Fashion in Japan
A few weeks ago in the Sunday paper I noticed an entire page dedicated to Japanese fashion trends and their budding influence in America. A picture showed two typical Japanese teens in mainland Japan dressed in hip-length shirts, miniskirts, leggings and pointy shoes carrying designer purses.
Okay. Here is what I see more often here in Okinawa. Tee shirts with unintelligible English "phrases", regular gray sweatpants worn underneath short denim skirts with stiletto heals worn a size too small. All this and poorly, dare I say blindly mismatched colors and patterns.
These stylings took a while to get used to. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy some of the fashions but when I go shopping I choose an outfit with only one very Japanese element and try my best to Americanize the rest.
Japanese manufactured clothes are reasonably priced. I can but a pair of cute, slightly flared, nicely washed jeans for Y1,500, which is just a little less than $15.00. Sale prices go down to about Y1,000. Dress pants and jeans are priced similarly. Of course there are designer boutiques that charge over Y5,000 for a pair of jeans but the awesome deals are found at local Jusco and San A department stores. The other day I scored a terry VonDutch hat for only Y3,500 or about $30.00! It wasn't on sale but these items are cheaper over here for some reason. Those same hats go for $65.00 on the website! Another good find are high-heeled shoes which Japanese women are passionate about. I bought a cute pair of pink patent leather stilettos with 1 rhinestone heart on each shoe for about Y2,000. Imported shoes are way overpriced but luckily most stores carry up to a size 8, or size 25 over here.
Okay. Here is what I see more often here in Okinawa. Tee shirts with unintelligible English "phrases", regular gray sweatpants worn underneath short denim skirts with stiletto heals worn a size too small. All this and poorly, dare I say blindly mismatched colors and patterns.
These stylings took a while to get used to. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy some of the fashions but when I go shopping I choose an outfit with only one very Japanese element and try my best to Americanize the rest.
Japanese manufactured clothes are reasonably priced. I can but a pair of cute, slightly flared, nicely washed jeans for Y1,500, which is just a little less than $15.00. Sale prices go down to about Y1,000. Dress pants and jeans are priced similarly. Of course there are designer boutiques that charge over Y5,000 for a pair of jeans but the awesome deals are found at local Jusco and San A department stores. The other day I scored a terry VonDutch hat for only Y3,500 or about $30.00! It wasn't on sale but these items are cheaper over here for some reason. Those same hats go for $65.00 on the website! Another good find are high-heeled shoes which Japanese women are passionate about. I bought a cute pair of pink patent leather stilettos with 1 rhinestone heart on each shoe for about Y2,000. Imported shoes are way overpriced but luckily most stores carry up to a size 8, or size 25 over here.
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