Fresh from Silver Bullet by Rhydeal, the guys responsible for 2 of my favorite Japanese street fashion brands: Fuga and Civarise, comes a new OraOra-kei brand: Sheine. What with Men’s Knuckle starting a sister magazine – Soul Japan and Slangy breaking into 109-2 in their own shop it seems that every Gyaru-O brand is getting into the OraOra look. For the uninitiated the OraOra look is tough, sporty, occasionally luxurious and most importantly associated with the Shibuya clubbing scene, Yanki-style and the underworld of Japan in general.
The look is tight fitted T or Polo shirts, sporting apparel, sunglasses, a tan and a swagger.
The Scheine look is pretty standard for OraOra but with some nice detail that you might not be expecting, like the exercise supports re-appropriated in a pretty cool way. And needless to say with Rhydeal behind the brand the sizing is very tight even by Japanese standards – so you get a semi-loose look rather than the full-on baggy associated with B-boy style. The motifs are mostly South-American in origin so it is a tiny bit more socially acceptable than the Buddhist or Classical Japanese imagery which carry the more right-wing and Yakuza implications.
All in all it is interesting to see this really strong masculine look balancing out the very feminine drapes of early S/S Gyaru-O fashion. Check back or subscribe to our RSS / Twitter as no doubt I will be featuring the new Soul Japan OraOra-Kei magazine very soon.
Samuel
[...] Nationalism & fashion have been uneasy bedfellows in the past – the classic skinhead look of turned up jeans, Doc Marten boots & Ben Sherman shirts come to mind, as does the increasing popularity of traditional Japanese imagery in ora-ora fashion. [...]
[...] have chatted about these before courtesy of Silver Bullet by Rhydeal’s Scheine but I am delighted that these seem to be one trend that is going to be with us for a little while. [...]