Looking around at the big fashion drops for March is like throwing a dart at a selection of Japanese fashion magazines from the 1990s.
There was a general consensus in the industry that we were done with the ’90s and hellbent on rehashing the 2000s, but both decades have now come together to form a vague, millennial blur. It looks like we are going to be revisiting these eras for some time yet.
This manifests itself at two strata: At the lower end of the market, we have what Japanese youth are calling the “Y2K” look. It’s a hodgepodge of rehashed street fashion trends from the turn of the millennium (baggy flares, a bit of grunge and far too many zips and pockets). New generations are taking ironic joy in partying in the past. Look no further than the reboot of gyaru fashion mainstay Love Boat, which has been revived from the fashion mortuary by cheap and cheerful youth chain ANAP for a capsule collection in stores now. It is a summery burst of surfer chic with a touch of ’90s grunge gyaru culture (think perilously cropped tops for the urban hippy). With prices maxing out at ¥3,190 for a T-shirt, this is squarely targeted as an affordable buy for a new, young generation rather than the ones who first wore it around Shibuya 20 years ago.