am I wrong, or is equating oshare and "trendy" sort of false?

I have other problems with the gist here too. That late 30 somethings would want more durable fashion doesn't point to a downturn in the economy or insecurity near as strongly as the ubiquity of used clothing.
Might this not suggest something more of an expanding market presence of a group that's unlikely to invest as much time in their clothes as in their skin? Whose fashion sense is transitioning from "right now" to "timeless"? In the end, it's always the person in the "timeless" suit or dress that looks better.

and this one article in one magazine irrefutably proves your grand theories? this magazine is representative of the entire japanese fashion scene?

back it up more so i can believe.

Just kidding, Japan is the future.

you know what i really like to do?

just believe whatever i want! its the best thing. you know why? cause i'm never ever wrong. witch mean. i am alway right.
witch also means. i am just better then everyone else. cause they are wrong. its great.

Hmm... The fashion world turns from being a furious flaming spinning pinwheel into something more rational and you call it "grinding to a rusty halt"?

There is something to be said for nostalgia I suppose, but dear Marxy, the bubble ain't coming back. Your obsession with a brief period in the fashion history of Japan is both curious and short sighted. It is like picking that one brief spring in Japanese history when it was cool to have carp designs on your kimono and whining about how things are so much worse now. Besides everybody knows botan rules.

I imagine a 90 year old toothless Marxy sitting in his chair babbling to the attendants about bathing ape and the attendants just nodding back politely and wondering if he is trying to tell them he wants a sponge bath even though they just gave him one.

Think about who has ground to a halt.

Bubbles burst, buddy. Best be moving on.

I find these odd complaints. One side is saying, you are probably over-reacting. (If you want data, by the way, just look at the fact that the import luxury brand market has shrunk every year since 1996, now about 40% of its peak value. I get the impression that the market for domestic brands is even worse, although I have not seen the data.)

The other side is saying "D"uh. Get over it." I don't think it's that easy. I am talking about behavior that has been accepted as "Japanese" for the last 50 years that we now understand as mostly products of certain economic conditions. I talk about Ape because I know about Ape, and to be frank, nobody ever requests for me to do a long article on the "DC Boom" or Van. I personally find it interesting that the fashion market in Japan is
changing (contracting and centralizing, mostly) so hey, "get used to it."

In the end, it's always the person in the "timeless" suit or dress that looks better.

Sure, but I think 「おしゃれ」 means being fashionable in a "trendy" way. If they wanted to sell "timeless" clothes, they would not have mentioned the 3 years, they would have just said "timeless."

hey there ! can you email me please ? i'd like to have a chat with you about something.... thx
best
cyril

Hi, Cyril. My messages to you at that address keep getting bounced back to me, so write me at marxy [at mark] neomarxisme.com.

Thanks

'am I wrong, or is equating oshare and "trendy" sort of false?'

Yes you are right, but OTOH thats the street usage of the word.

"I imagine a 90 year old toothless Marxy sitting in his chair babbling to the attendants about bathing ape and the attendants just nodding back politely and wondering if he is trying to tell them he wants a sponge bath even though they just gave him one."

OK now THAT was the funniest thing I've read this week!

"behavior that has been accepted as "Japanese" for the last 50 years"

50? IIRC the bubble ended a decade and a half ago and didnt even last 10 years in total. Anyway, nits having beeen picked far too much already, I see what I think you want to say, but I like others take some issue with how you say it.

BTW I'm curious if 30 something ladies in other places also have a magazine which advocates similar long term wardrobe purchases?

BTW2 the new rich you refer to so much lately and which get so much attention from the tabloid press here are quite honestly a very very small market segment as far as I can see from facts on the street.

At first glance I thought the magazine was called Vigilante and was thinking "Boy howdy, and what a misleading title it is!" But then I saw my mistake and was much less excited.

"Clothes that will still be fashionable three-years later."

This is a good thing, effective risk-management really. Perhaps one could say post-modernity is a kind of grand discussion about managing risk.

Let's address the elephant on the blog:

David, HOW WELL CAN YOU READ (ASIAN) FACES? Note: this isn't a _race_, and nobody wins until everybody does (Mahayana, bitches). I'm just hoping we're still in the "critical period."

CYNICAL BLOGISTAS OF ALL NATIONS, UNITE!

I don't understand.

He seems to think you're an elephant.
(an Asian elephant.)