Behavior #9: Shallow Appropriation of Subculture Fashion

Remember way back at the beginning of the article where I talked about how Japanese fangirls wear lots of black clothes but are afraid of goth clubs? Well, this is what I'm talking about. It's something akin to cosplay. When fangirls wear the fashion of a given subculture – punk, goth, or whatever else – they're not doing it because they're members of that subculture. They're doing it because they're imitating the way their idols dress. Buck-Tick fans wear so many black lace ruffles because Sakurai wears so many black lace ruffles. In fact, every tour, I see scads of fans dressed either in outright cosplay or deliberate imitation of the fashions worn by the band members onstage. Oftentimes they pull off the outfits quite well – but for them, it's still just a costume, to be worn on the weekend and put back into the closet come Monday.

By contrast, people who wear a given style because they're members of a subculture generally wear variants of that style at all times (or as often as social requirements such as work uniforms permit). In this way, fangirls are the ultimate “poseurs” – that word dreaded by many a 90's goth. Most of the time, fangirls don't even wear the tour t-shirts except when they attend shows – wearing band t-shirts as default garments is a rock subculture custom, not a fangirl custom.

In fact, in the outside world, fangirls are often embarrassed about their fandom, and take pains to hide it. Both fangirldom and subculture membership are not mainstream acceptable in Japan, and both will causes raised eyebrows and gossip in the workplace or mainstream social gatherings. However, while subculture types will tend to push the envelope on their fashion and try to get away with (for example) as much goth as the office allows, fangirls are unlikely to do this, since for them, dressing up for concerts is something only done at concerts and not elsewhere, whereas for subculture people, the fashion is an end in itself.

Interestingly, appropriation of subculture fashion by fangirls is just one small example of the larger trend whereby the superficial appearance-focused elements of a subculture are commodified for use in mainstream culture, while the ethos/identity construction of the original subculture is forgotten in the process. This has happened to just about every subculture with a defining look – from goth-inspired fashion on the runway during New York Fashion Week, to H&M selling “flower child” music festival wear made by sweatshop labor in South Asia, to rich white suburban kids wearing the track suits and do-rags of the poor black inner city that spawned hip-hop. Even the lolita subculture has been subjected to this commodified divorce from its roots – if you're interested, read Kame's article on that subject HERE.

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