Hello everyone! I recently went to a fashion event in Washington, DC: The event was the Japanese 🏯 Style Harajuku Fashion Walk. This event was amazing! This event was a fashion lovers heaven! There were many people there expressing themselves in many different unique fashion styles. Fashion can feel very freeing, creative, expressive, and satisfying, so I want to share Harajuku fashion with you all. I took photos and made a video of the event, which is at the end of this blog post.

What Is Harajuku Fashion?

Harajuku Fashion is a movement and a form of free expression that allows people to express themselves freely through their clothing, hair color and style, makeup, shoes, and accessories. The idea behind Harajuku Fashion is to do what you want, no matter how outlandish, rather than simply following the main fashion trends and styles. Harajuku Fashion is about creating a wider definition of beauty and fashion. Harajuku Fashion is about allowing people to express themselves in more colors and in their own unique style. Harajuku Fashion is a way of feeling more comfortable and free in your own body and skin, regardless of how everyone else looks.

How Harajuku Fashion Came To Be

Harajuku Fashion came about as a response to Japan’s traditional values and its strict rules and expectations for its citizens. Harajuku Fashion came from Japan’s focus on collectivism, instead of individuality. So, Harajuku Fashion is a form of rebellion since it as a way of expressing one’s own individuality, personality, and fashion. Harajuku Fashion makes a statement and resists Japan’s strict societal norms and expectations.

Harajuku Fashion is named after a famous, popular part of Japan called ‘Harajuku.’ Harajuku is in the city of Tokyo; it is a place where fashionable people gather in Japan to celebrate their unique forms of fashion. You will also find different fashion styles from the UK and the U.S. in Harajuku, Japan.

People who take part in the Harajuku Fashion scene meet at Harajuku station. From the train station, they walk around the area showing off their unique fashion styles with everyone. They take pictures and socialize with other people like them, as well as with other people on the streets. Harajuku is great as a youthful fashion center because it is a place that specifically caters to young people and it has shops that follow the ever-changing fashion trends.

How Long Has Harajuku Fashion Been Around?

Perhaps it is because of what Harajuku Fashion represents that it has lasted so many years. In the fashion world, many fashion trends come and go, but Harajuku Fashion has been around for almost 40 years; it has been around since the 1980s.

Harajuku Fashion is not limited to just in Japan though; it spread to the U.S. in the 20th century. Recently, Harajuku Fashion has even come to Canada. The first Harajuku Fashion Walk occurred in 2016 in Vancouver, Canada. Thus, Harajuku Fashion is becoming more and more recognized in different parts of the world.

During the Harajuku Fashion Walk, you will see many different fashion styles:

Multi-Colored Hair Fashion

You will often see pink, purple, green, and blonde hair colors

Goth, Punk, and Rocker Fashion Styles

Lolita Fashion Styles

Lolita fashion styles include lots of ribbons, ruffles, and dresses based on European, Victorian, and Edwardian clothing. There are also dark lolitas that wear European style clothing, but with a gothic punk twist.

Gyaru Fashion

Gyaru fashion is characterized by light hair colors, tan dark skin, sexy and wild clothing, and heavy makeup. Gyaru is actually one of the oldest forms of Harajuku Fashion since it was a term used as far back as the 1970s.

“File: Girls in Tokyo.jpg” By Greg: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Girls_in_Tokyo.jpg

Traditional Japanese Fashion Mixed With Western Fashion

This is my own personal favorite fashion style where you mix traditional Japanese style clothing, such as the kimono and yukata, with modern Western clothing, such as jeans, shorts, t-shirts, and skirts. When I attended the event in DC, I wore this type of clothing.

Cosplay Fashion

This is when you dress up as your favorite anime or manga characters. This is very popular and most people have heard and seen cosplay fashion before due to yearly cosplay conventions.

Visual Kei Fashion Styles

Visual Kei fashion is very elaborate; it has been driven by Japanese musicians, in particular, rock, heavy metal, and punk musicians. This style screams heavy metal, punk, and wild rebelliousness. This style is often characterized by heavy makeup, androgyny, wild hair colors, black and white clothing, flamboyant clothing, piercings, and boots. You will see both women and men following this fashion style, but when it comes to women and Visual Kei fashion, it definitely has a lolita feel and look to it.

“File:Visualfan.jpg” By Shiny Things: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Visualfan.jpg

Cute Kawaii Fashion

This style is quite popular in Japan, especially with young school girls. You will even see small children dressed in very cute kawaii clothing. Kawaii fashion is characterized by lots of rainbow colors (especially feminine colors like pink and white), graphic designs, ribbons, plastic hair and ring accessories, white socks, cute shoes (often heels, platform shoes, and tennis shoes), and toy accessories.

“File:Kyary Pamyu Pamyu at MTV VMAJ 2014 (2).jpg” By Norio Nakayama: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kyary_Pamyu_Pamyu_at_MTV_VMAJ_2014_(2).jpg

People from all over the world come to Japan and join the Harajuku Fashion Walk. The U.S. and Canada also have their own Japanese style Harajuku Fashion Walk. I attended my very first Japanese style Harajuku Fashion Walk in Washington, DC this year. I took a lot of photos of the event and made a video for you all with those photos and information about Harajuku Fashion.

Washington, DC Harajuku Fashion Walk Video

If you could attend a Harajuku Fashion Walk, which fashion style would you go for? Which of the fashion styles mentioned here interests you the most?

DL's Health & Beauty

Enter the realm of health, wellness, beauty, makeup, and fashion. The world is full of so many different forms of beauty. Every culture has its own unique beauty, but one thing that all of them have in common is that healthy is always beautiful. But health is not constant or instant in life. Health is part of the life journey that we are all on until our time is up.

We all have a unique health journey. My health journey started in college when I studied human health and disease at The University of The District of Columbia. Later, I studied health and psychology at The University of Maryland University College. After college, I continued following medical breakthroughs around the world, from India to the UK. I soon realized that there was so much health knowledge out there, but so few people had access to it. Thus, I turned to writing. My goal is to share valuable health breakthroughs with the world and connect health to beauty and multiculturalism; that is how this site came to life.

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