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    Just chase the chance

    Ann Althouse links to a story about British teens who are adopting that look Namie Amuro launched the prototype of a dozen years ago:

    Her mother insists that the style is about much more than just “dressing up”.

    She tells me she thinks that this is more about creative expression and that she admires her daughter for her interest.

    As we all walk out the house and down the street, people look.

    Brightly coloured hair, clothes and unusual make-up sets them apart from the crowds who are travelling into London on the underground.

    Eilish says that people often don’t want to sit next to them.

    Interesting that Mom there has to justify the style by relating it to her daughter’s “expressiveness.” In Japan, I think people are much more ready to accept that it’s about sheer decoration, using artifice to make yourself look more interesting in a way (this is important) that conforms to a group identity and has a specific external inspiration. It’s funny to hear the look discussed as rebellion in the BBC article because—this just shows that Tokyo is as removed from the rest of Japan as New York is from the rest of the States—the whole time I lived there, I spent most of my time in Shibuya. (My office was there for ten years, and I lived there for six.) To me, that’s just kind of how Japanese teenagers look. IIRC, Amuro-chan, who’s from Okinawa and played up her darker skin tone with fake-bakes, used contrasting bright eye make-up, but she’s not the origin of the white lipstick or punk-ish hair.

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