BIG IS BEAUTIFUL

Balloon skirts that circle back to a gathered hemline, blouses with puffy leg-of-mutton sleeves, and draping bolero jackets with three-quarter-length sleeves cut and sewn with copious frills are among the items now in favor as big-looking clothes take the spotlight. The 2006 fall and winter fashion collections signaled that slender and feminine were out and "neo volume style" was in. Marc Jacobs of Louis Vuitton, for example, unveiled a dress with a large pocket at the waist, much like a kangaroo pouch, and a rounded silhouette coat. And Chloé, a popular brand whose handbags are in very high demand, came out with a cocoon silhouette coat and short bolero jacket with numerous folds and three-quarter-length sleeves.

The Volume Look Revisited

The "volume" look made its debut in the 1960s and made a major comeback in the 1980s, when fan-shaped mini skirts and other shapely items were unveiled by Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix, and other foreign designers. In Japan, balloon skirts, blouses with puffy sleeves, and other oversized clothing caught on in the latter half of the 1980s after young Olive magazine readers began wearing them and the "cute and coquettish" look took hold.

Balloon skirts are in vogue. (Laisse Passe Co., Ltd.)
Today, two more decades down the line, volume fashion is again back in vogue, while the preference dating back to the 1990s for casual and compact styles, with excess kept to a minimum, seems to have passed its peak.

This time, however, variety is the name of the game, with voluminous tops often being mixed with leaner bottoms and vice versa, rather than full head-to-toe volume. By wearing a balloon skirt with a high-necked collar knit or short jacket, or a puffy sleeved blouse or cocoon silhouette top with skinny jeans, leggings, or other tight-fitting pants, a clean, sharp look is achieved

Look Cute with pink Harajuku Style

Harajuku is not always talk about wild and crazy costume, you can look cute with Kawaii(cute) style. some example u can see below picture :

Harajuku Style in PiNK Color ------ >

Want to used Kawaii style ?? Click Here –> How To Be Kawaii Style

Cosplay - Costume Play

Cosplay short for "costume play", is basically describing a performing-art behaviour of self-rigging out as a character with corresponding costume, accessories and/or parameters. In society, interactions of "cosplay" behaviour form a subculture centered on dressing as characters from manga, anime, tokusatsu, video games, and less commonly, fantasy movies, Japanese pop music bands, Visual Kei, fantasy music stories (such as stories by the band Sound Horizon), novels, and anything in the real world being unique and dramatic (or their more anthropomorphic form).

In some circles "cosplay" has been expanded to mean simply wearing a costume, without considering the mind of an actor and the common form of "cosplay" in a major "cosplay" culture. The most specific anecdote about the origin of the word "cosplay" was that Nov Takahashi (from a Japanese studio called Studio Hard) coined the term "cosplay" as a contraction of the English-language words "costume play" while attending the 1984 Los Angeles Science Fiction Worldcon.

He was so impressed by the hall and masquerade costuming there that he reported about it frequently in Japanese science fiction magazines. The word fits in with a common Japanese method of abbreviation: combining the first two moras of each word. "Cos" becomes kosu and play become pure hence becoming the nearest Japanese approximation of cosplay, which is kosupure.

Cosplay costumes are radically different from typical Halloween costumes. Because the object of cosplay is to literally become one's character, the intricate details of the costumes are critical.
Costumes must meticulously adhere to the designs of the characters' attire, and even more generic costumes are often elaborately artistic Rigorous attention to detail may include ensuring the seams are aligned properly, thread colors are appropriate, and fabric colors precisely match the character and their attire.

Some cosplayers will buy their costumes from talented artists, while others may spend months creating the perfect cosplay outfit. Because the costumes are so elaborate, like-minded people gather to see others' costumes, show off their own elaborate handmade creations, take lots of pictures, and possibly participate in best costume contests at different cosplay events.

In Japan, there are 2 cosplay magazines, Cosmode, Dengeki Layers. COSMODE has the largest share in the market. There are also 2 emerging cosplay magazines outside of Japan, USA's AniCoz and Mexico's Cosplaymix. An English digital version of COSMODE has been created. (wikipedia)

Kawaii Style

Kawaii Style

Kawaii means "cute" in Japanese. The Kawaii Harajuku style of dress is very playful and childlike. It emphasizes toys, ruffles, cartoon characters, and pastel colors.

HOW TO BE KAWAII

1. Keep up with the latest trends by doing some research on the Internet. Columns like Tokyopop's Kawaii Culture provide information on the latest kawaii trends. You can also read magazines like Shojo Beat.
2. Do not be afraid to stand out and be noticed. Don't worry about what people think of you.
3. Layer well - this is important. Also, wacky patterns are super. Wear as many colors together as you want and don't care if your clothes clash.
4. Wear bright colors. Smile and/or giggle lot. Wear pink a lot and wear cute characters on your clothes. Jeans and a t-shirt are kind of boring, unless you add to it with cute accessories, and maybe a hat. Wear something wild and crazy. Also, try to stay away from labels a little.
5. Sport toys and/or bags with characters like Hello Kitty, Chococat, or My Melody. Anime characters can also be very kawaii.
6. Wear ruffles and pastel or bright colors.
7. Make your own clothes. This is a great idea and if you want, you can also modify pre-made clothes which can turn out looking really good. Making clothes is not for everyone, though.
8. If you choose to buy clothes, you can find some really kawaii clothes at places like Hot Topic.
9. Accessorize! Cute, fuzzy accessories are definitely kawaii. Make sure you stock up on Sanrio and other cute animal accessories. Also, you can wear fuzzy animal hats, or keychains around your neck. Don't be afraid to be a little wild!
10. style your hair like a manga character. If you apply lots of firm gel to thick chunks of hair, you can look like Super Saiyan. You can get hair like Chi from Chobits by parting hair in front of the ears and securing it with a round clip. Dying or streaking your with hair unnatural colors, like pink, can also be really kawaii. Opt for bright colored hair clips and headbands.
11. If you wear makeup, keep it light. The natural look is way more kawaii than a face plastered with makeup. (Wiki how)

Body Art- Harajuku Style

I find good pictures gallery about body art in http://www.bodyart-lounge.com, cool body art - Harajuku Style. Picture source by Flickr




Creative, Cool N Fun Harajuku Body Art ........

Gwen Stefani

Gwen Renée Stefani (born October 3, 1969), is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer, and occasional actress. Stefani fronts the rock/ska punk band No Doubt, whose 1995 album Tragic Kingdom propelled them to stardom, selling 16 million copies worldwide.

It spawned the singles "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs", and "Don't Speak". The band's popularity went into decline with its fourth album, Return of Saturn (2000), but Rock Steady (2001) introduced reggae production into its music, and generally received positive reviews.

Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was primarily inspired by music of the 1980s, taking Stefani's work further into more pop and dance music, and enjoyed international success with sales of over seven million.

The album's third single "Hollaback Girl" became the first U.S. digital download to sell one million copies. Stefani's second solo album The Sweet Escape (2006) yielded "Wind It Up", a moderate worldwide success, and "The Sweet Escape".

Including her work with No Doubt, Stefani has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.She won the World's Best-Selling New Female Artist at the World Music Awards 2005. In spite of her age, Stefani is known as a fashion trendsetter. In 2003, she debuted her clothing line L.A.M.B. and expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line, drawing inspiration from Japanese culture and fashion.

Stefani performs and makes public appearances with four back-up dancers known as the Harajuku Girls. She married British grunge musician Gavin Rossdale in 2002; they have a son, Kingston James McGregor, who was born in 2006 and are expecting their second child in August 2008.

EARLY LIFE
Gwen Renée Stefani was born in Fullerton, California and raised in Anaheim, California, and grew up in a Roman Catholic household. Her mother named her after a stewardess in the 1968 novel Airport, and her middle name, Renée, comes from The Four Tops' 1968 cover of The Left Banke's 1966 hit song "Walk Away Renée".

Her father, Dennis Stefani, is Italian American and works as a Yamaha marketing executive. Her mother, Patti Flynn, is of Irish and Scottish descent and worked as an accountant before becoming a homemaker. Her parents were fans of folk music and presented music by Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris to their daughter.

She is the second oldest of four children; she has a younger sister, Jill, a younger brother, Todd, and an older brother, Eric. Eric was the keyboardist for No Doubt but left the band to pursue a career in animation on The Simpsons. Many of the women in Stefani's family were seamstresses, and much of her clothing was made by her or her mother. As a child, Stefani's musical interests consisted of musicals such as The Sound of Music and Evita.

After making a demo tape for her father, she was encouraged to take music lessons to train her "loopy, unpredictable" voice. Stefani made her onstage debut during a talent show at Loara High School, where she sang "I Have Confidence," from The Sound of Music, in a self-made tweed dress inspired by one from the film.

Stefani was on the Loara swim team in an attempt to lose weight. She first worked scrubbing floors at a Dairy Queen and later manning the MAC makeup counter of a department store. After graduating from high school in 1987, she began attending California State University, Fullerton.

SOLO ALBUM
2004-2006 : LOVE. ANGEL. MUSIC. BABY
Stefani's debut solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. was released in November 2004. The album features a large number of collaborations with producers and other artists, including Tony Kanal, Linda Perry, André 3000, Nellee Hooper and The Neptunes. Stefani created the album to modernize the music to which she listened when in high school, and L.A.M.B. takes influence from a variety of music styles of the 1980s and early 1990s such as New Wave and electro.

Stefani's decision to use her solo career as an opportunity to delve further into pop music instead of trying "to convince the world of [her] talent, depth and artistic worth" was considered unusual. As a result, reviews of the album were mixed, and it was described as "fun as hell but…not exactly rife with subversive social commentary." The album debuted on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart at number seven, selling 309,000 copies in its first week.

It sold well, reaching multi-platinum status in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Stefani was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and at the next year's awards, Stefani received five nominations for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

The first single released from the album was "What You Waiting For?", which charted outside the U.S. Top 40, but reached the Top 10 on most other charts. The song served to explain why Stefani produced a solo album and discusses her fears in leaving No Doubt for a solo career as well as her desire to have a baby.

"Rich Girl" was released as the album's second single. A duet with rapper Eve, and produced by Dr. Dre, it is an adaptation of a 1990s pop song by British musicians Louchie Lou and Michie One, which itself is a cover of "If I Were a Rich Man", from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. "Rich Girl" proved successful on several formats, and reached the UK and U.S. top ten.

L.A.M.B.'s third single "Hollaback Girl" became Stefani's first U.S. and second Australian number-one single; it was less successful elsewhere. The song was the first U.S. digital download to sell more than one million copies legally, and its brass-driven composition remained popular throughout 2005. The fourth single "Cool" was released shortly following the popularity of its predecessor, but failed to match its chart success, reaching the top twenty in UK and U.S.

The song's lyrics and its accompanying music video, filmed in Lake Como, Italy, depict Stefani's former relationship with Kanal."Luxurious" was released as the album's fifth single, but did not perform as well as its predecessors. "Crash" was released in early 2006 as the album's sixth single in lieu of Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'s sequel, which Stefani postponed because of her pregnancy.

2006-2008 : THE SWEET ESCAPE
Stefani's second solo album, The Sweet Escape, was released in December 2006. Stefani recollaborated with Kanal, Perry, and The Neptunes, along with Akon and Tim Rice-Oxley from English rock band Keane. The album focuses more heavily on electro/dance music for clubs than its predecessor.[13] Stefani commented that it differed from L.A.M.B. because "I just wasn't inspired to do another album and…I was a lot more relaxed making it."

Its release coincided with the DVD release of Stefani's first tour, entitled Harajuku Lovers Live.
The album received mixed reviews by critics, who found that it "has a surprisingly moody, lightly autobiographical feel...[but] Stefani isn't convincing as a dissatisfied diva" and called the album a "hasty return" that repeats Love. Angel. Music. Baby. with less energy.

Stefani performing "Wind It Up" in May of 2007."Wind It Up", the album's lead single, was panned by critics for its use of yodeling and an interpolation of The Sound of Music but was moderately successful, reaching the Top 20 in most markets.

The title track was well-received. To promote The Sweet Escape, Stefani was a mentor on the sixth season of American Idol and performed the song with Akon. It was an international success and earned Stefani a Grammy nomination. The song is Stefani's most successful song of her solo career. In November 2006, the club single "Yummy" was released as a 3-track maxi promo single and as a 12" vinyl single, both featuring a radio edit, an instrumental and an accapella version of the song.

"4 In The Morning" was released as the album's third single with mediocre success. The album's fourth single was a hybird version of Now That You Got It which featured Damian Marley. The song was a commercial failure and became her first solo single to fail to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

Early Winter was released in February 2008 worldwide with initial success on European Charts. To promote the album, Stefani embarked a worldwide tour, The Sweet Escape Tour. The tour covered North America, Europe, Asia and the Pacific and part of Latin America.

Stefani contributed vocals to her husband Gavin Rossdale's highly anticipated first solo record entitled Wanderlust, however, the track "Some Days" on which Gwen sings was not included on the album.

It has also been reported that after she has her next child, Stefani will work on a new studio album with No Doubt.Gwen is a distant cousin of Madonna: “Before ending up in Anaheim, my grandpa first moved to Detroit from Rome. And my dad’s mom’s younger sister’s husband’s mother is a Ciccone.”(wikipedia)

Ganguro Style

Ganguro - face-black is an alternative fashion trend among young Japanese women which peaked in popularity around the year 2000, but remains evident today. The Shibuya and Ikebukuro districts of Tokyo are the center of ganguro fashion.

Ganguro appeared as a new fashion style in Japan in the early 1990s and is prevalent mostly among teenage girls and girls in their early 20's to this date. In ganguro fashion, a deep tan is combined with hair dyed in shades of orange to blonde, or a silver gray known as "high bleached".

Black ink is used as eyeliner and white concealer is used as lipstick and eyeshadow. False eyelashes, plastic facial gems, and pearl powder are often added to this. Platform shoes and brightly-colored outfits complete the ganguro look. Also typical of ganguro fashion are tie-dyed sarongs, miniskirts, stickers on the face, and lots of bracelets, rings, and necklaces.

Ganguro falls into the larger subculture of gyaru (from English "gal"), a slang term used for various groups of young women, usually referring to overly childish or rebellious girls. Researchers in the field of Japanese studies believe that ganguro is a form of revenge against traditional Japanese society due to resentment of neglect, isolation, and constraint of Japanese society.

This is their attempt at individuality, self-expression, and freedom, in open defiance of school standards and regulations.The deep ganguro tan is in direct conflict with traditional Japanese ideas of feminine beauty. Due to this, as well as their use of slang, unconventional fashion sense, and perceived lack of hygiene, ganguro gals are almost always portrayed negatively by the Japanese media.

Fashion magazines like Egg and Cawaii magazine have had a direct influence on the ganguro. Other popular ganguro magazines include Popteen and Ego System. The ganguro culture has evolved its own synchronized dances, called Para Para. Participants do predetermined moves at the same time, usually as accompaniment to J-pop music.

Para Para events are held by ganguro circles, and involve either going to clubs to perform Para Para or gathering to learn new dances. One of the most famous early ganguro girls was known as Buriteri, nicknamed after the black soy sauce used to flavor yellowtail fish in teriyaki cooking.

Egg made her a star by frequently featuring her in its pages during the height of the ganguro craze. After modeling and advertising for the Shibuya tanning salon "Blacky", social pressure and negative press convinced Buriteri to retire from the ganguro lifestyle. (wikipedia)

Kogal Style

Kogals (kogyaru, lit. “small/child girl”) are a subculture of girls and young women in urban Japan, one of several types of so-called gals. In general, the kogal “look” roughly approximates a sun-tanned California Valley girl, and indeed, the similarities between the two extend to the linguistic, for both subcultures have derived entire sets of slang terms (“ko-gyaru-go”).

Kogals are not to be confused with the Ganguro subculture, although they are similar. Kogals fashion are perhaps the closest thing to the word “normal” in Japanese fashion sense - the spoilt brat fashion sense that you see all over American and all americanized countries… it screams one word with this sense of fashion: MATERIALISM.

Another interesting fact, since the Kogal standards of living is so high (branded clothes and accessories), often times the supplement their living style by being in questionable activities to earn the extra income.

Critics of the Kogal subculture decry its materialism as reflecting a larger psychological or spiritual emptiness in modern Japanese life. Some kogals support their lifestyle with allowances from wealthy parents, living a “freeter” or “parasite single” existence that grates against traditional principles of duty and industry.

A small minority appear in pornography to finance their habits. More may engage in the practice of “compensated dating”, or enjo kōsai, which may at times border on quasi-legal prostitution.
Internet-based usage of this term has led some Western observers to the mistake of believing that “kogal” means “prostitute”.

Well, don’t let it deter you. You don’t have to do all these things - dressing up as a Kogal is just for fun and can be part of your dress up planner on different weeks.. Although, those tan can be horribly out of place…. (Thitinun Blog)

Visual Kei

Visual Kei refers to a movement among Japanese musicians, that is characterized by the use of eccentric, sometimes flamboyant looks. This usually involves striking make-up, unusual hair styles and elaborate costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics.

Some sources state that Visual Kei refers to a music genre, or to a sub-genre of J-rock (a term referring to Japanese rock in general), with its own particular sound, related to glam-rock, punk and metal.

However most insider sources state that Visual Kei's unique clothing and make-up fashions, and participation in the related sub-culture, is equally as important as the sound of the music itself in the use of the term as while similarities can be drawn between some bands; most are from widely different genres including but not limited to Pop, power metal, classical, rap, electronic, and death metal.

Visual Kei emerged in the late 1980s, pioneered by the band X Japan., along with others such as D'erlanger and Color, who are regarded as influencing the fashion and music associated with Visual Kei bands. X Japan's drummer Yoshiki Hayashi used the term to describe the band's slogan "Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock".

Color vocalist "Dynamite Tommy" formed his record company Free-Will in 1986, which has been a major contributor in spreading modern Visual Kei outside Japan. In 1992, X Japan launched an attempt to enter the European and American markets, but it would take another 8 years until popularity and awareness of Visual Kei bands would extend worldwide.

In the mid 1990s, Visual Kei received an increase in popularity throughout Japan, when album sales from Visual Kei bands started to reach record numbers. The most notable bands to achieve success during this period included, X Japan, Glay, Luna Sea, and L'Arc-en-Ciel, however a drastic change in their appearance accompanied their success.

During the same period, bands such as Kuroyume, Malice Mizer, and Penicillin, gained mainstream awareness, although they were not as commercially successful. By 1999, mainstream popularity in Visual Kei was declining, X Japan had disbanded, and the death of lead guitarist Hideto Matsumoto in 1998 had denied fans a possible reunion.

It wasn't long before Luna Sea decided to disband in the year 2000, and L'Arc-en-Ciel went on a hiatus the same year. In 2007 the genre has been revitalized, as Luna Sea performed a one-off performance, and X Japan reunited for a new single and a world tour. With these developments, Visual Kei bands enjoyed a boost in public awareness, described by the media as "Neo-Visual Kei". (wikipedia)