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Disclaimer though, my word isn't law. You can do what you want ultimately. Kogal beyond high school age just rubs me a weird way. Yes I know Black Diamond and other gals have done it Shhh... lol It doesn't mean I like it still. :P I have a right to my opinion and I thought I would kind of give my insight as to why I think this way!
I'm going to be inserting my assumptions in by placing two and two together from this really interesting multi-part gyaru history article that I read here:
I highly recommend reading it. While some of the information seems skewed vague, I can kind of make assumptions as to what happened in the early 90s and 00s with the fashion (and even a brand). So let's talk about my peeve with kogal and why that is shall we?
According to Marx's articles, gyaru kind of started due to rich girls who were enamored by expensive Western brands and LA/California looking girls from the United States. They were laid back party girls versus the clean oujosama types. Which is a rebellion in itself if you come from well-off don't you think? There's certain expectations or pressure that can come from being the daughter of some wealthy family. I'm assuming these girls had access to a lot of different forms of media outside of Japan or were even well-traveled perhaps. Hence why there might have been a fascination with the whole surfer gal/malibu Barbie deal. It was huge over in the States as well and Japan typically takes something and makes it more cohesive sometimes or in gyaru's case-in my humble opinion-way cuter. But yeah, I'm going to just say celebrity worship is going to be huge during the kogal era because that's just what teenagers are into.
The whole "kogal" term was at first, code at clubs for staff to know if an underaged girl was trying to sneak in. Why were these girls trying to sneak in? Why do teenagers sneak to try to do anything? lmao. Also some of them might have had older boyfriends or just wanted to go somewhere where a certain vibe was beyond just a karaoke box. I could also talk about car culture and how I'm sure gals rolled with guys who liked/could afford nice cars or were bad bitches who had cars of their own when they were older (not kogals) but that's a different blog post for another day and something I always get excited seeing.
So how did this uniform craze turn into a fashion statement? Here is my take on it Rich girls go to rather affluent schools. People typically can associate a school uniform with where someone is from or by how much money they have. Gyaru are known to be major show-offs. Not only could a high-end gal flaunt the Burberry scarf around her neck, the Louie bag on her one arm, and her cute college boyfriend on the other: her school uniform was just as much a designer label to silently brag about to everyone without saying a word-because she could afford to go there.
From what I understand, school uniform designs made a really "fashionable" shift in the 90s. Beforehand they were kind of frumpy looking. Suddenly, really prestigious high schools were getting known designers to do designs of their high school's new uniform. I assume it was mainly the more rich/coveted schools that got this privilege. But it made more people want to go to that school because it was considered modern/fashionable/and probably had other perks that made it just as appealing.
So normal girls would look up to these kogal types who got a really sleek plaid blazer set versus a seifuku or boxy blazer sets with a sad thin ribbon.
I'm not sure if this was fully the case as well, but I've read mangas and watched J-Dramas where middle school girls would fawn over a specific high school's uniform and strive to get into said school not only because it was a prestigious school but also because the uniforms were cute. This is also why Ran Kotobuki in "Gals" wanted a specific high school boy's bag. The school is a bragging right itself. The crest of the school or the person's name is usually on the bag or so I've been told. The guy being featured the school section of their version of "Egg" or whatever is an even larger flex on top of the school name. So maybe this also pertained to real life because young kids sometimes don't think about their future or what something has to offer other than aesthetics but I'm about to get into why this further got romanticized...
People should keep in mind that kids were super limited to school uniforms and I can assume didn't have much leeway to change outside on a weekday versus their days of on Sundays or on holidays. I've heard of school staff doing bag checks for students to look for pagers, cell phones, whatever else. I'm going to make an assumption and state that having a change of clothes in your bag that wasn't a second mandated school uniform was probably not allowed. I've heard that kids were discouraged from loitering around after school and most were encouraged to join clubs rather than hang around department stores or arcades. Yes, they could change when they got home but think about a kid's allowance: that's an extra train ticket back and forth. That's lost time with friends. Maybe some people were clever and threw their shit in coin lockers near stations and changed where they could? -isn't sure- That sounds like a plan...
If this truly was the case, I can assume that this felt suffocating. So gals did whatever they could to make lemonade out of lemons. This meant rolling up the tops of skirts to make them shorter, wearing specific accessories (loose socks, hairpins, fluffy or sparkling bag chains on required school bags) or I'm going to make a stretch on this theory and say some girls probably hid necklaces and shit in their bra or whatever else to wear once they got the hell off of school grounds lmao. Other high schools probably didn't care as much while others did...? Other girls from maybe richer schools could get away with carrying a neat bag or wear designer earrings while others couldn't. I'm sure this was harder with other changes like nails and hair color. I'm not sure fully how high schools work over there but I'm kind of trying to puzzle some pieces together from what I've seen in media.
These girls were bad bitch trendsetters and the magazines couldn't help up notice. The neat thing about gyaru from what it sounds like in this referred article is that these new "gyaru" were setting the trends out of nowhere and magazines were scrambling to keep up with it. Which is amusing considering that it's usually magazines that try to set trends and tell teenagers what is cool. This eventually did happen with Popteen and Egg but I'm guessing a lot of things started from the street and moved up if it wasn't started through celebrity-worship.
This did however create a JK/Kogal section in the magazine and a lot of gals (and guys who were gal's boyfriends) were featured in interviews and street snaps. Thus, creating a school notoriety. I think this is where other lesser privileged schools wanted to feel included and felt like it could be a redeeming quality. Yes they idolized the rich girls who could afford to maintain themselves and splurge on designer while flaunting a designer school-but there could be a girl from a normal high school who was pretty that could move up in the popularity ranks because she was pretty, her style was attainable for other girls who maybe couldn't afford the flashier things. I'd assume this would trickle down into stores and magazines catering to a specific demographic of gals that were popping up-thus, making a trend attainable.
This probably created a pretty large stir for public schools because poorer gals popped up who might have originally be yankii (according to said article) and dressed as they wanted to without giving a fuck on what people thought. I'm sure they'd be forced into gym uniforms or would be threatened with black hair dye plenty in certain instances.
Trends were spread through word of mouth which makes this more impressive. There wasn't SMS like there was today. The beginnings of gyaru could be considered a pretty sociable fashion because in order to know what was really popular (stores, accessories, nail colors, etc) ; it required knowing what was through word of mouth. Think even the Tomogatchi craze and how eventually you could pair devices up with each other or have couple ones. This was an attainable trend that was a little bit sociable yes?
A lot of people say Namie Amuro started the trend "Amura" and I've heard Kogal. I personally don't think that's the case. I think Namie Amuro just happened to fit in and was signed onto a label that would do really trendy things. She's part Italian and lived in Okinawa. Meaning her features are distinct, her hair was a shade lighter than black, and she could take a tan well considering she lived on an island. Combine that with gal's fascination with overseas trends and you got just this overall look. Namie Amuro was more relatable because she was Japanese and spoke their language versus idol worship from overseas. She was young and relatable. Kogals would sneak what they could of her influence into their everyday wear.
But here's the thing about school uniforms-once you're finished with high school you retire them. Kogals would look up to older gals who could afford a nicer wardrobe or worked in shops like MeJane, Alba, Love Boat, LDS, etc. in Shibuya 109. When you've been forced to conform and be restricted to a school uniform for years and years-I'm sure you don't want to even touch one anymore. It's cute when you're 15 but not when you're 20-something.
Not only that but when we think of school girl uniforms-we think of the fetishization that comes with them. Hence why there's kind of a "costume" culture around them (this is different from cosplay because then you're cosplaying a character and aren't you). Older men clearly have a thing for younger girls and nothing screams "I'm a younger girl" than a school uniform. These girls weren't trying to attract pervs. They were trying to be cute for themselves and not look as frumpy. I could totally go into enjou kosai and what all that pertains to but I think the article I linked really explains it pretty well.
But that's another why I kind of don't like the whole kogal beyond teen years-it's fetishized and I feel like the only time those are worn is for in-house kyaba events or bar events to attract a certain type of patron. There's also a difference between having an outfit that is tartan and plaid that is inspired by a uniform versus an actual replica of a uniform.
Basically, kogal at my age (or anything after 19) has never sat well for that reason. It starts looking more like a costume than a fashion and unless you work in the entertainment industry (whether it's idol shit or nightlife) it doesn't make sense.
No ex-kogal wants to go back to a uniform they were forced to wear for three years straight. I'm assuming you'd get sick of that look. Imagine wearing the same outfit every day for that long.
I think the West is appealed by it because it does look cute and in America, school uniforms are rare. It kind of does scream that you're either super smart or super rich. In Europe maybe not so much but like said-Japan got designers creating a look for a minute that was appealing for a hot minute.
Basically, in my opinion it looks weird after a certain age. It looks like cosplay more than a fashion beyond 19. I feel like anyone who has been confined to the same outfit for 3 years wouldn't even want to look at one much less willingly wear it again. You wouldn't catch me dead dressing in kogal. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. lol.
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For those of you who don't know, Saja included MeJane, Glamorous Jane, Ma*rs, and eventually Tutuha/Glavil.
MeJane was kind of like Alba Rosa and My Favorite Tiara in terms of aesthetics. Eventually there was a shift in aesthetics where there was a hime gyaru/agejo boom and that's where Glamorous Jane comes in. In the movie "Gals Life" featuring Ageha model Sakurai Rina, I noticed that MeJane/Glamorous Jane was a bigger flagship than Ma*rs was. Matter of fact, most of Rina's clothes in the movie are from Glamorous Jane with only slight hints of Ma*rs. She even ends up working there as shop staff.
Glamorous Jane was Ma*rs before Ma*rs turned into a huge thing. It featured one of the first agejo prints and motifs before Ma*rs shifted to that. Then GlamJane moved in for a more onee/mature approach on agejo that was less loud than Ma*rs was. MeJane still remained but was a super mature brand that focused on denim and what not. I think GlamJane and MeJane basically merged at one point....
I looked on WayBack Machine to see how far I could go back to see how Ma*rs existed. Supposed it's been around for awhile but I think it was considered MeJane or a super small sub-brand. I can't find a lot of old stock photos or information on it but I think I went as far back as 2001/2002 on my search which was wild to me.
So yeah, I think they killed off the other brands and threw whatever cash they've had into Ma*rs. I know Ma*rs definitely has changed their aesthetics. It's less glamorous and more dark larme/basically the shit rokku gals traded in for to go to nightlife shit like bars and band lives in. How long Ma*rs holds up...I have no idea. It almost makes me sad that they're not milking the Y2K revival that's going on and just making slutty glam Barbie clothes even if it's more causal and just blinged/glittery t-shirts-I'd still buy the shit out of that.
I'm definitely not an expert when it comes to gyaru history. A lot of things is just me throwing shit I've read together with my own theories and opinions. I hope nobody comes for my neck on this post too much. Honestly, if anyone does find anything (with legit proof pls) please feel free to share. Looking into old archives of gyaru websites or reading into how certain shit has formed absolutely fascinates me and I wish it was talked about more.
SO..while making this blog post I decided to go on WayBack Machine again to take some caps of some sites from the early 2000s. Specifically MeJane and Ma*rs. Some years pictures or graphics do not show up. I'm lucky to even have found what I did. I capped a lot of stuff that had stock photo images-some I had never even seen before.
No, I wasn't able to hunt down old Glamorous Jane shit :'( Boo. But I'll show you where MeJane kind of shifted styles a little bit for two seconds because I'm assuming it I'll be where Glamorous Jane forms and then that style rubs off into Ma*rs.
ALSO..I found My Favorite Tiara as an associated link on one page. Wtf? Were they a part of this at one point? o__o
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So this is the old Ma*rs website. There's not much on it that shows up. Apparently, this is its new address meaning it had an old one.
I think this is Ma*rs 2002. The website gets a huge upgrade. Nothing else shows up for me but this. :'(
Finally, a stock image of a human! Ma*rs 2002/2003ish I think? Oddly holiday attire....
A hint of old Ma*rs from the welcome page. I forget which year this is but it's before 2005.
Information on the SugarGloss sub-brand under Ma*rs...This is from 2006.
This is where I found My Favorite Tiara linked!! :o This is from 2006. I found a lot from 2006 actually.
Brands from 2006
The first hints of Glamorous Jane at the lower right.
See how the MeJane logo changed to hearts and stuff? That was the shift I think.
Some 2006 fits I was privileged to find.
Ma*rs 2009/2010 stock images. Remember when people knocked on the Gucci ripoff? They had actually done it long before. lmao.
More pretty dresses.
Some of these got quite popular. :)
I'm very pleased to say I own that dress on the very top right. It's super cute.
Very old pic but <3 see? It's a super cute black halter dress with lace ties. This dress is more than a decade old! omg.
I have never seen that top middle print before holy shit. Also that second to the left on the bottom dress is really cute and another gem I've never seen before.
There are those odd Christmas dresses.
That chain of stars is everything. Pls Ma*rs. Bring it back.
I really cute banner from 2009.
2006 MeJane
A little peep of their storefront in 2006. Look how yellow the lighting is. :o
More styles from 2006
See how it's slowly getting girly? Ahh that heart chain in the back is a really cute touch.
See how uber girly it stars getting in 2007? :o Agejo is slowly creeping in. I see reference to GlamJane!
Ahh I still live for that obnoxious teal and pink combo...
And there you have it. Little glimpses into the past. I wish I could find more. :'( This is always why I'm stupidly in awe of old magazines and like collecting them. Some of this was my first introduction to gyaru without me realizing these types of trends I'd see in dramas, music videos, interviews, manga, etc were gyaru!
Until next time guys!
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