Hello I hope you are doing well,
I want to start by saying I am goth/punk, and have a question regarding jfashion and Japanese street fashion. Is it appropriate for someone who is not from Japan or is Japanese to wear jfashion and Japanese street fashion. From what I've gathered the fashions like lolita fashion have inspiration from rococo fashion. I am not personality looking to wear this type of clothing but I value your opinions and am curious.
JFashion & Japanese Street Fashion is so broad to be honest; there are a lot of subgenres, ways of expression and reasons/philosophy which differ in origins. I'm gonna bring up a lot of tangential points to this bc i believe fashion arises against politicised backdrops. And if we are talking about the rls between Japan, its fashion, and the West, then this requires a history lesson.
Firstly, some of it can be considered appropriation. For example, the core of street fashion in general is heavily inspired by American counterculture which has roots in Latin American and Black American fashion, and what politicised histories and class-race ideologies give rise to said stylistic choices. A lot of Japanese clothing is also inspired by--if not outright stolen or a product of Japanese imperialism/colonisation--Chinese & Korean attires. Japan's trends have been shaped by these but still falls short of proper credit and even humanisation of these communities.
Secondly, Lolita/Rococo Fashion and those that are European-inspired often contributes to ensembles, but may not be all there is to a single look. Much less representative of all Jfashion. There are whole 'get-ups' that are signature to Japan which should be recognised alongside the European parts. And it begs the question why the whole ensemble should be worn, rather than deconstruct and pick the parts that are relevant to the body that wishes to wear it while leaving the rest behind out of respect (WHILE ALSO CREDITING WHERE APPROPRIATE).
Outside of the obviously traditional styles, it isn't good enough to observe slices of "heritage" as the West is so often exposed to about the rest of the world. We should approach it from the view that culture is constantly evolving. Which means just because something isn't "canonically traditional" in both the West and Japan's eyes, doesn't mean it isn't cultural and heritage-based.
I bring up how the makeup, hairstyle wigs, anime-based, fantasy stylistic choices which are the Japanese parts, proving that the ensemble goes beyond the base of European fashion and cultural ingenuity to the point where it raises questions on how it is to be considered European or even Westernised in its practice.
I raise the point of gaudy bizarre hyperfem maximalism as shunned by the West, mocked, objectified and/or fetishised on EAsian bodies, but have been reclaimed these for gender non-conforming self-expression and Japanese feminine statements worn proudly on Japanese bodies.
Thirdly, that Japan is in a very unique spot in world politics right now. Out of all the Asian communities, Japan is arguably the most closely allied with America and the West, and yet, has been demilitarised and occupied by the West who have set up many military bases across Japan. And if we consider that Japanese people are indigenous to their ancestral areas, then it is very obviously imperialism.
On one hand a lot of POCs are enraged with Japan bc of ongoing lateral racism, as well as the history of Japan's violent colonisation across parts of EA and SEA, and how it continues to submit itself to the West. Their rage is justified. Yet, where it leads to Asian separatism and the throwing of all Japanese people under the bus by justifying cultural appropriation, tokenism and disrespect of Japanese people, I have to say this is not the solution. Worse, it bites us in the ass.
On another hand, the nation of Japan is subjugated to heavy paternalism by the West because unlike other Asian countries, the WW2 consequences has led to its disempowerment in other sectors, so its primary currency is (1) tech, (2) cultural capital, (3) feeding itself into consumerist culture incl. tourism. Superficially it "appears mutual and democratic", and some Japanese people have no problem with it, but on the level of cultural sovereignty, is coercion and forced treaties consensual...?
Most importantly, Japanese people are still POC and indigenous to their respective areas and deserve to preserve and set the rules for their culture, as well as who gets to enter their lands on what terms (naturally Okinawans should have their own say for Okinawa, as an example of what I mean by respective areas).
and also for Chinese, Korean, SEA and PI descendants who were trafficked or born out of traumatic reasons in Japan as a consequence of WW2, as well as Japanese multiethnic descendants who face xenophobia + racism, ofc its a bit different bc of their positionality in this discourse. This does not extend to ALL peoples from these groups either so no I don't wish to see our people claiming we deserve anything we want from Japanese people. Be better.
So if fashion is to be reclamations and resistance against both mainstream Japanese expectations as well as that of American paternalism, then why would a white person engage with this? (not saying you anon are white, but for white ppl reading this) If its for resistance against mainstream Western standards, then what relationship does white-centered resistance have in embodying Japanese thought? And before they start pointing fingers that Japanese people appropriate others, how does that eliminate the even more dubious appropriation of other cultures on a white body?
Personally, I do side-eye people who engage in Jfashion and Japanese street fashion who aren't POCs, and even non-EA POCs who mimic the hyperfem mannerisms and presentation of EAsians; especially where its coupled with disrespect, snark or a one-way dynamic. Probably a response to the way the West takes from global cultures and treats them as third gender or playgrounds for them to express themselves through, with EAsianness serving as cultural capital. It informs the Western gaze and gendered constructs, and may risk undermining EA persons’ gendered autonomies.
Meanwhile they treat EAsian culture as a fictional realm for them to customise their OCs, they come and go whenever they want with no recognition or allyship but a whole ton of entitlement to EAsian emotional/intimate labour and expectations of being welcomed warmly into participating in our cultures while ongoing colonisation and imperialism and the exploitative tourist industry and soft cultural power stuff is ongoing. Makes it very very complicated to really celebrate this as an "exchange" when it just feels like a robbery.
And I say this as a Chinese person whose great-grandparent was murdered by the Japanese imperialists, and whose people were primary targets of the Japanese colonisation and violence. I still feel for them and I know that they face overlaps with what the rest of Asia also experiences to varying degrees. But I'm also not Japanese or a Japanese diasporic person, whom I presume would have a lot more nuance and insight to this conversation.
