..Or at least I think I do? All I know is that I’m obsessed with looking at pictures of them. They’re just so bizarre, I’ve never seen anything like it. To go out and public and look insane is nothing new, the punk movement illustrated that.. But it would take hours for these girls to get ready to go outside every day.
Gyaru, for the unenlightened, are Japanese hyper fashion girls. Gyaru is based on their pronounciation of the word ‘gal’. Basically these girls smashed the old traditional Japanese idea of beauty as being pale skinned and demure, and replaced it with extreme solarium tans, loud fashion and tonnes of accessories. In a crazy way, it looks cool.
There are a lot of different types of Gyaru. One of the most stand-out and weird looking class is Ganguro, which literally means ‘black face’. They have the darkest skin, with bright white facial highlights, wear fluro weaves in their hair and dress in every color of the rainbow as long as they stand out. This style is mostly outdated now, and has been replaced by Mamba/Yamanba.
Another type is the Kogyaru. These ‘gals’ dress like seductive lolita school girls despite sometimes being years older and not attending high school anymore. They try to appeal to the Japanese men who go after the young innocent look, without any of the innocence.
One of my favourite types is the Hime Gyaru. They dress like princesses, with cute pink frocks, curled hair and tiaras. The hair alone would take at least an hour to do with all the primping and teasing. The Hime Gyaru are often a lighter shade of tan, sometimes keeping their original pale skin color.
And then there are the more modern Gyaru who look for the most part normal, with natural tan colors and only slightly teased hair who follow the current fashion trends to the dot. These girls are loud, mischievous and often obnoxious. They wear the latest styles almost to the point of making fun of them. They are everything Japanese society wishes they were not- they don’t study, spend all their money on clothes and going out, they’re brash and abrasive. They carry the stereotype of being unclean, as they sit on the ground putting on their make-up. They use slang and perform their ‘para para’ dances on the street for all to see.
I have to admire their courage in standing up to the dominant culture and doing their own thing in such a wild way. I realise that they are copying what they perceive as the cool fashion trend, but with the tag that comes along with the way they present themselves it would take some guts to dress like that, not to mention time and money. I can’t wait to go to Shibuya and see them for myself one day.
“Sell me candy,
Sell me love,
Sell me heaven,
Sell me doves..
Whats the charge?
Whats the cost?
‘On the bed..’
You the boss!”
June 23, 2008 at 11:39 am |
“They have the darkest skin, with bright white facial highlights, wear fluro weaves in their hair and dress in every color of the rainbow as long as they stand out. Although the meaning implies they are trying to look African, in actuality they are copying the style of their favourite r&b singers.”
Last part, is incorrect. The style of gyaru that copies off of R&B/Hip-Hop artists is “B-gyaru”. And other than that, ganguro is a dead style now. Now there’s “Manba”/”Yamanba”/etc.
June 23, 2008 at 12:01 pm |
Thanks for correcting me Whisper, its pretty hard to find concrete info on them and I knew possibly some parts wouldn’t be as right as I thought. I’ll remove that sentence.
September 27, 2009 at 5:56 pm |
…..
I’m just totally turned off by the idea of anyone doing something like that.
Not gonna lie, some of those girls are very pretty.
but what they do, is obnoxious and just… well, not cool.
Trying to be cool is one thing, but going all out balls deep like that? eh. lame.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re free too do what they like, and I’ll agree, it takes courage to do something like that.
But is courage really a good thing when diving face first into something like this? Lol.
Just my opinion. Take care folks.
September 28, 2009 at 3:26 am |
To me its like fans at conventions who get in all the costumes.. Its over the top and it can be lame, but it would be fun too. Those make up styles, particularly in the top few pics are outdated now, by a few yrs at least, but the last pic is more accurate as to how they currently style themselves. And I agree, it does look wack and lame with the big white circles and orange facepaint, but it was kinda around the glowstick/raver/cyberpunk era of the early 2000’s and its Japan, they’re known to love going over the top with trends! Cheers for your comment
December 5, 2009 at 9:19 am |
*smile* I too love looking at pictures of Ganguro/manba/whateveritisnow, and an interesting fact from when they were brought up with a girl who was visitng from Japan. They smell, apparently quite a bit because some of them, rather than bath/washing the makeup off, keep wearing it.
December 10, 2009 at 8:04 pm |
whoo0o0oa! That’s a little bit gross, but thanks for sharing lol.. I’m determined to find out if that’s true when I go over there
December 11, 2009 at 10:35 am |
I’d like to too someday ^__^ Though, I don’t suppose anyone would appreciate me sniffing them randomly.
December 11, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Lol.. no they probs wouldn’t! Ima do it anyway tho, just try n keep it on the down low
December 12, 2009 at 2:22 pm |
I love their style! They are hot!