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- LIVING, Page 106American Casual Seizes JapanTeenagers go for N.F.L. hats, Batman and the California lookBy Barry Hillenbrand/TOKYO
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- It's Sunday afternoon, and thousands of Japanese teenagers jam
- the narrow streets of Tokyo's Harajuku district. They are in search
- of a life-style that can be bought, often dearly, in the dozens of
- stores crammed into the crowded area. Along Takeshita-dori, a
- narrow street in the heart of the district, are shops with curious
- names -- Octopus Army, Short Kiss, Good Day House -- that offer a
- variety of identities. There are button-down collars and plaid
- pants for the preppie look, floral prints and batiks for the Third
- World ethnic look, tennis and soccer equipment for the ultra-fit
- look. One store sells nothing but Batman gear for the Caped
- Crusader look.
-
- For many Japanese teenagers, a look often has to suffice for
- a life-style. Japan may be a wealthy nation, but its young people
- remain restricted. The demands of a high-pressure educational
- system allow little time for relaxation and leave few opportunities
- to make a drastic change in life-style: to spend a summer at the
- beach or hours learning hang gliding.
-
- Instead, the youngsters move from fad to fad, called bumu
- (Japanese for boom). Last year it was retro bumu, which elevated
- the bulky, prosperous look of the 1950s to a new art form. Italian
- casual, inspired by Benetton, had its moment. So did leather
- jackets and vests for the Hell's Angels mode. And the prim
- little-girl look with button-up sweaters.
-
- The more diversity of styles, the better. Still, when the
- youngsters get confused or the designers founder, the style that
- always seems to endure and prosper is Amekaji, as the kids call
- American casual. Says Tomohiro Ando, sales manager of Octopus Army:
- "American design remains the base. Amekaji is always such a
- comfortable and functional look." The labels of Octopus Army shirts
- thoughtfully proclaim those virtues in the fractured English
- beloved by Japanese teens: "Best in the field of Spangled Stars,
- Americanized as hell as well as originality." Exactly how that
- translates is not important; it's the feeling and verve that
- convince the eager buyer.
-
- In recent years, American designers and manufacturers have
- rushed to cash in on Amekaji. Designers like Ralph Lauren prospered
- during the upscale preppie fad, or toraddo-bumu, but interest in
- the traditional look has recently faltered -- though it will never
- die out because of the Japanese partiality for neat and tailored
- clothes. Interest in American sportswear is strong, and the
- California influence is evident everywhere. Last summer many teens
- were captivated by the surfer look, with shirts and shorts in neon
- lime and fluorescent orange. The University of California, Los
- Angeles, through its own licensees in Japan, sells annually some
- $16 million worth of T shirts, warm-up suits and jackets, all bold
- with the authentic UCLA logo.
-
- Oshman's, a Houston-based sporting-goods chain, has a shop in
- Harajuku that sells everything from $320 Eddie Bauer jackets to
- Hawaiian surfboards at $785 each. Only about 30% of Oshman's goods
- are made in the U.S., but the feeling in the store is as
- relentlessly American as Beach Boys music and suntan lotion.
-
- Bold signs direct customers to the "surfin" department, and
- the company motto, also in English, is pure yuppie: "We make sure
- you're a winner." Says Isao Iwase, managing director of Oshman's
- in Tokyo: "The comfortable American life-style is being more widely
- accepted these days." With fall in the air, American baseball gear
- has given way to N.F.L. hats and jackets.
-
- It's not difficult to understand why things American are close
- to the center of young Japanese dreams. "America is equated with
- freedom, openness, wide spaces," says Hikaru Hayashi, senior
- research director of Hakuhodo Institute of Life & Living, a
- research arm of one of Japan's largest advertising companies.
- "Sharing in America can release Japanese teenagers from the
- restraints they live with every day. Through fashion, they can
- capture a bit of the life-style they can never hope to live."
-
- Today's teenagers, says Hayashi, are especially prone to
- America fixation because they are children of Japan's postwar
- baby-boom generation. "The parents of today's teenagers," says
- Hayashi, "grew up in a more internationalized, more open Japan.
- They sang Beatles songs and dressed in Ivy League fashion. They
- have passed those ideas on to their kids." Little wonder that some
- favor the retro boom, based on a fascination with the 1950s, while
- others are enchanted with the 1960s. Vests and jeans, the preferred
- accoutrements of the '60s, are making a comeback. A funky boutique
- called the Chicago Thrift Shop not only offers Levi's jeans in both
- 501 and 505 models but also carries them used and tattered for that
- slightly disheveled look now back in favor.
-
- Some kids have learned the lesson of American free thinking
- and independence all too well, and that may eventually spell
- trouble for Amekaji. "I like the casual look," admits Hikok Asano,
- 19, but he quickly adds, "I really don't want to wear too much
- Amekaji. Everybody who wears Amekaji looks the same." In short, the
- ultimate way to look American may be not to look American at all.