Harajuku Street

Harajuku is a district in Shibuya, located in Tokyo, Japan. Harajuku is known for the hordes of teenagers that dress up as anime characters, Lolita , decora and many other subculture styles. The ‘’Harajuku style’’ is not a new trend. This culture has started during the post war allied occupation of Japan. This means at the end of the World War II. Young curious Japanese wanted to experience a different culture and try western product in local shops. Eventually, the ‘’Harajuku tribe’’ was created by some fashion designers and their entourages that were living near the district. When the 1964 Tokyo Olympic brought waves of tourists and shops, the Harajuke movement got a boost.

Today, Harajuku is one of the world’s fashion centers. Omotesando is one of the main streets. It has been compared to Paris Champs-Elysees, with Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Prada. The focal point for gatherings every Sunday by young Japanese dressed in many different styles of Harajuku culture is Takeshita Street. Those styles are always changing, some are less populars than others, some were abandoned, some evolve and many are combined together. Those are some of the more popular styles you can see on Harajuku:

(This cosplayer is Yaya Han, she incarnates Banshee Queen Enira from Lineage 2)

Cosplay

Cosplay, or ‘’costume play’’, is to dress up as a well-known character from a movie, game, band, manga or comic book. To do a good cosplay you need to act like the character.

Sweet Lolita

The typical Lolita wears high-collared dresses, cupcake shaped knee-length skirt with knee-high stockings , bonnets and fluffy parasols , this style often includes full-length skirts, corsets and headdresses.

Gyaru/Gyaruo

This style is a caricature of the typical American teenager. The characteristic for both boys and girls is bleached or dyed silver or blond hair, dark tanned skin and surfer girl/boy look. Their favorite place is Shibuya. Gyaru is the Japanese English for ‘’gal’’. A girly-glam style.

Ganguro

It’s like the gyaru style but it takes the girly-glam style to a whole new level. They have deep artificial tanned skin, orange hair, a lot of black eye liner surrounded by white makeup around the eyes. This style is accessorized by false eyelashes, platform shoes/boots, facial gems/stickers and bright colored clothing.

( Black Diamonds)

Yamamba/Manba

The Yamanba style is the ‘’extreme Ganguro’’. The skin is darker than a Ganguro, almost brown, the makeup is more important and extreme, the hair color is usually neon, sometimes in dreadlocks.

Visual Kei

This look is a mix of every subculture style. It looks like Lolitas, goths, vampires, anime characters and even punk.