When it comes to Japanese wear and "City Boy" style, the theme that can never be avoided is undoubtedly the Japanese fashion magazine "POPEYE", which is regarded as the "trend bible".
From 2012 to 2018, in the seven years that editor Takahiro Kinoshita and stylist Akio Hasegawa joined POPEYE magazine, the "City Boy" 2.0 version they jointly created was all the rage, which not only saved the sluggish sales and life-threatening "POPEYE" magazine, but also brought new vitality and interpretation to the "City Boy" style.
With the development and promotion of China's Douyin and Tao-related stores, "City Boy" is like a new imported product entering the eyes of the public, and the style of clothing it represents has gradually entered the eyes of young consumers. As everyone knows, the inaugural issue of POPEYE was published in Japan as early as June 1976, and the definition of "City Boy" has been constantly rewritten in the decades since then.
Let's take the past and present lives of the magazine POPEYE as an incision to see the microcosm of the development of Japanese trend culture and see what the real "City Boy" is.
In August 1969, a few days after the Woodstock Festival, illustrator Yasuhiko Kobayashi and editor Jiro Ishikawa braved the early morning rain to come to the United States for the magazine column "Photo Report". This column is a bold attempt by the Japanese media to record the collision of overseas culture and fashion through sketching, painting, photography and other methods, and looks forward to bringing new inspiration and thinking to the Japanese fashion industry.
A magazine called Whole Earth Catalog caught the eye, with a panoramic view of the earth on the cover and a deep, dark universe in the background, and a whole display wall filled by the Doubleday bookstore in New York. However, this is not a fashion bible, but rather a tool book that promotes "anti-trend" and "return to nature", in which the author's unique ideas arouse Kobayashi's reflection.
Time flies, and with the natural damage caused by Japan's continuous industrial expansion and the economic crisis caused by the 1973 oil embargo, Japan's consumer mentality has become frugal. The vane of art has also gradually changed from catching up with the trend to returning to the naturalism of the countryside. At this time, the United States also began a healthier lifestyle and a new American life that returned to simplicity due to changes in political culture. The change coincides with whole Earth Catalog's forward-looking ethos. The publisher of Taihiko Kobayashi and Jiro Ishikawa also took the opportunity to create Made In U.S.A., a Japanese magazine that advocates American life and dress.
"Made In U.S.A" magazine became a hit, bringing American life at the same time, but also re-focusing the eyes of the new generation of young people on American brands such as Levi's, Red Wing, The North Face and so on, less fashionable and exquisite Japanese style, more rugged and solid American style, creating a strong and durable style trend.
With the development of time, the monotonous and durable outdoor style can no longer ignite the passion of young people, who are more eager to find new styles on the bright page. At this time, the currents of the west coast of the United States were riding the Pacific wind to Japan, and POPEYE magazine, which also inherited the elements of "outdoor" and "sports", also came into being.
Founded by Jiro Ishikawa and Ryo Moriki, POPEYE magazine is named after the famous American cartoon figure Popeye Bobby, "POPEYE" can be disassembled into a combination of "POP" + "EYE", which means the eye of the trend. The same subtitle, "Magazine For City Boy," is intended to allow a new generation of young people in Japan to learn from the exercise habits and healthy lifestyles of young people on the West Coast of the United States, so the original "City" refers to the West Coast cities of the United States, not the Japanese mainland.
The west coast of the United States not only brought leisure, sports dressing styles and university of California campus T-shirts, with the introduction of POPEYE, but also brought skateboarding, surfing, running and other sports methods to Japan for the first time, creating fertile soil for the development of Japanese trend culture in the future, and also became a trend Bible in the hands of young people at that time.
However, with the revival of the Ivy style brought about by the bankruptcy of the legendary Japanese clothing company "VAN", the rampant "rock and roll" and Yankee styles, the "DC boom" of Rei Nakagawa and Yohji Yamamoto to make Westerners re-understand the East, and then the rise of the Takuharajuku culture created by Fujiwara Hiroshi, the style of "City Boy" was also submerged in the trend of history in the continuous transformation, until the emergence of the two men in 2012.
In 2012, he was invited by POPEYE, and was joined by Takahiro Kinoshita as editor-in-chief and Akio Hasegawa as styling director, making POPEYE shine again. Takahiro Kinoshita redefines the "City Boy" of the new era: a young man who loves skiing in winter, tennis in summer, sports and life, and is popular with women. And "POPEYE" magazine in the food, movie, home, outdoor and other elements also began to increase, compared to the wear style, this is more like a discussion of life interests and values.
In terms of styling construction, on the basis of retaining the original "sports" element, the sense of atmosphere of "loving life" and the sense of "young" youth have been added. The clothing style is not only American casual, but also the Ivy Style of the Ivy, the preppy style of the Ivy Style, and some of the "military" and "Hip Hop" styles, which are more varied.
Under takahiro Kinoshita's interpretation, "City Boy" is not so much a style of dressing as a continuation of the healthy and interesting lifestyle advocated by the original intention of the establishment. Clothing should be the outward embodiment of their own life interests and values, rather than taking samples for the sake of taking samples, just like the relaxed and slow pace of "Chengdu Boy" and the exquisite fashion of "Shanghai Boy" should not be a "City Boy" style, and different city boys should also have different self-expression.
So whether you love surfing, skateboarding and wearing very sports, or love to drink coffee and wear a literary retro, as long as you wear the attitude of life you want to express, you can rightly say that you are a "City Boy".
Although Takahiro Kinoshita and Akio Hasegawa left POPEYE in 2018, it is still like a huge web of trends, connecting the world's young people who yearn for pop culture and love life, with Tokyo as the origin and the world as the other.
Knowing the past and present lives of POPEYE, how to create a subtle sense of atmosphere in POPEYE magazine? Memorize the following four words, full of dry goods to take you into the world of "City Boy".
"Loose cut, hard material": Oversize's version is one of the elements often used to create a "City Boy" shape, Oversize's cut is not a simple size or a few sizes of clothing, but has its unique design elements, usually "small neckline", "dropped shoulders", "chest length" and other characteristics, such a version can wear out the advantages of "head and small shoulders width". The stiff material is the core of ensuring that the Oversize version is "big and not collapsed", and the heavy fabric can better reflect the drape and texture of the shape than the soft and collapsed material.
"Wear layers, accessories should be aligned": Multi-layered wear is also one of the style elements of "City Boy", jackets and sweatshirts, shirts, vests and T-shirts can make the overall shape become less monotonous. Flexible use of accessories is the key to the layering of summer modeling, stockings, hats, glasses in the "POPEYE" modeling is more everywhere, simple use of single items is like a finishing touch, so that the overall shape suddenly becomes flexible and lively and no longer rigid.
"Color elements, simple patterns": If you often read POPEYE magazine, it is not difficult to find that in almost all classic shapes, it is difficult to find bright colors, fancy wear, basically in navy blue, gray, coffee, interspersed with black and white colorless wear, or in the light is not very high collocation to add bright color items to the embellished design. The large pattern and large LOGO are replaced by the delicate and small LOGO.
"Clear skies, casual shapes": In order to create a sense of love for life and youthful youth, the "City Boy" model shooting is basically carried out outdoors with clear skies or indoors with sufficient brightness. Soft and abundant sunlight can fully render the theme of "City Boy's love of life".
The casual feeling of styling and the use of "capture" perspective when shooting will inadvertently shoot the model who is running, chatting, and drinking coffee, which is the key to getting rid of greasiness and shaping the "sense of youth". The details of the jacket shirt casually put on the back, the clothes buttons are only tied on the top of a few, the pants are pulled casually and naturally, and the length of the socks and cuffs is also piled up in different heights, these ubiquitous careful machines simply make you "juvenile" burst.
pitiable!
My sister read it and said yes, but I didn't hurry up and learn it.
A few days ago, Akio Hasegawa complained on Instagram that some domestic trend brands copied his styling style, and the shape he painstakingly designed was clumsily imitated, which made him very distressed.
Although there is indeed something wrong with some inferior domestic Tao brand plagiarism in the name of "national tide", the beginning of the trend and style shaping of which country is not learning in imitation, but transcending in learning. Even if the "City Boy" was "copying" the Shape of the West Coast of the United States on the other side of the ocean in the beginning, what right does it have to condemn us?
The pattern is small
It is true that imitating style is the first step in learning, but I hope that it will not become the last step for excellent domestic designers and brands. A vague "plagiarism" and "cutting leeks" will only make China bow to the West forever in the field of clothing, and only by forming our own trend and style as soon as possible can we win a place in the trend circle dominated by the Western aesthetic system.
After all, in terms of intelligence, "China Boy" is the most NB "City Boy"!