The Many Faces of Japanese Fashion

From avant garde designer Issey Miyake  and the beautiful traditionally inspired oriental fabrics, to fashion textile deconstructionist Rei Kawakubo of Comme de Garcons and the use of monochromatic dress fabrics, the Japanese have made their mark and pushed the limits of the imagination with their degree of talent, skill, and courage over the decades; attributes Japanese based designers and will have to pull on now more than ever in light of the recent atrocities suffered on multiple levels, and a rather uncertain future since the devastating earthquake almost a month ago.

We Can’t Criminalize A Style of Dress Just Because We Find it Distasteful… Or Can We?

(a) underwear exposed = warning (b)underwear exposed, pants below buttocks = disorderly conduct (c) buttocks exposed = indecent exposure

Around the country in both urban cities and rural countryside, and stretching the parameters of racial barriers, a handful of our youth have been inspired by the desire to wear their pants not at the prescribed waist line as originally intended, but to mimic a style of dress whose origins are traced directly to the holding cells of our country’s growing prison population. Without the right to wear belts to hold up their pants, the trousers would often fall below the waistline revealing the undergarments and cause the prisoners to have to hold them up with one of their hands as they walked. Eventually promoted thru rap music videos and fashioned to the ‘T’ by urban fashionistos (as) alike on the streets, the saggy baggies have made both a fashion statement and controversial headlines over the years for parents, authorities and other young adults alike.