Articles

Five very good reasons to shop at indie stores

You will avoid a ‘cloned’ look

The big high street fashion chains and the major online conglomerates buy in bulk and sell in very large quantities. If you shop purely with these retailers, not only will you  have a far greater chance of seeing other people wearing a carbon-copy of your outfit, but you will be limiting yourself to whatever the buyers at these stores have decreed to be the current fashion uniform.

The available designs may be the best, in terms of profitability for these stores, but they may not be the very best with regard to originality and creativity. It is still possible to put together a fairly original look when shopping on the high street but all the components of your outfit will be widely available to vast numbers of other people. You are also unlikely to find unique, design-led and imaginative gifts if you shop purely with the larger retailers, as they tend to sell only mass-produced, high-profit products.

Independent stores are braver than the major retailers

The larger stores play safe and only buy what they know will sell to the masses. They are unlikely to source their inventory from new designers and are not willing to buy in small quantities. Their business model depends on bulk buying and smaller suppliers are not in the position to produce on demand in great quantities. 

Independent stores are far more willing to take the chance on young, little-known designers and will be much more likely to stock designs which are one-offs or limited edition. This means that you will have access to original and unique designs which are not available on the high street. Independent stores are also more willing to push the boundaries when it comes to non-mainstream and sub-cultural fashions and often stock designs which cannot be found in larger stores.

Major retailers who specialise in 'alternative' fashion do stock styles which differ from mainstream designs but their offerings can be unimaginative and fairly uniform in design.  An example of this lack of imagination can be seen in the uninspired designs featured by some retailers who supply clothing and accessories to the ‘Goth’ community. Some of the major retailers involved in this niche market are stuck in a time-warp and have gone down a fairly predictable route (with a heavy dose of bats, skulls and coffins) but have turned a blind-eye to any degree of sophistication in their targeted audience.

Independent stores are more likely to be environmentally-friendly

Most of the big stores depend on exporting container-loads of products from China, who now supply the vast majority of clothing sold worldwide. Some larger stores do attempt to adhere to a position of social responsibility with regard to the origins of their products but mass-production always carries with it the possibility of unfair working practices and damaging ecological effects. Independent stores can also source a proportion of their stock from overseas suppliers but are far more likely to buy in small quantities from other independent businesses, often sourcing their stock from small companies within their own geographical area.

Many independent online stores buy their inventory from individual crafters and designers and this can encourage diversity and help these crafts to survive and flourish. An increasing number of independent stores actively seek out suppliers who use environmentally-friendly processes and materials and there is a greater availability of hand-crafted, re-claimed, re-styled and vintage products.  

Customer service is better at independent stores

The larger conglomerates have a massive marketing budget and a more powerful physical or online presence and this allows them to attract very large numbers of customers. Overall sales patterns are important to these retailers but individual customer support is less of a priority, as revenue lost from an unsatisfied customer has little consequence to these well-established businesses. The ‘bigger’ the business is, the more it is removed from the customer and the less opportunity there is for direct communication with the decision-makers within the system.

Independent stores are usually run by a very small number of people or a sole proprietor and have a relatively small customer base. Every customer is important to these stores, who are dependent on return custom and word-of–mouth recommendations. It is also far easier to contact the owner or manager in person -- who will have much more at stake than larger retailers when it comes to maintaining customer satisfaction.

Additionally -- whilst it may appear that the bulk-buying of the larger stores should mean that their prices would be lower -- this is not always the case, as smaller online stores have much lower overheads and this can be reflected in the price of the products.

You’ll be reducing the monopoly of faceless corporations

No-one wants to see a situation where variety and diversity are lost and we are reduced to a situation where small retailers vanish and the only choice is to shop with the high street ‘giants’. Smaller retailers seek to make a decent living from their business but are usually passionate about what they do and will be personally involved in every aspect of their business, whereas the profit-motive is central to every decision taken by the bigger players. Scottie MacInally

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This next piece is about fashion blogging and is from our Larkin & Catcher's Very Best Things blog. The post is really about not taking fashion blogging too seriously.

A Storm in a Blogspot?

Looks like the blogger at La Primavera stirred-up a bit of a controversy when she gave her backing to a newspaper article which criticised Finnish teenage spendoholic fashion bloggers.

It’s an interesting debate but I think this blogger may have underestimated the intelligence of her fellow fashion bloggers (and their readers). I doubt that all these girls are totally unaware of the issues surrounding our ‘dying planet’ and the part that the fashion industry plays in encouraging rampant consumerism.

But even if some of these bloggers are living in a joyful bubble of ignorance (whilst ‘spending their parent's money’) I really do not think it will do any great overall harm or that they will remain evermore in a mindset which is dominated by their next fashion fix. No other generation has been so bombarded by information on the environment and the questionable motives of big business.

Most of us come to a point where we feel uneasy about the whole born-to-shop phenomenon that seems to have been adopted (or foisted on?) women -- and young girls in particular – but I’d suggest that most these girls are far from ‘brain-dead’ when it comes to understanding the wider issues. Even those who are, for the moment, oblivious to environmental/social concerns, will – in time – come to question whether we are but cogs in the fashion/big business machine.

Look at the burgeoning indie craft movement – a worldwide shift towards handcrafted goods and an appreciation of ‘planet-friendly’ materials. Most of those who now champion handmade products are in the younger age groups and I would suggest that the majority are fully clued-up on the fact that women should not be defined by what they wear or how they look.

I think we would always be aware of any social implications related to our seeming obsession with fashion but I really don’t want to fun to be squeezed-out of the subject – life is tough enough and fashion is one area where -- within reason -- we can (and should) afford to be a little more than frivolous and enjoy the moment.

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*The articles below are not by Larkin & Catcher but may be of some interest to our visitors.

Harajuku Girls
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Wiradhitya_Nugraha]Wiradhitya Nugraha

Harajuku girl, used to identify girls who gather in Harajuku district, Tokyo, Japan. Their costumes is in several different styles of clothing that originated in the culture of Japan's major cities.

The term is not only monopolized by those who gather in the district themselves, but has become a relatively popular expression in the United States. Popular use originated from the American singer Gwen Stefani's 2004 Love.Angel.Music.Baby album, which brought attention to Stefani's entourage of four supposed "Harajuku Girls" who were hired to portray the look, three of whom are Japanese and one of whom is Japanese American. These "Harajuku Girls" are not in fact the fashion aficionados or the home sewing hobbyists from whence they derive their name.

Harajuku is a popular iconic placed in the world of entertainment, inside and outside of Japan. It was said that the girls of Harajuku are “beauty stars of Japan”. The American singer Gwen Stefani puts Harajuku reference in several of her songs and incorporated four female dancers, appointed under the name of “love,” “angel,” “music,” and “baby,” dressed like girls with Americanised Harajuku, as her background act.

A song is devoted to them on the album which she called after them, entitled of the “Harajuku Girls” and the word “??” (Harajuku) is depicted on the surface of stage during her music video for the Hollaback Girl. In her songs, Stefani mispronounces the word Harajuku. Instead of the Japanese pronunciation, Stefani spells “hair-ajuku,” although the Japanese loudspeakers on its album pronounce the word correctly. Her use--which critics call her appropriation--of Harajuku girls and Harajuku fashion was criticized by a certain number of Asian-Americans, in particular Margaret Cho, to perpetuate stereotypes of the flexible Asian women.

According to the Jan/Feb 2006 edition of Blender magazine, American comedian Margaret Cho has labeled Stefani's Harajuku Girls a "minstrel show" that reinforces ethnic stereotypes of Asian women. [1]. The Harajuku Girls have continued to appear alongside Stefani in the media, and are featured in the music video for "Wind It Up" (2006). If you search the term Harajuku girls in internet, most probably you will find Gwen Stefani name also as the search results.

Gwen Stefani, singer principal of the pop band No Doubt, has lead Madonna-esque fashion revolt in both her recent video clip for her single What You Awaiting For and her solo album Love, Angel, Music, Baby. Its involving in 80’s inspired popish tunes, platinum blonde hair and Like A Virgin kit outside the art cover of album reinforce her homage to the material girl, though it can be slightly language in the cheek. In 2006, Stefani launched a second clothing line, called the “Harajuku lovers,” she said it is inspired by the zone of Harajuku in Japan. But its her references to the girls of Japanese Harajuku peppered in all the album and on a way in particular which drew the interest from a various range of te commentators. However who are these Harajuku Girls?

The Harajuku District of Tokyo and in particular street of Takeshita, a narrow street furnished with the stores is the brilliant house for these fashionistas. Since the end of the Second World War, the “consumerism” and “consumption” are becoming national past-time for most Japanese and in particular to teenager girls who often live at the house with their parents well until their twenties. Their free existence of rent provides them enough funds to gather at Harajuku each weekend, where they transform themselves into baby doll of Lolita-esque caracitures. Of course it is an extreme-pretty combination of dressing, but however you will find kind of oase of japanese dress besides their ordinary-working-day dress which is everything is very ordered and conservative.

Various fashion styles is available among the girls who spend time in Harajuku, including Gothic Lolita, Gothic Maid, Wamono, Decora, Second-Hand Fashion, and cyber fashion. The Japanese street fashion magazine, FRUiTS, features many of the varied clothing styles that are popular in the Harajuku district. They wear fake blood and bandages, and dark outfits often combined with traditional Japanese clothing (kimonos, fans) and modern Japanese symbols (hello kitties, cell phones, photo stickers). What drives these girls to dress in such outrageous outfits in a weekly ceremony that lasts only a few hours? Is there a really great bordem in Japanese society so this is one of their way to release all of those bordem?

Some of the answers are more immediately visible. For example, we know some of them are imitating rock bands such as Japan X. However, as with all cultural symbols, there are likely to be deeper reasons beyond fashion. The weekly play allows them to temporarily escape, within a group, all of the rules of Japanese society. It gives them individuality not as easily expressible while in their weekday school uniforms, it gives them a voice to express, often in very sexual ways (with ripped stockings, garters, and mini-skirts, etc.), the oppression of the female gender in the largely male dominated Japanese society.

It is whole kind of a pop-art meets pop-culture meets decadence kinda street where oWesternften a t-shirt with a western image like Mickey Mouse can go for several hundreds of dollars a noise. This constant continuation of rock n roll pop star hipness is prolonged with the boys of teenager too. They turn to choose western inspired hip-hop culture of disheveled jeans hanging halfway to their knees, of the hats to all the angles on their heads and surely many, many, many of blings.

So often, the net result resembles something out of a comic book of Manga while the fashionistas of Harajuku compete to look less human and more iconic. Not pay attention to what we in the west may see like a conflict of fashion above substance, girls of Harajuku is different to Goths, punks and bond girls which became trends previously, is not about rebellion to the society. It is just a crazy-extreme-freedom expression of dressing in certain day (sunday), free from those ordinary dress which requires them to dress "politely, nice, and good looking".

Harajuku Girls just like most Japanese, are often extremely polite and happy to pose for photographs with the curious tourists who flock each Sunday to take the happy snap of these caricatures of super-model. Just ask them for a photograph nicely, they will do that happilly. And as a gratitude you can offer them something, ussualy they won't ask something out of your reach. For the girls of Harajuku, their most extreme request can be a simple cigarette. http://harajuku-style.blogspot.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wiradhitya_Nugraha http://EzineArticles.com/?Harajuku-Girls&id=545904

AND BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Harajuku By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Wiradhitya_Nugraha]Wiradhitya Nugraha

Harajuku, the common name for the area around Harajuku Station, between Shinjuku and Shibuya. Local landmarks include the headquarters of NHK, Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi Park.

It is a wild and crazy place best seen on a Sunday or any other holiday for that matter. It is located just 1 station north of Shibuya and some consider it to be the extion of Shibuya. You may be suprised to find teen dressing up in cosplay, anime, or other gothic type costumes right out side the station or street performers acting out for a little extra money. The area known as "Ura-Hara" (back streets of Harajuku) is a center of Japanese fashion for younger people, with brands such as Bathing ape and Undercover having shops in the area. Harajuku street style is promoted in Japanese and international publications such as Fruits. Harajuku offers a means as a city center to various other locations and is a must see.

Harajuku refers to the sector around the station of Harajuku in Tokyo, a station north to Shibuya on the Yamanote line. It is Japan's center of most extreme teenage cultures and mode, but also offers shopping spot for adults and historic sight.

The focal point of Harajuku's teenagers culture is Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street) and its side streets, which are lined by many trendy shops, fashion boutiques, used clothes stores, crepe stands and fast food outlets geared towards the fashion and trend conscious teens.

Japanese are still great west trends consumers, so when you hang around the boutiques of Takeshita street in Harajuku you'll in big chance see many teenagers wearing mod clothes. Harajuku is a Vatican for artists, freedom spirits, and burgeoning fashion trends that provides a space of free expression from the conservative Japanese culture. But Japanese fashion has no doubt to make a one step further, dressing-up in costume is seen as a main idea of fashions, so no-one will bat an eyelid at a nice and beautiful girl wearing a plastic fried egg round her neck as a fashion statement.

One nice thing about Japanese and their Harajuku fashion, is that it's not a matter of shops and brands (like Gap) instructing what people wear, but teenagers instracting what the shops will start selling.

Nowadays there are many clothes and websites which sell harajuku fashion and lolita fashion, but the spirit of this japanese style has come up from teenagers not being in deeep confusion to customise and accessorise their own clothes, and to wear crazy outfits with a sense of humour to retaliate against social expectations of nice clothes, nice jobs, nice attitudes.

In order to feel the culture of the teenage at its more extreme, come to visit Harajuku on Sunday, when many young people meet around the station of Harajuku and engage in cosplay (“costume play”), dressed up in crazy costumes to resemble anime characters, punk musicians, etc.

Stores, cafes and the restaurants for all ages are found along Omotesando, a broad, tree lined avenue, sometimes indicated under the name of Champions-Elysees of Tokyo. The hills of
Omotesando, a recently opened complex of stores along the avenue, had attracted huge attention.

However, Harajuku is not only about teenage culture and shopping. Meiji Dori, one of the principal shrine of Tokyo, is located just at the west of the railway ways in a large green oasis divided with the Yoyogi Park, a roomy public park. Beautiful paintings of ukiyo-e are performed in the small Ota Memorial Museum of Art.

Harajuku is now internationally famous, that's why anyone wearing harajuku style being photographed as much as the London punks who hang out in Trafalgar Square in tartan trousers and mohicans, waiting get paid by tourists to pose for photos. And that's no problem? When you're a punk you have fewer job options because of the extremity of your dress code, and however you have to make money.

If you decided to harajuku style you are required to be full dedicated. It is only as serious as you expect it to be. You may prefer not having a regular job or attending school and be fully dedicated into the band scene, but essentially the look of harajuku style is based on clothes and make-up which can be removed as you want, so it is extremely ok if you want to be a part-time Harajuku girl Punks with mohicans and piercings have to be punk (to some degree) all the time, but teenagers who harajuku-style, no matter they are boys or girls can wear ordinary outfits then dress up harajuku-style at the weekend. Pure pop fashion, but achieve a lot of fun!

For Japanese youth culture "cool” and “nice” - Harajuku, northern Shibuya, is the number one central of mode, recreation, maniac, ridiculous and crazy "crib" to "chill out". Come on Sunday and you'll watch them all!

Anyone who makes it to Harajuku is in for a treat because the fashions are unbelievable. Like Camden in London, but a lot more weird. In 2001, believe it or not, the look was like the Amish folk in the Harrison Ford film 'Witness'. In 2002, the look was grunge for the boys and Lolita Goth (also known as Goth Lolita, GothLoli, Gosurori and Loli-Goth) for the girls.

Lolita fashion is a style of dress that originated in Japan. Lolita is inspired by the clothing of Victorian women and children. It often aims to imitate the look of Victorian porcelain dolls. Other influences include goth style, horror movies, the punk subculture and anime characters.

Harajuku burst the first time on the scene in 1964 - the Olympic year. The Olympic gymnasium and the village being located very close, the prospect for meeting someone famous in the street attracted many people attention. Today, the sector includes the Takshita Street, The Avenue of Meiji Dori and The Aavenue of Omotesando Dori.

The Takeshita Dori Street is opposite to Takeshita Dori Exit of Harajuku Station. Here, the stores sell the most extraordinary mixture of the goods reflecting the Japanese concepts of “nice”, “cool and American” and "rebellious and British". In other words a strange mixture of Hello Kitty, hip-hop and infamous British punk. As for the customers? Well, any shape of fancy dress accepted.

Turn right at the bottom of Takshita Dori Street, walk along Avenue of Meiji Dori as far crossroads, then turn left into avenue of Omotesando Dori. Sunday, the avenue of Omotesando Dori is fulled with street performers. Look out for the resident Rockerbilly Band.

Timing is certainly amiss, but quiffs rise high. Thus as well as the two men in the costumes which lose the major part of their day speaking with pink rabbits, it is certainly a curiosity. At the end of the avenue of Omotesando Dori, you will find Aoyama, an elegant sector full with the expensive stores and boutiques.

For however more street performance on sunday head up to Yoyogi park. It's near Harajuku station. The plaza of NHK broadcasting is across it. You'll be in Shibuya only five minutes
walking over the plaza.

Harajuku became famous in the Eighties due to a great number of street performers and an extravagant dressed teenagers who crowded there on Sunday when Omotesando traffic was closed. This led to the vibrant “Hokoten Band Scene”. This was stopped at the end of the Nineties and of the number of performers, visual Kei fans, rockabilly dancers and punks firmly decreased since.

Harajuku is as much a mythical entity as it is ground Zero for Tokyo street style; its mysterious borders blend with nearby, upmarket Aoyama and bustling Shibuya. Here, in its tangled back alleys, lives the New Japan where left-wing artistic types mix with fashion-conscious teenagers in one oxymoronic mélange of youth culture. Meanwhile, the beau monde fights for turf on Omotesando— a concrete catwalk and Tokyo’s Champs Elysées—as creatives toil away in the quiet back streets of Aoyama and sports enthusiasts take in a game on the grounds of Meiji Jingu’s Outer Gardens.

Today on Sunday one can see many Gothic Lolita also many foreign tourists taking photograph of them on the way to Meiji Srine. Some tourists are astonished to see so great exposure of the Japanese youth dressed in often shocking outfits. Close to the train station there is Meiji Shrine, which is a popular attraction of tourists, just like the Yoyogi Park.

Also close to the Takeshita Street, a street furnished with the shops of mode and the various goods, mostly for young teenagers, and Omotesando, a very long street with the coffees and the upscale mode boutiques, popular with residents and tourists. http://harajuku-style.blogspot.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wiradhitya_Nugraha http://EzineArticles.com/?Harajuku&id=536821