Graffiti of Getty Images Watermark (photography: Jerry Hsu, Nazi Gold), via Augmented Reality « The Camera Club of New York
I must study Politics and War that my sons may have the liberty to study Mathematics and Philosophy, Geography, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Music, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelain.
“
| — | John Adams on Family, Responsibility and Sacrifice. (via tredicielupo) |
“i squandered my life” the words come out involuntarily, truth speaks on its own accord.
the grey weed has spread from the temples and overtaken the once brown foliage of the scalp, every day this earthly vessel transform further and further from the spry youth it embodied into a walking symbol of death itself, time has won this battle.
the denial has carried me this far, but today the burden was too much for it to bare, and through the cracks in the wall of repression, the mid-life crisis has finally broken through.
i am old.
the world goes black, i feel myself slipping, falling. is this the end? is this how we go? lost and alone in the darkness - wait! something has caught me, but what? i open my eyes, is this an angel? she is beauty, she is warmth ebbing, she is savior. but i am no one.
“leave me to die” i say
but she only shakes her head. “you’re still young, you’re still cool, and we’ve got just the henley’s to prove it!” she holds me, coddling me in the $29.95 size large (18 colors available)
“my daughter has grown up, she doesn’t speak to me; my wife has grown apart, she speaks to another man” i can barely stammer the words without crying
“do not worry child, madras is summer’s answer to the flannel! model is wearing color: sunwashed boat port deck trinidad.”
“i’m obsolete. i am replaced. i am cultural mulch. i can no longer control my bowels”
she laughs, caressing my bloated, athletic-built stomach, from when i swam 40 years ago, which doctor tells me is healthy and normal, not fat. “our shirts are cut just right, not too slim, not too loose. that classic cool.”
“the liars, the liars on the internet, they don’t like you… they want to destroy you… i want to fight them… give me the power to fight them, to defend your honor!”
but there is no need for vengeance in her heart, she is seraphic and sublime. “our pynchon suit cut is designed by our master stylist, business cool and classic formal, all in one authentic package. wear it three different ways.”
she has given me so much already, but what can i give her? i open my mouth to speak but she knowingly cuts me off-
“build me a temple. a temple of a thousand posts. a temple of ten thousand posts. a ziggarut of posts so high they reach the heavans of the forums unpierced by human thought.”
for a second i could swear her teeth grew oddly sharp and her eyes flickered with a tinge of red, but i try to put that out of my mind.
i am reborn. i am the phoenix rising from the ashes of the banana republic into the fury of the chambray fires. and i am wearing a henley over a flannel.
it’s time to post.
“
| — | naaaaate (via willycheesesteak) |
Translated (c/o dibango)
Key:
Red: TOJ
Green: Superfuture
Yellow: Styleforum
Purple: Uncontrol
Blue: Stylezeitgeist
Anyway, so to give you an idea of what this graph represents, it’s all Japanese fashion magazines. As most may know, Japanese fashion magazines are very specific and centered around common aesthetics, age and socioeconomic statuses, etc. This idea of partitioning and cordoning is actually very effective and logical, and manifests itself pretty reliably, even outside of Japan like America where style is mostly confused and not identifiable. It’s to the point where we can consider these boxes to be ‘zoku’ (families/tribes) and you can be part of a certain magazine’s ‘zoku’ - like Free and Easy-zoku, etc.
Counter-clockwise from top left:
The box that includes Lightning, Free and Easy is ‘Ame-oya-kei’ = American oyaji look = Americana for old guys. Denim, heritage, repro. Superdenim.
below that in blue-grey with Samurai, Cool Trans, Street Jack = ‘Street-kei’ = streetwear. From Dunks to Kiks Tyo, used to include Visvim but it migrated a bit.
green box = ‘Kireii-kei’ = pretty boy stuff. Not necessarily gay, but not masculine, more cute. This is probably more suited to very young guys, high school age. Not really relevant to most discussion within the English-language fashion internet world.
purple center box = ‘Onii-kei’ = ‘Big brother style’ - Shibuya gal-o kei (the male counterpart to the Shibuya gyaru) - a sub-demographic of the Shibuya-kei (popular from about 1993 to 1996) style that many my identify with the tanned ‘kogal’ look - this is the male counterpart to them, and big brother in a fantasy sense that the guys are older than the girls (who were thought to be young) - this is 109 and Men’s 109, the hairstyles and the clothes - within this realm also exists the Host (bar) look, male prostitution or pimping/scouting type subcultures that have been around the gyaru/gyaru-oh forever, the whole onii-kei look is generally marginalized as ‘cheap’ because well, the clothes are cheap (in relation to other ‘serious’ fashion lifestyles), and the lifestyle has some connotations of the sex industry, driven by the idea of turning to the sex industry rather than taking up a normal job, alternative lifestyles from 1990’s Japan, yada yada. This is mostly in the past and not a relevant aesthetic in Japan, and not what it is in Shibuya nowadays like it used to be 15-20 years ago.
Pink box - Salon-kei = Hair salon stylist magazines. Not really relevant to the English language internet again, because nobody really cares about hair! haha. Anyway, these are fashion magazines, and not exclusively about hair, but they are focused around the idea that Ura-Harajuku/Aoyama/Omotesando hair stylists are creative/stylish types and therefore the focus of these magazines is to show off their own culture, the guys with cool hair and clothes and stylist’s waist bags, etc. Naturally, not everybody in Japan lives near Harajuku and so it’s a moveable piece of Japanese youth culture for the rest.
Grey box- ‘Men’s Non-kei’ = Men’s Non-no, ie young, mid-priced fashion. Occasionally featuring fast fashion, some elements of Mode, but stylized in a Japanese young menswear style. Obviously a huge category worthy of it’s own box, and by far and large, the most important for this particular age group.
Taupe box - ‘Mode-kei’ - this is mode, high fashion. Enough said.
The dusty rose colored box, top right - ‘Ita-oya-kei’ = Italian oyaji kei = Italian old guy style. Men’s Ex. Menswear. Styleforum’s MC.
The N/W/S/E compass points on the edges of this matrix are qualities:
North = unchiku - knowledge - for the data/trivia obsessed
West = for the hobby of ‘clothes’ - i.e. to define ‘Fashion, vs Style’
South = for aesthetic and stylistic interests - i.e. define ‘Style, vs Fashion’
East = for ‘Lifestyle’
Naturally, the intermediary areas are a mix, so Men’s Ex - styleforum MC - naturally, it lies between the area between ‘clothes’ and ‘trivia’
So interesting points to focus on here, just from the descriptions -
-you notice that Superfuture and Styleforum encompass many of these aesthetics, but at the same time, superfuture has ‘superdenim’ that is strictly Ameoya-kei, and styleforum has it’s own counterpart in ‘Itaoya-kei’ with the MC forum. Both are strong, and completely different.
- ‘Onii-kei’ - which many fromthe outside might view as ‘dress up’ or costume-y, or based on fantasy and imagination - that box skews towards the unlikely direction (though not colliding) where Amekaji and Streetwear are floating, because you have to realize that Amekaji and Streetwear in Japan are also dress-up and costume-y in a similar sense. They are niche looks, subcultures ranging from hobbyists (Americana) to almost full-on lifestyle prescriptions (Onii-kei) - and naturally, you can see where Streetwear falls between that, as Streetwear tends to prescribe a certain set of interests on it’s own (perhaps skating and certain kinds of music), but is more livable within normal society than the Shibuya-kei lifestyles.
I’ve added and boxed in where I think Styleforum, Superfuture, TOJ, and Uncontrol exist on the matrix. The groupings of magazines and ‘kei’s are fairly accurate, whereas the size of the boxes are not intended to represent anything… and therefore the representation of overlap is not intended to show anything proportional, just the fact, mainly.
Superfuture and Styleforum, as non-Japanese sites operated in the English language, they avoid Onii-kei, and I’ve shown that in the matrix as well by cookie-cutting them out of the main lasso’d areas.
Anyway, tons of info on this graph, have a look at it and see where you are.
-ToJ’s Drew, via this thread
