Japanese fashion revisited

A few posts ago, I debated the merits of Japanese fashion versus French fashion. At the time, I found it very difficult to choose between the two. Now I am back in the land of matcha and Monokuroboo, and I can see that I was viewing Japanese fashion through rose colored glasses.

A new style has become popular while I was away: high heels, preferably gold with lots of charms dangling off of them, worn with thigh-high socks and short, rolled-up shorts. No one, no matter how skinny and refined, can pull this off without looking like a whore. Though Japanese girls are skinny, they suffer another problem that prevents this outfit from looking good: they cannot walk. People who have been to Japan will know what I'm talking about here, but for those of you who have not, let me explain.

Japanese girls have a gait that is best described as "pigeon-toed." When they walk, their feet point inward, causing their knees to buckle and giving the overall impression that their legs cannot support their 90 pound frames. Each step seems to take a ponderous amount of effort. I spent three years trying to figure out why they walked this way. Some suggested it was the result of years of sitting seiza style, with their legs folded underneath them in the Japanese manner. Others suggested that it made them seem helpless, and therefore sexy. Whatever the reason, it does not make for an attractive appearance, in my opinion.

So apart from generally making one appear to be a hooker, this new style of dress calls attention to the mechanics of the Japanese female walk. The high heels add to the illusion that the girl is about to topple over. The socks highlight the knees as they knock against each other. And the few inches of thigh revealed by the short shorts? They remind us that those legs have not seen the sun...well, probably ever. French fashion wins, hands down.