Gyaru

Gyaru is a combination of the English word “gal” and the Japanese word for girl. What started as a jeans brand slogan morphed into yet another Japanese subculture. Gyaru is a street fashion that we basically would call “glam” here in the States. They wear man made wigs, fake eyelashes, fake nails, and often dye or bleach their hair brown to blonde. Dark eyeliner is popular in the style.

Clothing is generally street-oriented and tend ride the latest trend.  Although gyaru has been in decline.

There are many different types of gyaru.Bibinba,for example, features a lot of gold and jewelry. Bling so to speak. Other sub-styles favor darker colors and even colored contact lenses. Gyaruo are male gyaru (Sentaa are very…vibrant male-gals). B-Gyaru try to copy the look of hip-hop artists ( B-Gyaru tend to have very dark tans).

Some styles also favor certain clothing brands. Himegyaru ( the Princess Gal) has a lot of pink makeup and long eyelashes. They generally wear Liz Lisa brand clothing since it caters to the style niche. High heels, lace, velvet, and other princess accessories are also favored.

Gyaru kept to its origin and is used in marketing new fashions. Tsubasa Masuwaka is one gyaru model used in advertising.

Gyaru also have their own texting style called gyaru-moji. Interestingly it is actually harder to text in the style than in regular Japanese. It often substitutes non-Japanese symbols much like Leet speak does ( ! 5|*34|< l337 ).  The text-speak is thought to convey confidentiality and mostly used between close friends. It was purposefully designed to be difficult to understand for anyone but those in the friend loop since they may have a different way of substituting characters from “normal” gyaru-moji.

Gyaru fashion is another way to break out of the structured nature of Japanese society. Japan seems to have more than its fair share of subcultures on the surface. This is partially because their fashion subcultures are so vibrant and attention grabbing. Another part is because of the coverage they get online. Most cultures have their own vibrant rebel subcultures. America has more than its share as well. Most of Japan is very normal and even boring just like most of America. The fact Japan has so many subcultures that stand out is a testament to just how normal Japan really is. If Japan was extremely “weird” fashion cultures like gyaru wouldn’t stand out.

Here in America, we have many of our own. KISS is one that comes to mind.