Harajuku is making history. That is, if making history means having your very own book that chronicles your birth and development, which is then followed by an internet debate over the objectiveness of said book. 

Tokyo-based fashion writer and editor Tiffany Godoy released a book this spring called Style Deficit Disorder about the ever-changing, ever-fascinating world of Harajuku fashion from the post war period to the present. The neighborhood of Harajuku has become synonymous with youthful and creative grassroots fashion movements because bizarre and intriguing fashion subcultures, like the recent Gothic Lolita look, get heavy play in both local and international media. 

Meanwhile however, Japan’s vocal Internet fashion watchers are keen to point out that the neighborhood has become trapped in what they would describe as a self-fulfilling cycle of cool. This discussion inevitably leads to the debate of: Was Harajuku ever really that cool?  And, if it was, is it still cool?

Probably. Probably not.  Of course for every cool hunter, the next best thing to finding something cool, is declaring it’s no longer cool. Here are my two cents. 

Doing my research assignments for Fashion Snoops I spend a lot of time hanging out in the shopping districts of Shibuya Ward, which encompasses pretty much all of the fashionable neighborhoods: Harajuku, Shibuya, Omotesando, and Daikanyama. Each area has a different interpretation of the trends at hand, though I would have to say that little, if any, of the original fashion coming out of Harajuku these days is particularly new. The punk, gothic, and decora stores that make Harajuku famous change their looks to match the trends of the season (more plaid last Fall, more tiered mini skirts this Spring) and some of the t-shirts, obviously intended for tourists, have been there for years. 

Though Harajuku’s main drag Takeshita Street is typically crowded, the stores lack the kind of energy found one train station away in central Shibuya. While both neighborhoods attract international attention, this point seems to say it all: the tourists flock to Harajuku, the scouts hang out in Shibuya. 

At the moment, Shibuya, centered around teen fashion Mecca Shibuya 109, is having its own fashion revolution. Called “Real Fashion,” this movement rejects expensive foreign brands with their sleek advertising campaigns in favor of domestically designed affordable, wearable, and ultimately adorable ensembles. Never mind that many of the looks are taken from European runways, the point (and this is what is interesting to trend scouts) is how the looks are put together, the fact that they are immensely popular, and that the movement has produced its own fashion icons. 

The unofficial slogan for the movement is “fashion for girls by girls” and indeed some of the designers, PR reps, and even CEOs are former shop girls. The latest trend is for magazine “reader models,” subscribers who apply to be amateur models for the magazines, to become stars in their own right. While this sounds pretty grass roots to me, the girls in question tend to prefer pink to politics, cuteness to edginess, and are far too perky to be considered cool in any traditional sense.  

Harajuku, on the other hand, with its pale-faced, sullen teens and flea market style shopping promenade complete with costume-esque fashions and hand-drawn signs offers a far more poetic image of youth culture with an undeniable romantic appeal. This is why, I think, visitors from both Japan and abroad are drawn to Harajuku: not so much for the fashion or the current scene, but for this image, which regardless of impact or trend, is undeniably attractive. Cool or not.