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Working Girl’s Fashion in Japan
05/MAR/2011 on air

**OL is a Japanglish word (abbreviation of Office Lady) that means female office worker.

What kind of fashion do Japanese OL (female office workers) enjoy at work? Tokyo Kawaii TV conducted a street survey in Ginza. It seems that most of stylish workers suffer from strict dress code given by the company they are working for. For example, someone was told by one of her senior workers that she should not wear mini skirt at the office. Some people say their hair color is specified with specific color numbers so their hair color should not be too bright or inappropriate. Someone covers her deco nails with Band-Aids because they are considered too loud at work. At most of the working places in Japan, boots, jeans and bare legs are prohibited by the company dress code.

Yu-san represents a OL circle. She uses genuine diamonds for her 3D deco nails. (A piece of diamond costs 25,000yen!) 11 OL colleagues gathered one day to discuss the powerful coordination that is appealing to men on Valentine’s Day. Yu-san has been studying how to attract men by kawaii office fashion for 4 years. She was successfully married to a good-looking guy working in the same company and now her interests are shifting to cooking.

However, there is a company that is totally free from company dress code. This company runs the largest scale online fashion shopping site in Japan called ZOZOTOWN. Employees in this company truly enjoy fashion while they are working. Some people even cosplay while they are working.

The man with ink bottle headdress custom-ordered it for 300,000yen (about USD4000 at current USD/JPY rate) at his own expense.

Akiyama-san is a buyer but she also represents her Mori Girl fashion shop. The company director understands how important it is for each worker to enjoy fashion by him/herself in order to fully understand apparel and fashion brands. Otherwise it was impossible to involve as many as 1500 brands into one huge online mall.

False lashes are OK to be worn at work as long as they look natural. In this case the false lashes that OL love to use should be totally different from Gyaru type of false lashes. Koji developed false lashes especially designed for OL with a famous makeup artist TAKAKO and they sold over 1.2 million pair of lashes in 5 years.

TAKAKO’s kawaii OL makeup.
She uses partial lashes at the corner of eyes and applies them lower than the eyelines so the eyes look kind of droopy. Then she uses air brush to apply eye shadow.

TAKAKO’s cool OL makeup.
She uses navy color eyeliner and applies partial lashes over the eyelines. Then at lower eyelid, she applies glittering shadow from inner corner of eye to the iris.　”The corner of eyes make woman look great! Any kind of woman can become sexy with a pair of false lashes at the corner of her eyes!!”
TAKAKO emphasized.

Apuweiser-riche is a OL fashion brand designed for the early 20s. The concept matches OL life. For example, some outfit is easy to coordinate for a busy morning when one overslept. Their reversible skirt is used inside out at an evening date with a boyfriend from the same office after work. (to make a difference between on and off work.) “We are very serious about creating a hot seller, and the difference by the centimeter makes difference!” 1 cm difference can be a hot seller or not.

Speaking of OL, it was common that they were wearing company uniform before 1989, when economy bubble burst hit Japan. For the past 18 years and even today, Japan has been suffering from economy recession, which made it difficult for many companies to continue providing uniform to their female workers. Company uniform used to be too plain with single color and it was uncool about 10 years ago. Joie reviewed office uniform by asking honest opinions from OL on the street. What kind of uniform do they like to wear? They want something kawaii but too much lovely is not good. They had a chance to do a presentation at a local clinic where there are female workers from age 20s to 60s. The female workers are unhappy about their current uniform because it’s too simple and conservative. They try 10 different samples. Pink is supported by the 20s, but the 60s are reluctant or hesitant. However all of them agreed to renew their uniform.

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Kirin’s opinion:
I like the free atmosphere that ZoZoTown office offers. I wonder why such easy-going company should not increase in Japan. Especially when it’s office work and the workers only see colleagues everyday, what a big deal if one is dressed with what he/she likes? Well, this is a question when I was working for a company as an exporter long time ago when I was always told by the seniors that I should not wear this and that at the office. haha!

I also have the experience of working at a company that provides uncool company uniform. If I was wise enough to listen to what my heart felt then, I wouldn’t choose to work for the company. But I followed what my parents said and I convinced myself to work for the company. It was very uncomfortable to dress what I hated. Moreover, it’s everyday, every week, every month, day after day…all the female workers were dressed with the same plain uniform and male workers sneakily compared which girl looked sexy with the uniform…ugh I was sick of it. I left the company before the 5th month. lol I think I really hate that others decide what I should wear everyday. It was not so long since then that I decided to be freelance, because I never wanted anybody else to decide what I should wear everyday and what time I should be at office and what time I can have a nap (which usually is not allowed at any companies I worked for) and etc. If the company uniform was what I liked, my life might be different? I don’t know…:p
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Disclaimer: Tokyo Kawaii TV is a TV program owned and broadcasted by NHK Japan, and has nothing to do with this blog.

***There are archives of episodes listed under the page titled “Tokyo Kawaii TV” that is just located under the title banner of this blog.
***If you want to know the music that was used in the episode, please refer to this page and help yourself to find it by selecting the date when the episode was on air in Japan.

Apple‘s new post about Mori Girl!!
===Apple’s post starts from here===

When Mori Girl first appeared on the scene, I must admit that I was charmed by the soft, sweet, natural look of the Mori Girl, but I felt it difficult to replicate such a unique style with all its little details. I was never good with accessories, and I felt that to be a perfect Mori Girl, the accessories matter.

Before I continue on about Mori Girl style, let me explain what is Mori Girl.

At office, what kind of clothes are women supposed to wear in Japan? It’s called “office casual” and it’s basically clean, tidy, conservative type of clothes and that should not be too casual or sexy. Like what? I found a top 10 most popular office clothes brands in Japan supported by Japanese office workers.

information source: MSN Japan

No.1 Natural Beauty Basic

I see! When you enter one of their stores, most of the colors you see will be beige, gray, brown, navy blue, white, black… (Above you see red but such kind of color is not often found from their shops…) I can say it’s safe to choose whatever clothes from this brand when you want to wear it at the office. Also, these colors and styles are so basic that they match most of other colors or designed clothes. Thus having a few items from this brand will be helpful to think of everyday’s coordination for work. The price is also affordable.

No.2 Uniqlo

There’s no question. Uniqlo is basic, durable and reasonable. (If you are not familiar with Uniqlo, it’s a Japanese casual clothing brand at competitive price. It’s considered the most well-known and successful fast fashion brand in Japan, and they also expanded their shops overseas.)

No.3 23ku

I personally had no experience of shopping from this brand when I was working in the office. Somehow their clothes were too adult to me. lol

No.4 Kumikyoku

I personally had no experience of shopping from this brand when I was working in the office. One of the reasons is that I don’t think they have many branch stores.

No.5 INED

I wouldn’t say their clothes are reasonable but I sometimes liked their design and I enjoyed shopping their clothing once in a while.

No.6 INDIVI

I personally had less experience of shopping from this brand and I don’t have any particular impression by now…

No.7 ef-de

I personally had no experience of shopping from this brand when I was working in the office.

No.8 ZARA
ZARA was not popular when I was an office worker. Nowadays I sometimes check out ZARA but I do not often shop from them.

No.9 Untitled
I personally had no experience shopping from this brand when I was working in the office. I think their price and style didn’t match my salary and taste those days. lol

No.10 Rope
I personally had no experience of shopping from this brand when I was working in the office. I don’t know if Rope Picnic is a sister brand or anything but I sometimes check out this brand because it’s more reasonable.

When I was an office worker, I thought most of these brands were too expensive to me (except for Uniqlo and ZARA) and that’s part of the reasons I have less personal experience of shopping from most of these brands. ^ ^; I was younger and so these conservative type of clothing looked too boring to me, which is another reason. ^ ^; But even if I return to office, I will like to shop from Natural Beauty Basic, Uniqlo and some other reasonable brands and I don’t think I will spend much for clothing. I’d save that money for future traveling.

What do you think of these fashion brands? What is the popular fashion brand supported by the working women in your country?

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