As usual, this post will discuss another type of the Harajuku District fashion that is popular in Japan. This post will discuss Visual Kei fashion. This type of fashion is one of the most interesting types I came across when researching this topic. It is interesting because of the fact that it was originally created by musicians that formed the band X Japan in the 1980’s (#1). Unlike the other types of Harajuku fashion mentioned so far in this blog, Visual Kei is different because it was created in relation to music. The typical characteristics of Visual Kei fashion are clothes that are flamboyant, eye-catching, and a mix of feminine and masculine aspects (#1). An example of the Visual Kei fashion style can be seen in the image below.
(Image source: https://wendywen89.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/49664-galeyd.jpg)
Like I mentioned before, Visual Kei was very interesting to me because of the fact that it was influenced and created by musicians, which is unlike any of the Harajuku fashion types discussed so far in this blog. In addition, Visual Kei is hugely different than the cute overload and girly styles that make up some of the other Harajuku fashions that have been discussed. This fashion style is much more dark and lacks the characteristics that are typically associated with Japanese fashion, especially the cuteness. This appears to be again a time where the Japanese youth took a fashion that was popular in western culture and made it their own. Leather and other clothes such as the ones seen in the image above were components of rock and roll fashion in the United States. Although not exactly the same, this is likely where X Band drew their inspiration for the Visual Kei fashion style. However, as with the other Harajuku fashion types, the Japanese were not content with simply copying what was already being worn. They, as usual, went to the extreme and made the Visual Kei fashion very over the top, flashy, and made it hard for anyone to not notice it. The video embedded below shows X Band, the creators of Visual Kei fashion, performing live.
(Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeFIq12IQi8)
Sources:
Japanese Harajuku Fashion 
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