
Tokyo street fashion and culture: 1980 – 2017 - drops
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/ogKCPmGdPtB7Iw
======
mc32
If you want to discover Japanese culture via photography, I would suggest
Daido Moriyama[1], [2], [3]. All NSFW-ish. He has a great look into what lies
beyond the surface in Japanese culture. For more night culture, Kohei
Yoshiyuki[4]

[1][http://fotoroom.co/daido-moriyama/](http://fotoroom.co/daido-moriyama/)

[2][http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/10/asx-tv-daido-
moriyama...](http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/10/asx-tv-daido-moriyama-
senses.html)

[3][https://www.moriyamadaido.com/en/](https://www.moriyamadaido.com/en/)

[4][https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/kohei-
yoshiyukis-t...](https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/kohei-yoshiyukis-
the-park/)

~~~
o_____________o
> what lies beyond the surface

The disconnect I find as a westerner in Japan is that while we fetishize
counter culture, there's so much codified "surface". We're obsessed with
individualism, but that's a distorted lens to view Japan and much of Asia
through. Universal conformity was the most unnerving attribute for me.

~~~
mc32
I dunno. It's part of their identity. It's just different.

It may be uncomfortable for foreigners to know how to navigate the different
aspects of their society, but it's theirs and when I'm there, I adjust to
them, while keeping my own. It's a balance and for me it depends on how much
time you want to spend over there and in what manner.

If you're on assignment for a year or two, sure, make friends with other ex-
pats, make superficial friendships with the locals. But if you're going to
stay a while, forget the ex-pats, get engrossed in the local culture and adapt
to it, make local friends, learn the language and culture. Not saying go
native, if you were to have children there, that would be for them to do (as
much as they can fit-in), but don't stick out like a sore thumb out of spite.

~~~
nihonde
I couldn't agree more about ditching the expats. The flip side of "conformity"
(a loaded word) is the overwhelming sense that you're in good hands and will
be wherever you go, because people adhere to and enforce a high standard from
the bottom up. When I return to America, I feel like the country has no
footing, and gets more unwieldy by the minute. The important point is that all
decisions are trade-offs, and neither East nor West has the standing or
authority to really judge the other.

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tenryuu
I know this has nothing to do with the article, but the UI/UX for this site
feels so off-putting It's like a worse version of the windows 8 start screen.
Can't even middle click the scroll wheel and navigate with gestures.

I wouldn't mind seeing a piece on Shiyuba fashion though

~~~
bamboozled
Agreed, its' pretty unusable.

It's also dry and and aesthetically displeasing given the content of the site.

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dookahku
So, wait, what are we looking at?

[https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/](https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/)

Is this like a Medium.com content publishing platform?

From the about page:

    
    
        EXPLORE COLLECTIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD WITH GOOGLE 
        ARTS & CULTURE, CREATED BY GOOGLE CULTURAL INSTITUTE.
    

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cultural_Institute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cultural_Institute)

~~~
AJ007
Their javascript is complete crap. It is a pain in the ass to navigate on the
phone and hardly better on desktop.

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sireat
Enjoyable collection but somewhat a little bland.

You hear about all the wild stuff you'd see in Sninjuku and this was rather
mild. The most provocative was one Ganguroo pic.

My uneducated guess was that these pictures represent the "official" and
branded street culture.

That is these pics represent something you could actually buy with relative
ease and not make yourself.

I didn't see any gothic lolitas and those are just something that westerners
would know about.

There must be 100s of substyles that are one-offs and produced by individuals.

Anyone know of more "street" pictures?

~~~
franciscop
I agree, I have been in Japan few times and love to see the diversity in
fashion there.

I think a huge group (and the original reason I got interested in Japan) is
the [Neo] Visual Kei (ヴィジュアル系) [1] movement. It was a cultural movement both
from music and fashion that isn't even mentioned here.

Edit/note: for the more pictures, you surely want to find the fashion
"branch", then find the name in Japanese and use that to search them (make
sure Google is not limiting your searches as well). That is a part of a
culture that mainly uses Japanese IMHO, similar to some parts of robotics that
I see IRL but cannot find online.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_kei)

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rdiddly
Well that was surprisingly tiring! I started to imagine keeping up with all
those styles as they were happening -- sounds expensive. Fashion is
inherently, I think, of the moment... in the "now"... and to lay out 37 years'
worth of it in a row like that, has the probably unintended effect of laying
bare its impermanence, frivolity (not in a good way) and unimportance. Grandpa
comment.

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Animats
Aw. Cute.

For a good sense of what's happening now, see this walk through Harajuku at
2160p.[1] At that resolution, all the clothing details are visible.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiQ4YDH3g80](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiQ4YDH3g80)

~~~
sjm
Note that this is from 2014 though. I'd say it's already quite different based
on what I saw during my time there last year.

For me what I noticed was pretty demure, neutral colours, relaxed fits, back
to focusing more on quality of texture, build and fit over everything else.
Plus a dash of the streetwear/sneakerhead style that is super popular all over
the world right now.

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callumjones
What is Google Arts & Culture? How long has it been around?

~~~
emmfr
It's the new name of the Google Art Project, which has been around since
February 2011.

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lanius
The photos are all black and white until 1984, when they're all suddenly in
color. Was there any particular advancement in color photography in 1984?

~~~
mc32
Not really. Most traditional photographers either tried or went color in the
'60s. Some traditionalists insisted that real, serious photography was only
done in B&W. This sentiment carries on to this day with film photogs. Some
continue to think B&W is serious and color is for pop/sugary stuff/commercial.

Color was a bit more expensive but I don't think that was the main driver. On
the other hand, if the photo was for mass circulation/publishing, printing in
color was more expensive --but the photography itself not so much.

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doctorshady
It seems like a lot of the simpler styles - even as far back as the mid 1980s
would probably work without sticking out a whole lot even now. I suppose
there's a universal lesson of some sort in that.

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wst_
Funny thing... Most of these pictures are still valid today.

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jansho
Just a heads up to UK residents, the BBC iPlayer currently has a wealth of
Japanese culture videos, including street fashion

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wyclif
Last time I was in Japan, the "wolf boy" haircut (sorry, I can't remember the
Japanese word to describe this) was still quite popular even though it was
passé. Then I was at the airport in the Philippines and there were some
Japanese flying to Tokyo, and all the boys had the same haircut. Man, that cut
will _never_ die.

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pilaf
There's a very well put together video about the history of Tokyo street
fashion and music from the 70s till today on YouTube. Worth a watch for the
visuals alone:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmsxWmKz-B8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmsxWmKz-B8)

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jhanschoo
For those fascinated on the subject of Japanese fashion trends, I'm pleased to
recommend
[http://neojaponisme.com/category/fashion-2/](http://neojaponisme.com/category/fashion-2/)

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jpatokal
If you liked the story, you'll like this video of 40 years of Japanese street
fashion: [https://youtu.be/xmsxWmKz-B8](https://youtu.be/xmsxWmKz-B8)

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hkmurakami
Personally, I think the best way to get a snapshot of the fashion of the times
(apparel, makeup, hairstyle, shoes) is to watch a few of the popular TV dramas
from each year.

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franciscop
Ah I always thought that Gyaru and Gal were the same fashion style slightly
lost in translation, but now I see that they were actually different styles!

~~~
ldjb
"Gyaru" is simply how "gal" is pronounced in Japanese, so it's an
inconsistency in translation.

However, kogyaru and ganguro are different styles. Gyaru is effectively a
superset of the two, as well as some other styles.

Néojaponisme has an interesting look back at the history of gyaru and the
different styles (though unfortunately the pictures are rather few, and I have
no idea where Part Four is): [http://neojaponisme.com/2012/02/28/the-history-
of-the-gyaru-...](http://neojaponisme.com/2012/02/28/the-history-of-the-gyaru-
part-one/)

~~~
franciscop
That (and inner links) is an awesome peak into Japanese culture, thank you

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throw7
god damn it, that website feels like a fashion style itself.

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nomagicbullet
What a horrible navigation. You can't freely scroll at your own pace,
advancing with the keyboard is inconsistent, and what's worse, zoom is busted
with keyboard _and_ trackpad. This is a disservice to people with disabilities
and people without them.

What's so wrong about regular scrolling? Why do designers feel the need to
_fight agains the browser_? When a site decides to re-engineer basic user
interactions (zoom, scrolling), the user has to focus on learning new
behaviors instead of consuming your content (which is what they should be
focused on).

The web has great UI patterns. Use them. Don't fight them.

</rant>

~~~
jsemrau
For exactly this reason I did not go past page 3. If I want to flip pages I
buy the book (or make my own).

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gallerdude
What's up with the navigation? Horrific on mobile.

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known
Check mahole covers in Japan [http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/03/the-
beauty-of-japans-a...](http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/03/the-beauty-of-
japans-artistic-manhole-covers/)

