Much has been said, written and sung
about Harajuku girls, but what about their often far better dressed
yet forgotten male counterparts?
Harajuku boys have a wicked style
all of their own, which recently, as Phil Oh from
Street Peeper said,
is far more interesting than what the girls are currently wearing,
especially compared to what men are wearing back home. Not afraid of
colour, print, high heels or even dresses these boys live and breathe
style with numerous magazines and shops catering to their every
desire.
There are magazines for the goth boys, magazines for the
preppy boys and magazines for the more androgynous boys. Australian boys
have much to learn from these style maestros. For one, don't be afraid
of the man bag and more importantly, don't be afraid of fashion!
There is no need to be afraid when Australian designers such as
Romance was Born or
Limedrop are creating fun, innovative male
fashion that is both wearable and fashion forward. Stores such as
Comeback Kid are opening up a whole new way of shopping, which is
more akin to the Japanese "select shop" than what we have
been used to here. A select shop is a specialised boutique that, like
the name suggests, has a selected array of garments that normally
help build the one look, thus creating a fashion movement that then
gets called the shops name.
Get inspired by my Harajuku boys street fashion gallery. There is a mixed bag of styles to choose from. You have your Tokyo neo-goth whose hair renders him blind, which may or may not explain the full length skirt he is wearing. Then there is a boy in paint splattered rolled up denim jeans using a bum bag as a shoulder bag and a traditional Yukata as a jacket.
See I told you they have wicked style, but are any of you Aussie boys out there game enough to try these looks out?