Asian streetwear is undoubtedly endemic to Asia. The home of streetwear is New York City in the United States. But recently Asian streetwear is now the boss of the streetwear fashion niche. Asian streetwear is heavily influenced by music, art, culture, fashion, and sports in the continent. Streetwear has effectively blended all these sub-cultures into an amazing fashion market.
Aside from being popular in the continent, Asian streetwear is extremely popular all over the world. One of the major reasons for this growth is the numerous social media outlets: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tiktok.
When a popular influencer drops a picture of them rocking Asian streetwear, followers jump on the bandwagon immediately. As a result of this, Asian streetwear is popular among teenagers and young adults.
The most prominent asian streetwear style cults are three; Japanese streetwear, Chinese streetwear, and Korean streetwear.
Japanese Streetwear
Japanese streetwear is inspired by the combination of foreign fashion trends mixed with local fashion. This creates a hybridized look that always rocks the fashion world. Japanese streetwear, like all Asian streetwear, is influenced by music culture. The desire of teens to dress like their favorite hip-hop artists created an entire niche of fashion in the continent. Urban fashion districts like Harajuku, Ginza, Shinjuku, and others are popular in Japan for these amazing streetwear.
Some of the viral Japanese streetwear trends are described below.
Coatigans
A coatigan is a blending of a coat and a cardigan. It hugs the body like a cardigan but has the outward appearance of a coat. Fashion experts believe it went viral because it is not as bulky as a coat, although it is slightly weightier than a cardigan.
Coatigans are mostly matched with skinny jeans, large round earrings, and colorful masks.
The Slouchy Jacket
A slouchy jacket is a jacket or a coat worn halfway across the shoulders. Teenagers are usually seen wearing a monochrome outfit with a flowery slouchy jacket.
Matching Different Plaids
This Japanese streetwear style involves matching plaids of different colors. Complementary plaid colors are worn to avoid color riots.
Only White Attire
This streetwear style focuses on wearing only white from top to bottom. Teenagers and young adults are spotted on the streets of Tokyo wearing complete white attire of different materials.
Chinese Streetwear
Shanghai and Beijing are the hotspots of the streetwear niche in China. From the Xintiandi fashion district of Shanghai to the Sanlitun district of Beijing, teenagers move about in awesome Chinese streetwear. The popularity of Chinese streetwear increased as a result of Tiktok. Tiktok users have increased in millions since the pandemic, and coincidentally boosts Chinese streetwear popularity in the world. Below are some Chinese streetwear trends that have gone viral.
Goth Style
Taking inspiration from gothic music and film genres from the UK, Chinese fashionistas combine dark and smoky gothic styles with touches of bright colors. Young adults are seen rocking black body-fitting dresses with high neck and skirt slits. The look is completed with black high heel shoes.
The Hanfu
The Hanfu is traditional Chinese attire with colorful materials and special styles. Recently, the Hanfu has been modernized and this results in the reduction of layers, addition of mesh fabric, and styles showing a bit of skin.
The modern Hanfu is more experimental and it is now prominent in the Chinese streetwear culture.
The E-boy And E-girl Look
The e-boy and e-girl look involve young adults walking Chinese streets with jackets, multilayered sweaters, baggy pants, and high heel boots. This look involves the application of thick makeup with an exaggerated blush on the nose and cheeks. This look also incorporates crazy hairstyles from famous K-pop stars.
Hip-Hop Craze
This look is almost similar to the enjoy and e-girl look, but more importantly, it is influenced by the Bronx hip-hop style. This trend simulates the dressing styles of famous artists in the United States.
Korean Streetwear
The epicenter of the Korean streetwear trend is the Dongdaemun fashion center. The town is the birthplace of Korean streetwear. Boasting thousands of fabric stores, sewing factories, and wholesale and retail stores. Korean streetwear is affectionately called K-fashion or K-styles.
Korean streetwear was influenced by both local and foreign music cultures. But recently, the local music, drama, movie, and other Korean cultures (Hallyu) are the influencers of K-fashion.
Below are some viral trends in the Korean streetwear scene.
Mask
Since the global COVID-19 pandemic, masks have come to stay as both safety and fashion devices. Coming in several colors and styles, fashionable nose masks have gone viral with K-styles.
Transparent Wears
Several masks, hats, skirts, and pants of transparent materials went viral in Korea this year. Taking advantage of the weather to showcase fashionable light clothing. The Dongdaemun fashion district turned out millions of these see-through attires.
Baggy Pants
Baggy pants have a cozy and comfortable feel that allows the legs to enjoy a breath of fresh air. Several K-pop artists also made baggy pants which are a viral fashion statement in the Korean streetwear arena.
In conclusion, Asian streetwear has come to stay in the fashion districts of the world. It is also important to recall the role of social media in the expansion of Asian streetwear to every nook and cranny of fashion in the world.
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