Recently I have been making frequent trips to Japan and am most certainly intrigued (and inspired at some point) by gorgeous Tokyo ladies (and sometimes gentlemen).
I came across an interesting article at brekky this morning, the title reads 'Cult of the Living Doll in Tokyo'. It talks about the two major distinct style genres in Japan - The Ageha (literally means 揚羽 Swallowtail butterfly) and The Mori (森ガール Forest girls). It's really not that difficult to spot the trend when I'm browsing in Omotesando or the narrow streets of Shibuya.
The Ageha trend started a couple of years ago and Ageha girls aim to look as much 'doll like' as cosmetics tools allow. Some of these gals reportedly wake up at wee hours in the morning and spend at least a couple of hours applying falsies, colored hair extensions, and layers of extravagant makeup until they are almost virtually unrecognizable... Of course it's not quite a complete look without loud lacy clothes, 5-inch platform-y heels and the cleavage enhancing gel pads.
• Ageha Style as seen in「小悪魔ageha」Magazine
The Mori girls have a complete opposite approach. They wear loose ethnic earth toned cottony dresses, thick tights and discreet unpretentious makeup (kinda reminds me of characters from Scandinavian fairy tales). They are different from the usual sporty nature-loving ladies that we know of... the essence of being a Forest girl is to assert an aura of fragility and not to show any form of aggression.
• Mori Style as seen in "A Mori Girl A-Z" in Spoon magazine
That pretty much sums up the two latest yet still considered minority style in Japan. Any of you beauties out there interested to give it a try? Before you even think about that, there is one major downside... apparently the butterfly/forest ladies have trouble finding a date. Both styles are waaaaay too high-maintenance and men still prefer natural-looking babes.
Having said that I do admire these stylish (in a different way) ladies. Just imagine the time and effort they put into their daily routine! Look, most of us are generally sleep deprived most of the time and having trouble prioritizing to-do-lists... who really has the energy to get up at 5am every morning applying rococo coils and bejeweled falsies?
