Fashion

Japanese Fashion – Shibuya 109

To understand Japanese fashion, I must first tell you about this amazing place called Shibuya 109. Oh, but first a side note – since Japanese fashion is such a broad subject, I am mainly just talking about the teens/20s fashion culture of Japan, the “gyaru” girls and such.

So, Shibuya 109. What is this glorious place where teenie boppers and girls in their 20s congregate to find the latest trends?Well, it’s a huge 10 story department store in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan. And my first visit there could not have come at a better time. I decided to venture there on 1) a Saturday and probably the busiest day of the week 2) the Saturday 1 day after New Years and one of the busiest days of the year b/c of the crazy sales. I thought the experience was fantastic, but I’m sure my husband completely disagrees.I first have to explain that Asian department stores are a little different than department stores in the US, mostly because they separate everything by brand. Although places like Bloomingdales or Saks does this too, Asian department stores make it look like each brand is it’s own boutique/store, each with it’s own cash register, employees, branding on shopping bags, etc.

To get a feel for what it’s like in 109, I found this video that sort of captures the essence of the experience there. In case you’re not sure what those high pitch noises are in the background, well those are Japanese girls screaming on their megaphones while standing on stools while trying to get shoppers to come into their boutiques. This video is a pretty tame version of what I experienced and I’m sure if my husband watch this, it would bring back bad memories of the many painful hours we spent there.

I took this photo the day I was there. This is a pic of the escalator – on our way up to more shopping madness!

Japanese Fashion - Shibuya 109

As for the shopping experience as a whole, I was pleasantly surprised that it does not cost that much money to wear the latest Japanese trends. Although they really like their designer purses (LV, Coach, Prada, Gucci are very hot there), the clothes themselves are mostly not what I would consider to be designer – although they do have their own brands there. For eg, the Cecil McBee store that I lined up for had typical prices ranging from $20-$80 USD. Stylish girls may be really into wearing this brand, but it’s a much cheaper alternative to how a girl in the US would wear say, Juicy Couture (which starts at about $60 for a t-shirt). As for quality, even though it was winter time, their sweaters were mostly cotton or acrylic – almost no wool. Even the jacket I ended up buying was made of polyester (but still on the cheaper side at about $80).As for shoes, prices ranged from $30 – $150. I looked at a ton of boots (since it’s almost rare to see someone without boots) and decided that paying over $100 for a pair of non-leather boots was definitely not worth it especially since their quality of fake leather goods is not the best. Regardless, they had an amazing selection of shoes and some really hard to resist styles that I knew I wasn’t going to see in the states for a while. Lucky for my wallet though, shoes only run up to size 8 in Asia and I couldn’t buy ANY shoes. Some stores did carry around 8.5, which is what I wear in heels, but even those were very rare. I was a bit sad because I was dying to buy this one pair of boots, but am now on a mission to find something similar.

2 Comments

  • Protocol Snow

    Even on random days, Shibuya 109 is completely insane. The store employees are the epitome of Shibuya girls and it's fun (even for a guy) to wander in there and check out the madness. The masses of cute girls don't hurt either :)The immediate area around Shibuya 109 is also very popular for street fashion photographers. They'll grab random girls and photograph them for fashion mags. Very fun to people watch here.

  • e=mc

    Well, I did go another day (weekday) and found it completely like a "normal" department store although the girls were still yelling somewhat. But nothing compares to that crazy day of sales and crowds. Yup, I love the crowd just around the area. I must have gone there 3-4 times during my stay in Tokyo just to people watch and admire the fashion around Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Harajuku. :)

Leave a Reply