Japanese Influence on Streetwear Fashion
Japanese Influence on Streetwear Fashion
Streetwear was adopted as a casual wear mostly by surf and skate teenagers in the US in the early 90s. But several sways and inspirations changed the streetwear look considerably in the later years of its development. One of the major influences in the way streetwear clothing looks now is how the Japanese fashion designers reinvented streetwear apparels.
The Japanese designers took sreerwear clothes to a loftier level, by adding the persuasions of pop culture such as anime, games, and toys and linked it with the streetwear fashion. They replaced the surf/punk attributes of streetwear with the Japanese obsession for everything manga and anime. Not very long, the American and European designers followed the Japanese lead. Stussy, the king of surf design, even went to Japan study the new look in streetwear and even corroborated with Japanese designers to manufacture this new wave of streetwear clothing. Soon other streetwear designers and manufacturers followed suit.
This corroboration led to a new look in streetwear that is more hip-hop and punk mixed with the riotous manga and anime caricatures found in Japanese streetclothes. This merger resulted in a streetwear look that has a more universal and global appeal. The corroboration and partnership with the Japanese designers of Western designers to create streetwear that is becoming more and more a cross between two cultures continue up to this time. Proof of this is the contract between Stussy and Applebum, a Japanese streetwear clothing brand to come up with a new line of T-shirt designs that will carry Stussy’s famous graphic and Applebum’s artistic style.
Even Adidas joined the fray, with Kazuki Kuraishi, its rockstar Creative Director bringing in his own panache and style to creations such as Neigborhood and A Bathing Ape brands. Expect this Japanese and American clothing companies’ partnership to continue in the next several years more as the cross-cultural persuasion persists.
