Sunday, April 13, 2008

Harajuku Girls Controversy.

Gwen Stefani is a leading lady in the eyes of many, her success has been building up since the 1990's, and it's finally reached it's peak. Her image has helped her in so many ways, i believe it even over powers her music. For the last 4 years she has been walking around with Harajuku Girls all around her. These girls originate from Japan, and their style come from the Harajuku District. They have captivating outfits,crazy make up, and very animated personalities. Gwen was drawn to this image and decided to wear it herself.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

In 2004, Gwen Stefani released her first solo album called "Love,Angel,Music,Baby", this was a breakthrough for Gwen considering she was always known as the lead female singer of No Doubt. But suddenly Gwen's style completely changed, she went from punk rock princess to a Harajuku style scene queen. Harajuku is a Japanese fashion that is worn by many teenagers in the Harajuku district. The problem is that many people assume that Gwen has ripped off this style but at the same time she has sparked great controversy for a fashion that wouldnt be recognized if it wasn't for her. Gwen has done a pretty good job at getting the Harajuku area noticed. I didn’t even know it existed up until I saw her music videos, but at first I didn’t understand what their purpose was, and to be honest I STILL don’t. Okay, I get it, you can be infatuated or inspired by a certain type of style or culture. For example most immigrants are easily sucked into north American style but Gwen Stefani has sucked out the originality of the Harajuku style! I think she’s getting a little insecure as well, I mean shes technically a poser..shes not from the Harajuku district so its why she has four Japanese girls around her. She knows she would be hated on if it was just her representing that fashion. Her lousy attempt at being unique or making a fashion statement makes these money grubbing ACTRESSES look inferior and incompetent. I call them actresses because they’re acting the way she wants them to, the way they’re told to and they’re getting paid. So yeah, maybe it IS voluntary but they don’t care that they are selling out Harajuku culture and style. Gwen is known for having them around her constantly so basically they are just an accessory. She wants harajuku fashion to reach Americans just so it can the original idea can trace back to her. I can only give credit to Gwen for introducing me to the whole thing in the first and I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one.

Not many people would have known about Harajuku culture if it wasn’t for her, but at the same time shes the one who is getting all the spotlight just because she acculturated the style. She might as well raid the streets of the Harajuku district in Japan and snatch the clothing she finds appealing, stick her “L.A.M.B” label on it and call it her own. And then she can continue to allow her human pets to model her “unique” fashion line while she makes millions acting like they are a figment of her imagination. “Stefani fawns over harajuku style in her lyrics, but her appropriation of this subculture makes about as much sense as the Gap selling Anarchy T-shirts; she's swallowed a subversive youth culture in Japan and barfed up another image of submissive giggling Asian women.” Well said from an article by MiHi Anh called “Gwenihana”

So, naturally one would assume that Gwen’s got it all wrapped up and knows exactly what shes doing, which SHOULD be the case, I mean, if I was ripping off a style or culture I would be sure to educate myself and project a flawless image atleast. But nah, it seems that Gwen decided to skip all that and get straight to the money making! In her video “What You Waiting For” there is a symbol that flashes across the screen it represents “love”. This is what the character looks like: 愛 but in the video they added an extra dot on it. Image and video hosting by TinyPic I find that really pathetic… she rips off the style, but now the language!

Overall I think that Gwen has ripped off the Harajuku style, I know if I was a REAL harajuku I would be super annoyed by Gwen’s transformation of the image. The style is not supposed to serve the high fashion or catwalk industry it’s merely something that’s done for fun in the Harajuku District. Gwen has changed this and made money from it. In the end she wins.

1 comment:

Mykki said...

Harajuku is a place, not a style. There ARE a lot of styles that got popular there though.

And Harajuku would have found it's way around the world one way or another anyways...

I mean, people in American were wearing Lolita fashion way before Gwen ever popped over to Tokyo.