Honestly, if you ever see a manga character and think "Damn, their style is dope as fuck" 9 times out of 10 their fit comes directly out of a fashion magazine. Sailor Moon was wearing Dior. JoJo was wearing Missoni.
Not to downplay the skill of the artists adapting those styles to their characters, but that is why the drip is so clean.
Like, this is a piece of trivia I love to share and I think it's important for a few reasons. One is because it emphasizes how much great art is about study and reference. Artists learn from artists and it elevates their work.
Two, because fashion *is* art (which is maybe a less controversial take now than it was a decade ago) and it's important that we recognize when great fashion inspires us.
Three, because acknowledging how much time great mangaka spent studying fashion *is* recognizing just how much hard work and effort goes into their creations.
And also I just think it's cool as fuck.
Is someone gonna post some examples? 👀
From Sailor Moon at least these are probably the most relatively famous examples.
For instance! ☝️🤓
- Sailor Pluto wears the Karl Lagerfeld-designed Chanel gold chain dress from their Haute Couture Spring/Summer 1992 collection. Even the jewelry takes cues from the runway styling as worn by Christy Turlington
- Neo-Queen Serenity's dress is inspired by the Il Palladio gown from Dior's Haute Couture Spring/Summer 1992 collection. It's not a full lift— the manga's version plunges in the back whereas the neckline of the original is fully straight, among other stylizing on the details of the gown
- Black Lady's outfit was inspired by the styling done for Kate Moss for YSL's 1994 print advertisement campaign for their Opium perfume
- Koan's whole look was based off the sheer jumpsuit with the feathered tutu worn in Mugler's debut collection from Haute Couture Fall/Winter 1992 (for the life of me I cannot find this model's name 😭)
Here’s an example from JJBA. Araki references fashion media a LOT in his art, especially with the signature JoJo poses people know and love. Here’s some more:
A lot of people ask where I get my character fashion designs from and it's pretty much exactly this. I look at a lot of runway art shows for inspiration and either directly draw outfits or learn from how fashion designers use silhouettes, texture and color.
