Japan Fashion: Winter '13 edition

Remember that rule about dress yourself warmly for winter and then take an article off?

In Japan's case that article is a hat...or maybe brain.
Apparently skirts and mini skirts never go out of fashion. It was snowing the other day and I just watched a couple walking at a major shopping arcade. The girls skirt was shorter than some of my panties and well she wasn't alone in her short skirt-ed-ness. There were certainly others there without half the clothing that I had on. But that shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone anymore.

I mention the hat because it is one obvious thing that all people should wear to keep their heads warm but guess who doesn't? I think I read somewhere sometime that we lose 80% of our body heat through our heads. Where that little nugget of parenting trickery is clearly not true (if it were true then we could walk around nearly naked and keep our heads warm and still not be cold because our heat is conserved), the Japanese take it to the extreme and decide not to wear hats all together! Well for the most part. Or at least the womens part. I asked why it was that they don't wear any hats to keep them warm and they patiently explained to me that they had big faces. Well I have never been concerned with the size of my face or head, and have never heard such worries over in America before, so I inquired further. They explained that if they wear a hat and they have a big face, then it will push their hair down and make their face look even bigger by comparison. I have some students so adverse to wearing hats they will literally run away from any offenders trying to place one upon their heads (often their friends) so that no one will ever know. Again it isn't something I really see or notice people for, but they seem to care a lot.
On the flip side, there are some extra chicly dressed people strutting themselves around Japan wearing some of these guys right here. Not exactly Por Pie hats, so I guess a little closer to Fedoras, but there are tons of shops all over with this kind of selection so there is clearly a good market for them. As you can guess the predominant type of person who wears this is men, but there are a good number of women stores around. You just see them wearing their hats less. I think these are slowly coming into fashion as you see more and more people wearing them on television shows and commercials.

So one thing that pretty much every normal person, and I can admit to wearing right now, will be wearing this time of year, is Heattech or Heat Fact. It is a heat conserving technology used in clothing to keep people warm without them wearing 18 layers. They sell it in a variety of different styles of shirts, leggings, socks, and scarves and such. Pretty much the idea is to look like you are still only wearing one layer of clothes. These can easily be bought at nearly any generic department store like Aeon or a bit more popular in the rankings is Uniqlo. I remember Korea also had, and I am sure still has, something like this at least in tights. They were nice and kind of fuzzy on the inside and kept you nice and warm. Though they were a bit thicker.

Another raging fashion I have been seeing all over the place, is fur scarves. And yes, I too have fallen victim to it. Don't judge. They are very warm...and soft. Anyways! These scarves have been around for quite some time actually and were used in combination with kimonos before. But this year and perhaps last year, they have been outfitted for everyday fashion. They are mostly rabbit fur with some fox tails (which are noticeably more expensive) and are colored and styled to ever style of fur scarf I could possibly imagine. I even found this crazy mustard colored one I was sorely tempted to get my mustard-loving friend. They are mostly shorter in style, as the wrap around ones are going to be more expensive and thus have a much limited market. Some are thick and will go down like a capette toward your elbows in a fancy dress me up sort of way, and other are simple around the neck and tidy claps sort of affairs that are for every day use. And I sincerely believe that nearly every woman in Kobe must own at least one. And all those women in Kyoto, especially the fancy-pants kimono ladies, they have one too.

And one last piece of winter fashion advice, peacoats. I remember when I was in college especially that they were the exact coat that everyone should own. But in Japan things were different last year. Everyone and their mother went out and all bought down jackets. Not a hard feat to accomplish when Uniqlo sells them for 2990-3990 on sale. But even more popular last year, were these puffy down coats. The sort that only a tall slim figure could pull off and not look overweight. Those coats would go in or tie or they would have some belt at the middle so as their figure would not be diminished. They were typically a bit longer sometimes even going to mid thigh or knee. So those coats are still around this year of course, but since last year when I was disappointed to see that not many were wearing peacoats, I have been doubly surprised to see their resurgence. Again I would blame idols and the television as when I think about all of the fashion conscious commercials, I remember in specifically a nice bright read peacoat and a cute navy beret. So needless to say, they are in fashion and there are more styles of them than I can count, but the odd thing I find is, is that the stores were not quite ready for this trend to take hold and a good many of them are still serving down jackets.

Also boots. Boots are always in.

center is a fur scarf. left is a peacoat. and all of them are wearing boots and no hats.

and these...I don't know why...
They are sold all over and I don't really see anyone using one.