eveningdressol

In the trendy Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo, the latest street fashions, like thigh-high boots, are on display in shop windows.

Despite rave reviews from industry insiders, Fur Fur — a new brand that mixes airy cotton frocks with distressed trench coats — has only one small store in Tokyo.

With city sidewalks as their catwalks, young Japanese flaunt carefully layered tops and thigh-high boots sporting labels like Galaxxxy, Phenomenon and Function Junction.

But most of Tokyo’s clothing designers have not figured out how to cash in on the city’s fashion sense. Only a handful of Japanese brands, like A Bathing Ape or Evisu Jeans, have gained traction beyond the nation’s shores. Chic local labels like Fur Fur and Garcia Marquez Gauche remain mostly unknown outside Japan.

Experts say that the nation’s fashion industry is too fragmented and too focused on the domestic market to make it overseas.

“For much of this decade, fashion trends have started in Japan and gone global. But Japanese brands don’t even realize that,” said Loic Bizel, a French-born fashion consultant based in Tokyo. Japan “generates trends and ideas, but it stops there,” he said. “Many brands are not even interested in going overseas.”

So each season, Mr. Bizel takes fashion industry buyers from America and Europe — mass clothiers like Hennes & Mauritz of Sweden and Topshop of Britain — to buy up bagfuls of the latest hits. The designs are then whisked overseas to be reworked, resized, stitched together and sold under Western labels.

In that business model, there is little financial gain for Japan. In 2008, Japan’s clothing and apparel-related exports came to a mere $416 million, dwarfed by the $3.68 billion exported by American apparel companies, and a tiny fraction of China’s $113 billion.

Meanwhile, Japan’s domestic apparel industry is on the decline. It shrank 1.3 percent, to 4.37 trillion yen ($48 billion), in 2008, and is expected to post a steeper decline for 2009 as recession-weary consumers and an aging population cut back sharply on spending.

“Japanese fashion might be considered cutting-edge, but overseas markets have been largely elusive,” said Atsushi Izu, an analyst at the Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo. “Japan’s fashion industry is very fragmented, and most companies lack the resources and know-how to bring their brands to foreign markets.”

How can we make a look that is our own?

And before you jump on the crybaby, pointing-fingers bandwagon, accusing me of talking about things I know nothing about, let me slow your roll and tell you my credentials.

I’m not spotlighting people. I’m spotlighting the styles associated with certain subcultures.

The fashion trends today center around the ’50s and ’60s greaser guys. As for the ladies, we’ve got a pretty colorful blend of ’60s and ’80s, with some ’90s thrown in with the boyfriend jeans and shorts.

Boyfriend jeans are what a certain cut of jean is called. The jeans typically hang lower on the hips and are baggy and worn. Boyfriend shorts go slightly more than halfway down the thigh and are usually rolled up a little and baggy at the waist.

The Java coffee shop gang wears vintage clothes to demonstrate their “earthy” tastes, puffing on their hand-rolled cigs while sipping on a cup of over-rated coffee. But that’s the fashion they abide by.

The Beacon Bar men wear boot-cut jeans with square-toed shoes, tight buttondown shirts and leather jackets. The women wear heels that they can’t actually walk in. Which is why they sit in the same spot for three hours every other night, alternating with the Iron Horse, making sure to get a seat outside or near the window to display their plumage.

“All trends eventually come back, some better than others, jeans trends go out of style once everyone adapts to the trend,” McDonald said.

“I think it went from loud-colored makeup to more subtle colors,” said Arrionna Dryden, Detroit junior.

Weave is more accepted, McDonald said — women are not ashamed to say they are wearing a wig or sew-in — weave is more of a style or trend. Having long hair one day and short the next is okay.

Some changes may be small, but some changes in style are big and more noticed.

The entertainment industry also could be another reason for changes in style.

“In some cases, fashion was extremely tacky, where women wearing more revealing clothing than (girls) before them, and men have lost the will to wear their jeans on their waist and not at the bottom of their butts,”Dryden said.

Styles have changed. While it used to be regular or baggy jeans, it is now skinny jeans or leggings.

Even though styles are constantly changing, some do not see it as a bad thing.

Do you choose curvy jeans when shopping for jeans?

“I have big thighs, I have a big butt, but I don’t have a big stomach or big waist,” said Anansa Sims, a size 12-14 model who co-stars with other voluptuous models in a nude spread in the November issue of Glamour. “A lot of times I’ll find jeans that won’t cover my thighs but probably would be good for my waist, or they’ll come over my thighs but I’ll have to wear a belt with all that extra material buckling around the waist. It’s extremely hard.”

“These come in sizes 2 to 24 and are the perfect jean to help reshape a woman’s body,” Glassman said, citing a built-in power-mesh panty — “think Spanx as a panty built into the jean that lifts and shapes the rear and flattens the tummy.” He has tried the brand’s Push-up Control Bootcut style on many different women. “I must say, everyone looks curvy and sexy in these jeans.”

“You really do not have to spend a lot of money these days to get a pair of jeans that look like high-priced designer denim,” Glassman said a few days after the episode aired. He elaborated on three of his other favorites, not featured on the recent show, “that not only flatter every woman’s figure, but also have a lot of bang for the buck.”

“These jeans are the greatest buy of all time,” Glassman said of $20-and-less Riders, which are different from and even more affordable than the regular Lee jeans Glassman touted on Winfrey’s recent show. “They work amazing on women with larger hips, thighs and butts. They also have a fantastic tummy control technology built in to the front pockets that helps to smooth the midsection.”

It’s honestly only takes swapping out a few items to dress up your everyday jeans.

The “Real Straight” low rise jeans are a recessionista alternative to high fashion (and high price) designer jeans. But the GAP didn’t skimp on style or quality to bring you their jeans at this reasonable price–the “Real Straight” low rise jeans are slim and forgiving. (I should know, I own a pair of my own!) They’re a great union-quality product that’s well worth the price–perfect to catwalk your next picket line or protest in.

Then, swap out her taupey-gray balmacaan coat for a short leather jacket, take away her peep-toe shooties for some flat boots, and throw the clutch in a tote or exchange it for a suede hobo bag. There you would have it, a very simple, yet still chic, casual weekend jeans outfit… all with the same three key pieces!