Word: kawaii
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...What those Tokyo girls define as kawaii can be as cute as frilly pink shirts one day and as raunchy as a vinyl miniskirt the next. A year ago, the most popular items in Shibuya were Esperanza's light brown knee-high platform boots and black face paint?the so-called "gal" look. Now it's remade clothes, faded jeans and low-heeled pumps. Why the change? "I dressed gal style because it was popular. But everyone just got sick of it and besides, this new look is much more kawaii," says salesgirl Chie Sakakibara, 22. Hiroaki Morita, head...
...keep up with kawaii, Japanese firms chasing youthful yen hire high schoolers as salesgirls, stylists and marketers. That's a necessity in a business where there are no seasons, only tsunami-size fashion trends that breeze through in weeks, months or, like, whenever. And when it comes to knowing exactly which shade of beige Tokyo's trendsetters want to wear and how low-slung they want their jeans, those teen-targeted labels recruit heavily from among the karisuma tenin (charismatic salesgirls) of the Shibuya 109 building. "They started hiring us because we wore different, interesting clothes and the magazines were...
...Alas, kawaii is famously mercurial. Despite hiring young designers, listening to customers and developing relationships with magazines, no company can entirely predict when teen tastes may change. Sometimes girls want?NOW!?what a famous singer wears in her new video. (Ayumi Hamasaki's flower pins, for instance.) But trendy Tokyo girls soon tire of being copied by their country bumpkin cousins in Saitama and Okayama and start looking for newer, more kawaii looks to sport?almost as soon as they've attached those pins to their lapels. That creates a hothouse environment where a brand can go from unknown...
...volatile nature of the rag trade can make victims of even the most committed fashion houses. Remember Alaia? Thierry Mugler? No? Why should you: they were staples for the bodycon youth of the early '90s but those brands just couldn't keep up with kawaii. The light-speed caprice of these Japanese teens has created a host of new challenges for Takai and 109's other designers: how to keep a label's signature style intact without it suddenly seeming as last year as, well, platform boots. Often, brands like Esperanza, which now hype their high-heeled mules instead...
...that narrow gallery of boutiques, Moussy's floor space is less than 15 sq m, but since opening in May last year, sales have totaled around $9 million. Moussy's fashionista-in-chief Yoko Morimoto, 23, is a former karisuma tenin who is putting her own spin on kawaii. The look Moussy is flogging can best be described as otona (adult) type?sophisticated, chic, the look a girl wears when she wants some respect. It's a toned-down reaction to the big platforms, streaked blond hair and rebellious styles of the past few years. The Shibuya girls...