Hello buns!
On Saturday 6th June 2020 I took part in my first ever virtual Harajuku Fashion Walk. It was a really fun experience and I wanted to share it with you! I hope you enjoy this blog and feel encouraged to one day join in.
Happy reading,
Keri AKA Ichigo Bunny
xoxo
What is the Harajuku Fashion Walk?
The Harajuku Fashion Walk is an event where lovers of kawaii and Japanese fashion (such as lolita and fairy kei) all meet up once a month and walk through Harajuku. Harajuku is a district in Tokyo that is famous for it's fashionistas and their quirky and unique sense of style. Most people that attend this fashion walk dress up for this, but people who also appreciate the different fashions without dressing up in them also come along to take pictures and enjoy the day. It used to mainly consist of the "Harajuku kids," a name given to the kids who dressed up in these alternative Japanese fashion and hung out in Harajuku, but now more people outside of Tokyo and Japan have come along to these events. The Harajuku Fashion walk has grown so much that there is a Harajuku Fashion Walk that takes place in Singapore and has done for a few years.
I have admired alternative fashion since my teens and I have loved Japanese fashion since I first found out about it. While I don't fit into one certain style I take influences from many that I try to incorporate into my own sense of "Kawaii" (this means cute in Japanese). I have been wanting to take part in the Harajuku fashion walk that takes place in Harajuku for a little while and when I found out about the virtual Harajuku Fashion Walks that were taking place during this pandemic I was really hoping to be able to take part in it!
How I found out about the virtual HFW and what I wore
I've been following the Harajuku Fashion Walk twitter and Instagram for several months and it was via their Twitter page I first heard about the virtual HFW. They had announced that they had come up with a way to do the HFW in a virtual way, after it had been announced that it would be suspended because of the virus outbreak. I thought that it seemed like a really cool idea but I presumed that it would be for people who were fluent in Japanese and never messaged the group about joining in.
After a few weeks of seeing these tweets and wanting to join in I decided to pluck up the courage and on 29th May I messaged the Twitter page, saying that I wanted to take part but was wondering if you had to be able to speak fluent Japanese to be able to take part. Shortly afterwards the page replied back thanking me for my message and explaining that English would be okay as most people speak English and Spanish in these and that they would be sending me the details soon!
I was instantly excited and scared as I had seemingly set myself to take part in something that I wasn't sure I felt brave enough to do so! I decided that I would be brave and take part despite feeling a little anxious about it.
The page messaged the day before the meeting, letting us know about the two dates scheduled, how long it would be, the times they would be, the fashion theme, a link to the zoom meeting with the meeting ID and password and a little message inviting us to join the meeting if we wanted to.
I decided to join the meeting on the 6th June as it worked out to the best time in the UK. It was taking place at 3pm, whereas the other meeting would of taken place early in the hours of Sunday morning and there was so way I could stay awake for that long, plus it would of been unfair on Gwyd and my neighbours to be making noise at that time.
The theme for that meeting was a style that you didn't normally wear and I was worrying about it! As someone who is casually kawaii, doesn't really tend to wear one particular style and doesn't wear (in my own opinion) clothes that scream "Harajuku" I was really worrying about looking under dressed/ like someone who shouldn't really be asking to take part.
After fretting and worrying about what to wear, I decided to wear an outfit that was slightly larme kei inspired. I tend to wear more tom-boy kawaii style outfits, so dressing in a sheer top with pink hearts over it and wearing more femm and pink make-up was something completely different for me! After looking at pictures on Instagram and deciding that I don't have the make-up skill required for larme kei make-up I decided to go for pink eyeshadow, falsh eyelashes, blush and lipgloss for my make-up look. I tend to wear purple or rainbow eyeshadow and I rarely wear blush and lipgloss now so wearing them and drawing on longer eyebrows felt so weird!
My experience
I felt SO nervous signing into the zoom meeting, my heart was pounding and I had sweaty hands, you know, all of the social anxiety effects! I need not of worried - the host Junnyan and everyone else joining were really friendly!
We spent the first few minutes waiting for everyone to join in on the meeting, some people obviously knew each other as friend and were spending the time talking together. When everyone was in, Junnyan welcomed everyone and thanked everyone for joining. A lady for Maria was helping Junnyan with the meeting, translating what Junnyan was saying in Japanese into English and Spanish for those who were not fluent/ cannot speak Japanese. We were told that halfway through the meeting we would be taking a 5 minute break and then carrying on after the break.
Maria then explained that we would be taking turns to introduce ourselves, explain what we would normally wear and what we are wearing on that day. People took turns introducing themselves until a countdown timer popped up, and then Junnyan and Maria explained that we would be taking a 5 minute break and that the password and log in details for the meeting would be the same. After the break we carried on, and after a few people it was my turn!
I had been preparing what I was going to say in my head and then when it came to talking I forgot everything and managed to speak out a "hiiiiiiii!" I can honestly say that, as someone who had never been good at standing up and talking in front of everyone at school, it felt like public speaking and I felt so anxious! I managed to tell everyone that I went for a more femm pink make-up style and that I normally dress in a skate punk/ tomboy style and that wearing sheer tops and pink based make-up with longer eyebrows was completely different for me! I did also say that I was very shy and thanked everyone for listening. Everyone was so sweet, saying that I had done very well and thanking me for joining and they all made me feel so welcome!
While everyone was introducing themselves people were commenting their Instagram handles in the chat so you could follow them if you wanted to do so, and it was lovely to be able to follow most people from the chat! After everyone had talked about their fashion styles there was some spare time so we have a little teddy bear rave, talked about how the corona virus is affecting us where we live and the Black Lives Matter Movement. We also spoke about what it is like wearing J-Fashion where we live and it was really interesting to see where people lived and how people reacted to it. Junnyan gave a really touching and heartfelt talk about looking after each other and taking take of everyone no matter what and it was so sweet, I felt like crying.
Our time was coming to an end so Maria and Junnyan thanks everyone for coming, told us when the next one in June was and we said goodbye to each other.
Would I do this again?
Absolutely. When I logged off Zoom I felt so happy and pleased that I decided not to let my social anxiety put me off from joining. I don't normally get to talk to other people who love kawaii culture and fashion unless it's at Hyper Japan or on Instagram so to be able to join in with this was lovely. I didn't have any negative feelings, everyone seemed really nice and it was really cool to be able to follow some more people who have the same fashion interests as myself, it gave a feeling of making some virtual friends and during this current climate it really meant a lot.
The only thing I felt a little negative about was my own personal choice of clothes. Next time I am able to join one of these I will push myself to be more creative with my look and my make-up.
The best thing about this is that if you love J-Fashion but are unable to get to Harajuku or don't feel confident wearing it outside the comfort of your home you can dress up and stay indoors but still be able to take part in something that connects you to other like minded people. I fully recommend joining in at least once because it's so much fun and really, really wholesome.
Since I joined that Zoom meeting HFW have set up a discord server to help organise future virtual fashion walks, so if you do want to join in the future it's worth checking it out!
Let me know if you'll be joining one in the future!
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