity was limited to celebrities who could afford it. I had no idea such things could be translated into street wear and be obtainable. Mangas I recommend are "Othello" if you like visual kei, gal, and lolita fashion (there's literally everything in this manga and it's by far my favorite), anything by Ai Yazawa, "Super Gals", and any shoujo manga with an oldish art style that looks fashionable. Pay attention to publishing dates! There is also a Taiwanese manga called "The One" from the early 00s that has J-Fashionable clothes that are appealing! It's also about fashion! If you want clothes from the EARLY 90s, I highly recommend CLAMP's Tokyo Babylon, Sailor Moon, and Yami no Matsuei. That is not a full list but I definitely can what was popular at the time through the artwork of all of these!

Tip 4: Try to look for old commercials. I know this sounds so crazy but if you want to know what was trending-try to find old promos. It can be make up, album promotions, or even ads for cell phones. Most likely almost any ad geared towards young people will include trendy clothes. 

Tip 5: Be on the hunt for old brands. Window shop. This is a harder one but I know there has to be even older gal brands than Alba Rosa, Cocolulu, and Cecil McBee that gave that tropical or flower power vibe. Search them up on consignment sites and on google. I'm curious if WayBack machine can show old fashion websites. I doubt it but it is worth a shot if you know the URL. 

Tip 6: Also-a weird additive Y2K fashion was...not to be mistaken for uchuu-kei...YK2 fashion consisted of hints of metallic or sparkle/glitter, loose cargo pants in colorful colors...think about what a club or rave kid would wear in this era of time, and you basically have Y2K fashion. Sometimes Y2K fashion is hinted throughout things like games. The first things that comes to mind is the Sega Dreamcast for some reason. It really had that futuristic feel. 

Tip 6: Find old magazines. This is honestly my next big project when I get the chance. I'm going to try to find these bitches and YES they deserve to be shared with the rest of the world. The best reference to throwback fashion is to look at old Popteen and Egg magazines..or any fashion magazine that caters to a young demographic. I think the hardest part of gaijin J-Fashionista is to accurately do the throwback. Some people throw a modern twist onto the old trend but if you really need reference..here are some of the ones I noticed that were relevant (some of these even seeped into American fashion). 

OLD TREND EXAMPLES: 

1. Body Glitter: Ya'll we had glitter in everything. Hair gel, lip gloss...all of it. I don't know why but I remember it being everywhere. I've also noted that in some of the old lives I've watched...Ayu and the like wore a TON of body glitter. 

2. Hip Huggers/Bell Bottom Jeans: THESE WERE A THING. This is one of those things that I honestly still feel like should have never died. I adore these. Especially if you wear short tops-they look especially cute. Some motifs that were added to bell bottoms were patch fabric, that look that made you look like you rolled in dirt (yes wtf..think Shakira's, Whenever Wherever music video), or better yet painted on art, jewels, or glitter. A lot the time really clunky and thick jeweled belts were added or these cord belts with beading. 

3. BEADS. Beading and shells were literally on everything. Belts, necklaces, chokers. People made their own beaded accessories all the time. The most trendy and creative thing that was popular was to cut up a shirt/fringe it and string the beads on the fringe just to the bottom of it. Beads were often just added to cords on everything. 

4. Belly button rings. They were a thing. There's a reason I brought all of this up; add all three of these trends together and every girl had an obsession will belly dancing. I blame Shakira...but everyone was obsessed with showing off their hips and belly area. So of course, you accessoried it. 

5. Butterflies. They were on tops (crop spaghetti strap tops or baby-ts), jewelry, phone cases, hair pins..ect. Usually they were one of two things. Rainbow or very glittery. 

6. Baby Ts/Cropped Tops: People wore too small t-shirts with really small sleeves that were usually cropped or at the very hem of the jeans. Spaghetti straps were also popular. Occasionally they'd have graphics on them whether it be daisies, smiley faces, blinged out sayings like "Princess" "Baby" or "Angel" on the chest..glitter graphics.. You name it. 

7. Denim: I'm not talking about your early 90s mom jean denim either. Jean anything was bedazzled or glittered in some way or had those round studs.  Other than hip hugging bell bottoms the lower half was one of two extremes with skirts-you either wore denim maxi skirts or you wore mini skirts that were super short and could have an in-built belt at the waist. Built in belts were also a thing in jeans. Occasionally you'd see jackets as well. Dark denim was very trendy too. You would also see this trend in shoes and sandals! It's recently came back. 

8. Flower Power/60s/70s Revival: I remember an era of time where everything was 'groovy' or whatever. In Japanese fashion I noticed a lot of girls wearing platform gogo boots with 60s style mini dresses.  Gyaru girls definitely rocked this trend with those small framed sunglasses but the frames would be white or colored! Another thing that was popular was clogs/mule shoes that were clog... Liz Lisa had a couple of these but usually they were wooden/jean/earth tones and could include details like rounded studs or flowers. A good reference for this trend is Ai Yazawa. Hachi's style is occasionally very 60s/Ginza-y and Sachiko wears some of the old era trends as well. 

9. Ankle braclets. A lot of girls liked to accessorize their ankles with ankle bracelets. Toe rings were also a thing but I think those are gross. :P 

10. Frameless Tinted Sunglasses....I always associate these with J.Lo but usually they were medium size, square, and it's important to know that they were FRAMELESS. Popular colors were pink and blue. Bonus points if there was a tiny blinged out design like a flower or star on the outside corner!

11. Crimped hair. Everyone loved crimped hair for some reason. Some girls wore it down and I've noticed gyaru styling it in pigtails!

12. Cowboy: There was a cowboy trend. Partially blaming Madonna's "Music" and "Don't Tell Me" music videos which are BTW perfect references to this trend. Cowboy boots were very popular. A lot of girls paired them with shorts, jean/regular maxi dresses, and of course-jeans. Cowboy hats were also very popular. 

13. Frost: When I mean frost..I literally mean anything frosted. Frosted/highlighted hair, frosted lipstick or eye make up...it was huge. Make up names would be "Frosty Silver" or "Ice Blue"....

14. Pink Ice: Diamonds that were PINK were very popular. 

15. Inflatable anything....well maybe not anything. Furniture specifically. 

16. See through technology. Gameboys came colored and see -through, phones did for a little. Colored phones were also very popular. This was the era of cell phone skins and cases. You could get disk players and cassette players in different colors like pink, blue, orange, and purple. 

17. Hibiscus flowers/palm trees: This goes without explaining. Tropical anything was in. Reference Alba Rosa. This was also popular nail art!

18. Metallics: Silver nail polishes or metallic pink or blue were very popular nail polish colors. Bags were metallic even...sometimes even clothes were but it was like..foil graphics...? -not sure how to explain- 

19. Earth tones: There was an era of earth tones. Not sure how to explain it. You want plum purples, forest greens, off white, beiges, ect in make up and accessories and they can go with that boho/cowboy trend or be a thing all on its own. 

20. Fishnet: Japan had a thing for FISHNET. Specifically colorful fishnet in hot pink, white, yellow, and lime green. 

21. Platform boots/shoes: Platform shoes marked the new millenium quite literally. 



These are just some of the trends I can recall off the top of my head. Some of these are relevant in both the west and in Asia. I hope this was helpful. 

HERE ARE SOME PICS OF EXAMPLES THAT I AM TALKING ABOUT:





Ayumi Hamasaki displaying multiple trends that I talked about in this post all in this ONE PV.




Shiina Ringo literally doing the most. I love this so much.

Nana wearing a Leopard print hat with Vivienne Westwood accessories

Nana is wearing the colored fishnets

Cell phone skins. These are a little modern. I couldn't find cute ones for the Nokia bricks. DO NOTICE THE BLING. <3 

Frameless tinted colored sunglasses. Sadly without the bling design in the corner. -sobs-

Sachiko from Nana with the denim and cowboy hat trend that was popular. She's wearing a raglan graphic tee with an apple on it! These type of tops were also popular.  

Nana from Othello! There's that cropped baby doll tee with a butterfly graphic! Noticed the tie belt with the patchwork bell bottoms! Also CRIMPED HAIR with a middle part.

Colored electronics. They were a huge deal. It's what made technology customizable. Back before skins/cases people would throw holographic stickers on them to further personalize them. Notice the see through Gameboy?

Trends that moved across the ocean to the west! Japan and America both had these trends be a thing at one piint or another. LOOK AT THAT FRINGE BELLY TOP...I wonder if it was beaded. Also tied cord belts with beads and feathers!

Namie Amuro on inflatable see-through furniture 

An old Popteen cover from  December 1999. "All you need is denim". LOL 

Namie wearing a glittering graphic tank top, hoop earrings, a THICK belt, and hi tinted sunglasses. What a queen. 

Yet again, Namie Amuro being a huge trend setter wearing "frosty" make up! 

I truly wish there were more visual examples other than A LOT of manga. There isn't a lot of online record of these things anymore sadly. :(