Japan School Uniforms attracting interest overseas!

Many people, especially fans of Anime and Manga are looking for the new cool Japan trend…School Uniforms…and this fashion is spreading around the world.

Loathed by generations of wearers as a symbol of monotony and conformity, Japan’s ubiquitous school uniform has evolved into a much sought-after item of apparel.

For decades, critics labeled uniforms as a classic example of how Japan’s straitjacket society had sapped its youths’ individuality.

Now, modified school uniforms are seen as a symbol of modernity, spurring creativity among fashion-conscious schoolgirls who wear them with verve.

The school uniform’s prominence in anime and manga illustrations has led to the “new” schoolgirl look that is attracting interest overseas, where it is a symbol of Cool Japan.

At CONOMi, a shop specializing in school clothing and accessories on Takeshita-dori street in the heart of Tokyo’s ultra-cool Harajuku district, the evidence of such rising interest is clear.

Here anyone can buy nanchatte seifuku–literally, phony uniforms.

“Isn’t that soooo cute?” one shopper, a 15-year-old first-year student at a public senior high school in Tokyo, cooed as she compared neck ribbon bows with two friends. The bows range in price from 1,575 yen to 2,100 yen.

“Maybe I want pink instead of red,” a friend said.

The girl said her school has an official uniform, but she likes to add a little extra flair when she wears it outside school hours. She exchanges the official bow with an unofficial one of a different color or shape.

Teen fashion magazines such as “Nicola” and “Seventeen” gave her the inspiration.

“I love school uniforms. But our school’s ribbon bow just isn’t cute,” the girl said.

“I can only wear a uniform now (while a student), so I want it to look as cute as possible,” she said.

The days when students battled to do away with required school uniforms seem like an anecdote in a history textbook.

Another 15-year-old student said she loves to dress up in the full regalia–blouse, necktie, vest and tailored skirt–even though her school does not require students to wear it.

According to this girl, most first-year students wore self-styled uniforms at the school’s entrance ceremony.

She added that there was a dose of pragmatism to her fashion choice.

“You don’t have to worry about what to wear everyday. Besides, it looks cool,” she said of her version of the uniform. About half of the girls at her school usually wear uniforms they have put together themselves, she added.

CONOMi, whose headquarters is in Myoko, Niigata Prefecture, started out supplying goods to create “fake” uniforms after a nearby senior high school dropped a rule requiring its students to wear uniforms.

After learning that students were looking for appropriate attire to wear to school, the shop began stocking clothes designed to mimic the school uniform look.

When the shop began selling its offerings online, it was flooded with inquiries from the Tokyo metropolitan area.

In February 2008, CONOMi opened its Harajuku shop.

Today, the Harajuku outlet offers about 300 versions of skirts, for example. According to Toyoko Yokoyama, vice president of CONOMi, the most popular are those that are not too short and are simple in design.

Yokoyama said reasons girls cite in choosing a design include the desire “to appear fashionable” or to make people think they are “girls with a proper upbringing.”

Customers range from elementary schoolchildren to women in their 20s. At the start of this school year, shoppers from all over the country crowded the store, causing hour-long waits outside the fitting room.

According to journalist Fukiko Mitamura, 48, who has written a book examining Japan’s infatuation with uniforms, both the “role and meaning of uniforms have changed.”

Increasingly, schools have turned to famed fashion houses to design uniforms that reflect the latest fads, making them more appealing to fashion-conscious students, Mitamura writes.

Meanwhile, students “have found ways to show their individuality even within the constraints of the uniform, through their choice of ribbon bow, for example.

“Today’s uniform is something that people actually want to wear,” she says.

The fad’s popularity is not limited to Japanese customers.

CONOMi regularly receives orders from not only neighboring South Korea and China, but from as far away as Australia, France and Brazil. Most are from people seeking to dress like the characters portrayed in anime, manga or fashion magazines.

“School uniforms have become extremely popular overseas, where people are looking for fashion items made in Japan,” said one Foreign Ministry official.

In February this year, the ministry appointed model Shizuka Fujioka, considered an icon in fake uniform fashion circles, as one of its three “soft power” ambassadors tasked with promoting Japanese pop culture overseas.

According to the official, at Japan-oriented events held in France and elsewhere in Europe, many local youths have shown up dressed in their versions of Japanese school uniforms.

Some appear to have been inspired by the apparel worn by characters in “Suzumiya Haruhi no Yu-utsu” (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya), an anime series that has a large following overseas.

The protagonist, who dresses in a sailor uniform with an extremely short skirt, investigates supernatural occurrences in and around her school.

“We hope that with school uniforms as a starting point, people will take an interest in Japan,” the Foreign Ministry official said.

Source:  IHT/Asahi – Image Source / CONOMi Website

School Uniforms are the new cool thing, thanks partly to the Anime and Manga influence. What other trends could follow? A good question for our readers indeed.

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