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Harajuku's Top Trends in 2012

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JAPANESE STREETS takes a look at 2012’s most popular Harajuku fashion trends

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JAPANESE STREETS celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. We might have been shooting Japanese street fashion for ten years now, but it never ends. Harajuku’s fashion trends come and go, and just never cease to surprise. And so it was this year.

It is impossible to cover all the popular trends of 2012, but we have selected some of the ones that we liked best. First and foremost:

STOCKINGS

Japanese stockings and tights took a wonderful flight of fancy this year. Since AVANTGARDE opened its doors in Harajuku last year, plain tights and stockings just won’t do anymore. From tattoo tights to print stockings, here are some very adventurous legs (click on the photos to see the full shoot):

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PLATFORM SHOES

Vivienne Westwood’s Rocking Horse Ballerina’s have captured the hearts of Japanese fashion lovers ever since they came out in 1985. They won’t die. The past few years we have seen more and more shoes inspired by these iconic clogs. This year they seemed even more ubiquitous than before.

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111119-9176: Japanese street fashion in Taito, Tokyo

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PANNIER SKIRTS

Perhaps inspired by the popularity of Rocking Horse Ballerina’s, we saw an endless parade of pannier skirts this year. Playful, colorful, cute. I hope we will see them again next year!

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120122-3423: Japanese street fashion in Harajuku, Tokyo

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CREEPERS

George Cox is deeply loved in Japan and George Cox Creepers, as well as imitations of them, thoroughly crept into the Harajuku fashion scene this year.

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PLATFORM SNEAKERS

For a few years, platform shoes seemed to have lost a lot of their popularity, but this year they came back with a vengeance. The most popular of them all, platform sneakers, specially made by small companies that purchase well-known brands like Converse and give them some extra height. With all that extra height, sneaking in becomes quite a challenge. Perhaps time to rename them?

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ANIMALS

We thought that it was mostly girls carrying stuffed animals around, but when we had a better look we found animals everywhere: bags, shoes, accessories, and so on. And not just the ever popular bears, rabbits and panda’s, but even a shark and octopus.

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120101-2199: Japanese street fashion in Harajuku, Tokyo

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Not all animals we found were of the cute stuffed cuddly plush toy kind. We even found a real spider specimen:

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KNIT CAP

One of the more remarkable trends of this year was the knit cap worn during Japan’s hottest summer months, usually in bright neon colors. Strangely enough, now that temperatures are nearing freezing point we don’t see them anymore… (Not all of these images are linked.)

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Comment (日本語もOK)

I really really love the stockings trend…

Mia
Dec 20, 2012 (4000 days ago)

@Mia: Same here. This is without question my most favorite trend of the past 10 years!

Kjeld Duits
Dec 21, 2012 (4000 days ago)

@Kjeld: the tights really are amazing. In spring I’ll be in Tokyo and I definitively will go to the avant garde shop! Oh, and rocking horse ballerinas also really are to my liking :) I guess I’ll have to make sure some extra space in my luggage for such a pair…^^ hih

Nyurah
Jan 1, 2013 (3989 days ago)

@Nyurah: For shoes, be sure to visit TOKYO BOPPER. They are a bit expensive, but their designs are awesome, and they are part of the DNA of Harajuku.

Kjeld Duits
Jan 1, 2013 (3989 days ago)

@Kjeld: It was my intention to visit, but I don’t think I’ll buy a pair, unfortunately the trip will cost me too much money as i could spend so much on shoes.. :( I hope that I’ll be lucky and find a pair in a secondhand store…^^ But thank you :)

Nyurah
Jan 2, 2013 (3988 days ago)

@Nyurah: For used shoes be sure to check out KINJI and also these used clothing shops in Tokyo.

Kjeld Duits
Jan 2, 2013 (3988 days ago)

@Kjeld: You’re really helpful, thanks a lot for all your tips! I surely will check those out!! :)

Nyurah
Jan 5, 2013 (3985 days ago)

@Nyurah: Very welcome!

Kjeld Duits
Jan 5, 2013 (3985 days ago)

Why don’t we have stockings like that in Europe or in my case, Israel ??
So cool :>

Sofia
Jan 28, 2013 (3962 days ago)

@Sofia: I’m sure they’ll get there. ^^

Kjeld Duits
Jan 28, 2013 (3962 days ago)

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