J-Style Jewel

Hiatus

2007-05-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

This blog will be on hiatus until further notice. Sorry! Thanks for your support up til now!

J&E and D&G

2007-05-06T17:25:00.000-07:00

So, I was going to have a post on Dolce and Gobanna and there was some really meaty actual kind of thought behind it...

But I realized that most of the pics were Johnny's Entertainment guys... So I"m just gonna post the random pictures and make comments on them ^_^

Kat-tun's Nakamaru Yuichi

Nakamaru looks awesome but... I just can't understand paying so much money on a T-shirt. Well, this was for a photoshoot so it's not the singer's own clothing, but I mean in general. If it weren't for the D&G at the bottom, you would never know it was an expensive shirt.

Arashi's Ninomiya Kazunari (who just starred in the Hollywood film Letters from Iwo Jima)

This is from Arashi's 2005 ONE concert.

I love this shirt. - But is it okay to wear such a nice brand when you know it's going to get really sweaty? Also, isn't Nino known for being a cheapskate? So why is he decking himself out in luxury undershirts?

Speaking of underclothes.

JE likes to put their boys in D&G ones.

NewS's Yamapi.

You know you just got a nosebleed. I like the jeans too.
Also,

Arashi's Matsumoto Jun
This is from his nude Anon photoshoot...I actually think this was the hottest picture even though he's not nude...

Now would probably be a good time to remind people that if you click on the pics they get bigger XD

Hit or Miss in Harujuku

2007-04-27T01:06:00.000-07:00

One of my fave sites is Tokyo street style, if you haven't noticed.
They send somebody out to pick the best outfits in Harujuku, Shibuya, etc. for the week.

Here are the two boys they showed from Harujuku this week.

I love the one on the left, but the guy on the right...

Is he really one of the best outfits they could find in Harujuku?

What is going on? Maybe he is going for a Western look of American Teenager pants and a 1970's Texas jacket? I don't like the accessories either.

Look at the back.

The jacket of Left Guy gives him broad shoulders and a sturdy but shapely waist.
The jacket of Right Guy with the T-shirt peeking out looks so sloppy.

What do you think?

Are these outfits a hit (^_^)? Or a miss (>_<)?

The Star Power of Samantha Thavasa

2007-04-24T00:49:00.000-07:00

One of Japans major labels, Samantha Thavasa, has recruited several celebrity designers. The surprise is that the celebrities are mainly Western, including actress Penleope Cruz (with her sister Monica), heiress Nicky Hilton, tennis star Maria Sharapova (who appears in the likes of Vogue quite often recently), and fashion figure/author Victoria Beckham (a.k.a "Posh").

Out of all of them, my favorite are the last two. Maria Sharapova's bags are really cute, have lots of detail, and have very feminine shapes.

Meanwhile, Victoria Beckham's bags have a classic shape and come in amazing colors that I can see many a rich Tokyo teen falling in love with.

There is one more celeb lending out her artistry, and she's actually Japanese!!! Model/actress Yuri Ebihara designs for Thavasa's "DELUXE" label.

The bags seem kind of average, but the jewelry is pretty cute:

Love for Vivienne Westwood

2007-04-21T12:44:00.000-07:00

Vivienne Westwood is one of the most praised designers of our time. The British artist's trademark orb-shaped jewery is popular all over the world - but it's Japan that has a very unique cult following for it.

If you search (in English text) for Vivienne Westwood communities on Mixi, the Japanese version of MySpace, there are over 280 results.

Perhaps the most famous Japanese Vivienne endorser is actually the fictional character Nana Osaka in the immensely popular anime Nana.

When Nana's roommate lists off the things Nana likes, the first thing she says is "Vivienne."

Nana O's style is either typical punk (leather chokers, plaid skirts, big boots) or complete Vivienne Westwood.

As you can see, the Westwood dress in the upper right corner became a focal point in episode 8 when Nana O. dressed to impress. The necklace is also a Vivienne Westwood-like design.

Like Nana, many Japanese girls who love Vivienne are followers of rock and punk style.

Tatsuya Ueda is a member of KAT-TUN, a glitzy Johnny's Entertainment pop group, but is known to have a very obvious love for J-rock and its style. As you can see in the picture on the left, he also wears a Vivienne necklace.

***Vivienne Westwood is also responsible for a fave quote among fashionistas - "You have a better life if you wear impressive clothes."

Style Her Famous: Drew Mitai

2007-04-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to two girls. Actress Drew Barrymore and a normal girl in Japan with a similar flawless style.

Drew's current casual style is to almost always wear a short jacket, partly because it's flattering to her short stature, and a nice big scarf. She seems very attached to her purple Sir Alistair Rai scarf.

She even carried her jacket and scarf style into her recent movie, Music and Lyrics. Well, when you are your own producer, I guess you can wear whatever you want!

Another place this style popped up was Paris Fashion Week 07 in the Balenciaga collection.

Like the model on the far right, Drew also teamed her typical jacket style with stripes as you can see below.

So...on to the Japan part...

The girl below, spotted in Daikanyama, has used every cool little quirk previously mentioned - the short jacket, the scarf, the stripey shirt, the scarf - and it's a perfect outfit.

The splash of color created by the shoes and scarf is great. People shy away from yellow, but look at how cool it is if you do it right! And the bag completes the look perfectly.

Her bag was an excellent accessory as well. It has a similar style to the Dior lambskin bag.

Major points to you, Daikanyama Girl

Especially since you probably came up with it on your own, you didn't get tips from a professional stylist like Drew does. ::nods::

The High Ponytail

2007-04-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

80's lovers rejoice, the high pony seems to be making a comeback! 笑。

The picture on the left is from Kera's March issue. Those are some wicked highlights!

Koda Kumi also modeled some super cute high ponies in a recent issue of Seventeen.

The one on the right is cute because I like the way the hair raps around the base. I also enjoy the giant Scorpio brooch on her shirt.

The one below is awesome too, because the blinged out pony holder seems to be another trend, and also the classic 80's neon plastic earrings are adorable!
Another place this trend was seen was...Harujuku!!! Ah, finally this blog is mentioning the famous grounds of uber-trendy Japanese fashion!

The below pic is from a girl in Harujuku in the last week of March.

As you can see, even after you've gotten the tail that freakin high, it's best to pull at it and give it a little height and bounce.

This trend seems easy and spunky...it'll be a fun way to get the hair out of the face for the hot days of summer!!

Japanese Inspired: Kimono Tops

2007-04-15T00:00:00.001-07:00

What kind of fashion blog would this be if I didn't mention the H&M line by Madonna? (Although I'm mentioning it quite a few weeks late.)

It was a huge success - although people were wishing the designs had been more outrageous, items were flying off the shelf very quickly and were soon on ebay.com with highly embellished prices.

The kimono-inspired dress on the left is actually $69.95
Not bad for something designed by Madonna herself!!

Although, we all know a kimono would tuck those ta-tas away, not embellish them. Still, it's a great look.

Almost all the stores further down the fashion food chain have taken on Madonna's particular symmetrical pattern for their own "kimono shirts". (If you remember, the old "kimono-inspired" patterns were more heavy one side like actual kimonos.)

Here are two nice ones from Charlotte Russe...

I think this first one is just perfect. A little chic, a little trendy, and a little retro. I love it.

There's also this one, which is less chic but really brings to mind the image of a real kimono.

I also saw this next one online somewhere, and it looks a little cheap, but I thought it was interesting how the design brings together both the kimono trend AND the leopard print trend.

Ayu - and her style - mentioned in Shojo Beat

2007-04-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

The American manga-focused young girls' magazine, Shojo Beat, has featured a full page article on Ayumi Hamasaki in their May 07 issue.

The magazine has had an increasing amount of j-pop and j-rock coverage, although it can be a bit biased at times.

(For example, they mention Mika Nakashima, the singer in the Nana movie, like she's the queen of j-pop. At the same time, they own all the American rights to Nana itself.)

Anyway, part of the article focused in on Ayu's style, and I'm going to include it here ^_^

If you are a not a native English speaker, I'm willing to type it up so you can run it through electronic translators and whatnot.

Sources Needed

2007-04-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

In order to create a less biased fashion blog, I'm looking for more places to get:

-scans of Japanese mags
-photos of Japanese people
-links to Japanese stars blogs, especially ones with pictures
-and if you have the translation sites to these blogs, that helps too.
-etc.

If you know of forums or communities where I can find some, please help this blog out!

And just because I haven't posted in a while, here are two random pics from KERA magazine March 07

1) Anna Tsuchiya. Because I haven't mentioned her yet and she's kind of cool. :)

That is some amazing hair right there.
And that bracelet with the crown on it...I want one soooo bad!

2) Yay! More leapord print!!! It's going to be come the number one tag in this blog I think, lol.

Well, I think you'd have to be a Tokyo Fashionista to be wearing a coat like that...although I have an aunt who looks really cute in a similar coat despite being 50.

China ♥s Ayu?

2007-03-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

So, this is one of the photos in Yahoo!'s photos of the Week. It's from Beijing(China)'s Fashion Week on March 21.

And here is a picture from Ayumi Hamasaki's "Jewel" PV from December. (Incidentally, this is currently one of the most expensive videos of all time.)

Close up on the eyes:

You see? Ayumi Hamasaki CONTROLS the world of fashion!! No joke!!!
Am I making too much out of this? Or did the designer get "Inspired" by Ayu?

(The eyelashes worn by her are an original...there is video evidence of her staff designing and constructing them.)

And....does this mean some sort of glitter gel eyeliner or white/super embellished/double layered eyelashes will become fashionable in 2 to 4 months?

AND are these framing white lashes maybe influencing the trend of white eyeliner becoming more popular, as exhibited by the models in the recent Anna Sui spring show:

Ok maybe that one's a leap. Or IS it??

Ps - If you want to look at any of those pics closer, just click on them and they'll grow bigger =)

Who Wore it Better?

2007-03-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

Well, instead of my own ideas today, I'm gonna put up a link to another blog.

The English-language J-world gossip blog (with a sister site en espanol) had their own version of Who Wore it Better. It's fun fashiony goodness, so click this text and check it out.

Avex Girls Like Hats

2007-03-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

It seems all the major divas are wearing tiny little black hats slanted to their right side... Seriously, what is up with that?

Namie Amuro wore one in her latest PV, "FUNKY TOWN"

I thought it was cute and jaunty...but something you'd pretty much have to be Namie to pull off.

Kumi Koda also wore one in her Million Best Artist performance of "Koi no Tsubomi/BUT."

Hers was huge ... But her dress was simple so it kind of worked. (To be honest I was more interested in her earphone, which is decked out with sparkles like a piece of jewelry. O_O;)

Ayumi Hamasaki also wore a tiny black hat for her recent "Memorial Address" performance on Mステ (Music Station).

I almost wonder if Ayu had no clue she was being trendy -- Because actually that hat, because of its netting, actually calls to mind her hat from her '03-'04 Arena Tour DVD (can't remember the exact name right now), which is where she performed her most notable performance of "Memorial Address."

So the hat was probably chosen only to fit the image of the song...but it fits the trend perfectly anyway. The Trend Gods smile on Ayu, that's for sure!

The one thing I want to know is... how will it effect those of us on the lowly levels? I honestly can't see average but trendy people wearing little black slanty hats to school or the office.

Comments Enabled.

2007-03-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

It seems a couple of people are already watching this blog (yay!) but were disappointed that they couldn't comment without having a Blogger account.

I fixed it, so you can comment without an account here. ^_^

Just in Navy Blue

2007-03-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Lately everything has turned navy. Navy with white accents. Everything at the mall seems to have a nautical vibe this spring, and so there's a lot of navy-and-white striped print pieces at various shops.

But the point of this navy-and-white trend is Contrast. It's like black-and-white, but less harsh. (Uh-oh, did I just call navy "the New Black"?)

Wearing a whole solid navy piece and accessorizing it with large white jewelry just looks clean, crisp, and chic. Keiko Kitagawa, model/actress/Sailor Scout, has kindly shared the above images (in her own blog) from behind the scenes of her JJ Photoshoot, and she looks adorable. The magazine even bases the entire cover on the color pairing.

I've seen a lot of necklaces similar to Keiko's. I think that the bead size is hard to get right though. This length of Keiko's really goes with the low round neck of the blouse. I've seen some where the beads are bigger and the necklace is shorter, but wouldn't that make you look like Wilma Flinstone?

I think big chunky white bracelets would go great with this style too.

Another person sporting this nautical navy fashion lately was... Domyouji Tsukasa (Matsumoto Jun) from Hana Yori Dango 2 ! Ha ha. Watching the last episode, I was always distracted by his navy sweater with white anchors on it. I kept thinking, "Why does it have anchors if it's at a ski lodge??" But then this weekend I saw the anchor pattern had popped up in a couple places at the mall, for both women and men. So he was just being fashion forward. XD Ah, Domyouji. I'm going to miss his crazy clothes! (among other things)

By the way, the title of this entry is in reference to the Rina Aiuchi song, "Navy Blue." It's a classic, I recommend it!

This one started in Japan for sure....

2007-03-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's our one-day anniversary! Yay!\(^_^)/

Trend of the day: long, incredibly straight hair. Ayumi Hamasaki either started this trend or got in on it super fast back in December for her Jewel PV and performances.

It's a gorgeous look, although I'm pretty sure Ayu is sporting a wig. Wigs really bug me, but I'm starting to get over it. American stars will sing ballads in bikinis, but Japanese artists are more concerned with fitting the song. So many hair changes = wigs.

This style has been seen a lot on the runways lately, and was very popular at this year's Oscars in February. As you can see on Nicole Kidman-->

One way to get this effect is negative ionic hair straightening, which is actually a Japanese-born method. It makes your hair look perfectly blow-dried 24/7. This is a PERMANENT method though; it can last up to 2 years!

It's probably super expensive too... my hair is naturally straight with a slight wave at the bottom...I think I'll just use a good old flat brush and a hair dryer.

こんにちは☆(Konnichiwa!!)

2007-03-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

( ^_^)／ Welcome!
I've wanted a j-pop focused fashion blog for a while. This is the random place I am deciding to do it. If no one ever reads it, eh, it's fun anyway. But if you do read it, leave a comment, 'k?

Well, it seems this blog starts with BoA.

Well, the credit can't really go to BoA since it's a photoshoot for Olympus, but doesn't she look amazing?

Anyway, leopard print is popping up everywhere. Leapord print with florals is also really big. I swear I saw some in the Marc Jacobs collection, but when I went back to nab a pic it wasn't there. Well, it was from one of the fashion weeks... whatever, lol. Now that I started this blog I'll actually bother saving fashion pics.

Leopard print with floral is kind of a crazy fashion trend. It's kind of Gwen Stefani. Except that would be leopard with plaid. Well, it's a fashion I won't be adding to my own closet. I could never pull that off. But J-Pop and a good friend have led me to love leopard print when I used to think it was tacky, so I definitely will pick up something like a l-print scarf this season ^_^

As you can see in the pic from the Dolce and Gobanna show on the right, leopard print is complimented really nicely by black (duh) and gold. I like the lipstick on the models too. BoA's pink lips are cute and go with her floralness, but I think for something mainly gold and black, lips should be red. Or at least redder than normal if you don't want Christina's Candyman red.

On a side note, Ayu did the leopard-floral thing a really long time ago in her Angel Song (Memorial Address) days.

That was 2001 I think? So there is such a thing as being too far ahead of your time. （笑）