Overview

Western fashion has been widely appreciated and consumed in Tokyo for decades, but since the mid-1990s Japanese youth have been playing a crucial role in forming their own unique fashion communities and producing creative styles which have had a major impact on fashion globally. Geographically and stylistically defined, subcultures such as Lolita in Harajuku, Gyaru and Gyaru-o in Shibuya, Age-jo in Shinjuku, and Mori Girl in Kouenji, reflect the affiliation and identities of their members, and have often blurred the boundary between professionals and amateurs for models, photographers, merchandisers and designers. Based on insightful ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo, Fashioning Japanese Subcultures is the first theoretical and analytical study on Japan's contemporary youth subcultures and their stylistic expressions. It is essential reading for students, scholars and anyone interested in fashion, sociology and subcultures.

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9781847889478

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Reviews

This book Is not just about ways of dressing: it is also about ways of being, and the ways in which fashion becomes part of the construction of identity. Kawamura, a sociologist based in New York, delves into the stories behind her subjects , who are members of different subcultural communities in Tokyo, to explore the meanings behind their appearances... She situates her scholarly examination of Japanese fashion subcultures in the context of an overview of various academic studies of subculture, against and through which she presents her own work. This research is conveyed in an accessible manner, and Kawamura draws connections between her topic and broader concerns , such as suicide, youth unemployment and changing gender roles. -- Christie Barber, Macquarie University, Australia Times Higher Education

Another worthy entry in Bloomsbury Academic's catalog on material culture and clothing/fashion... The present book is an enjoyable and theoretically valuable study of one niche in the fashion world, with wider implications for subculture and youth culture theories... Students should be particularly fascinated by this book, and it would be very useful in introductory courses in anthropology or sociology, as well as in courses on youths, subcultures/deviant cultures, globalization, and popular culture. -- Jack David Eller Anthropology Review Database 20130915

Author Information

Yuniya Kawamura is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York. She is the author of The Japanese Revolution in Paris Fashion (Berg, 2004), Fashion-ology (Berg, 2005), and Doing Research in Fashion and Dress (Berg, 2011).

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