Just looking around in Japan, I came to notice the difference in the sense of fashion around me. Especially the female fashion.
Girls, or rather the majority of those I see, tend to dress fashionably. Following various trends and styles as a form of expression. I decided to take a trip down to the large shopping street of Shinsaibashi-suji in Osaka to see what kind of fashion style I could find out on the streets.
Compared to England I noticed one large difference in the focus of the fashion. In Japan, clothing tends to be chosen as an emphasis of the legs, showing them as thin and long. Whereas in England, the general style is though the emphasis of the body’s curves and shape. This difference leads to two rather different ways of dressing.
(from Glamour Magazine UK)
I spoke to a few girls on the shopping street of Shinsaibashi, taking note of the type of fashion they were wearing and the trends they seemed to be following. I found a large number of girls in shorts, something rarely seen this time of the year in England.
It was even more interesting to see shorts paired up with slightly baggy tops, bulky jumpers and not any form-showing tops, another aspect which is not usually seen in England.
This image seemed to be being promoted in the Japanese fashion magazines. I took a look at the fashion magazine ViVi and noticed that the current trend seems to be shorts. I also noticed that animal print and fur seem to have also come into fashion here, which was in fashion a few years ago in England, this caused me to wonder if there was a delay in fashion trends when they spread to other countries.
(Taken from the fashion magazine ViVi)
Upon noticing this I started to look around what the shops were also promoting, assuming that the trends and fashion style would be the same, which for some part I found was true.
(A shop mannequin outside a shop in Shinsaibashi)
Furthering my suspicion of the type of fashion travelling and spreading around the world, I found this, a fashion sense based on a past western trend. Is fashion really just going in circles around the world?
風来坊 
Comments on: "A quick look at Fashion" (1)
Fashion is a great topic for these posts. I am happy to see that you did some fieldwork in Shinsaibashi. Street fashion tends to influence the magazines which influence the street… This is a good start pondering the difference in Japanese fashion. Looking at specific Japanese styles would be an interesting extension of this post.
P.S. Did you know that Gaidai is considered to be one of the three top fashionable schools in Japan? Convenient research right at our doorstep…