The Japan earthquake didn’t just leave the Japanese soil shaken, it has also left a scar on the people’s hearts and a traumatic experience that has changed how people went about their day to day basis.
In Tokyo, especially in Harajuku where people love to dress colorfully and creatively momentarily ceased wearing clothes that would attract people’s attention and have resorted to wearing dull outfits and a more black ensemble, an outfit of mourning over the tragedy that has fallen over the country.
Street style has always been a way of the Japanese youth and even the elder generation to express their moods and creativity. But the incident has definitely made a lot of them to stay away from their urban catwalk for a while and it’s not just the street style folks who have stayed away from dressing up in flamboyant outfits but clothing stores and other shops have also lessened the hours and days of their work. The clothing sales dropped dramatically and the street almost seemed a barren and abandoned place.
The large screens at Shibuya showing advertisements and announcements have nothing but static or a black backdrop to show and the streets no longer bustle with the usual crowd of fascinatingly dressed folks to walk around to strut their home-brewed stuff. The events in Tokyo that was supposed to happen after the quake were all cancelled and were postponed, it didn’t really give much to boost the emotions of the people.
After a weeks the street style dressers have realized that it doesn’t really help that they are wearing an all black ensemble and even dying their hair to black doesn’t really lift up the condition of the people’s emotions. Dressing colorfully and in their style that they want is also a source of happiness for the people.
Serious dressers have taken it as their civic duty to bring happiness to their nation through their street style fashion. Because of the street dressers eventually returning to their usual fun and flamboyant fashion, a sense of normality is slowly creeping back to the country.
Shibuya have resumed the normal displays in the huge panels and events that were postponed have returned on track to provide amusing entertainment to the people.
Stores and shops have returned to the normal office hours and the consumer gross sale is also coming back to its normal rate. The streets of Japan once again is filled with dressers of street style to bring back courage and happiness to its people.
