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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.

Malaysian Gyaru Blogger
28/MAY/2011 on air

Beautiful foreign gyaru from the U.S…Sara Mari
Sexy gyaru shop owner from Vietnam…Hoang Viet Nga
Successful gyaru blogger from Singapore…Xiaxue

Successful gyaru blogger who spread Japanese false lashes in Malaysia…Cheesie
She introduced Japanese false lashes in her blog around 2 years ago, which brought false lashes fad in Asia.

Koji is a 84-year-old false lashes brand in Japan. Their false lashes “Dolly Wink” collaborated with Tsubasa Masuwaka a few years ago have been selling so well as to expand their sales to China, North America and even to Middle East! Above all, Malaysia is the top sales market, thanks to Cheesie’s blog.

Lie and Maiko, after seeing Xiaxue, moved from Singapore to KL, Malaysia to see Cheesie. They found bling-bling deco goods, sweets accessories, Shibuya-kei style and Japanese fashion magazines in Malaysia. They also found Uniqlo in Malaysia that has the same clothing and at the same price as in Japan. Who will buy Uniqlo Heattech under such hot climate? Some customers from abroad get it as a souvenir and wear it back home. Lie realized a difference of displaying clothes. In Japan, we normally do not cover the head of dummy with hood. Maybe they cover the head so that should look familiar to the Muslim? They then encountered Mr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, the 4th prime minister of Malaysia’s.

Cheesie and her friend Audrey look like Japanese gyaru. When Lie and Maiko visit a local drug store, they found the Dolly Wink false lashes and learned they are most popular among Malaysian girls. Cheesie drove them to her apartment by her own car. She bought the new 2-bedroom apartment 2 years ago with a 30-year loan. She started her business 2 years ago, which is to introduce Japanese fashion online. The false lashes are given by her sponsors. She used to be a fashion model. Modeling herself on her blog, over 8000 page views per day. Her monthly ad revenue is about 280,000yen, which is considered to be triple times more than an average Malaysian income!

Cheesie got to like gyaru fashion while she studied in Japan a few years ago. They gathered Malaysian girls who want to be a gyaru. They’re going to make a gyaru circle in Malaysia. They had a gyaru meets at a twin tower in KL.

Maiko gives gyaru makeup. Make eyebrows closer to eyes to make a gyaru-look face. She uses double-fold eyelids tape that she brought from Japan. Malaysian girls are so enthusiastic about the cosmetics Maiko carries. Look at her magic 40 minutes later! The first gyaru meets in Malaysia was very successful. More girls who want to be a gyaru joined the circle. Later, they continue the gyaru circle as “Foruchizu” on Facebook with Cheesie as a representative, Lie and Maiko as advisers.

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Kirin’s opinion:
Cheesie and Audrey speak good Japanese and they are kawaii! How interesting Japanese fashion or culture is so much loved by the people in Malaysia.
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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.