Echo Afros and Leg Bracelets
Comments: 2
On a quick trip up to the bank this afternoon I noticed a guy with an afro about 2 feet in diameter. This was an “echo afro” – afros having peaked in popularity a year or 18 months ago. Afros were everywhere for a while (some young Japanese guys can look surprisingly good with them) and even displaced those terrible, paid-for dreadlocks that Rasta-manqués saw fit to inflict on innocent passers by. The last year or so has been fairly afro-free (the standard afro morphed into a shaggier, punkier teased-out look) so today’s sighting was confirmation of what I’ve come to call the cork sandal phenomenon.
In the summer of 1992 (I think it was) cork-soled sandals enjoyed a boom among young girls. They were literally everywhere. A friend of mine, Randall Wood, predicted that ‘93 would be corkless (this was to be the backlash year), but that there would be a quercine echo the following year as cork took its final dying steps through the streets where once it reigned, and that’s exactly what happened. I’ve since seen this cycle of trend-backlash-echo play out with all manner of things (in ways I never noticed and suspect don’t occur so thoroughly in Australia) and today’s echo-afro was yet another example.
One trend that seems to be taking longer to play out is the single-rolled-up-pants-leg thing guys have been doing for a couple of years now. I’d say this comes from some gang sign or hip-hop statement from the U.S. Sometimes it’s the right leg, sometimes the left, but you never have to wait very long to see a rolled-up pants leg on some kid somewhere. Today brought an interesting twist to this trend, something I haven’t seen before, and it happened right here in little old Kyodo where I live (this is undoubtedly already entrenched in more-fashionable Harajuku or Shimokitazawa but I haven’t been in town to see it recently*): I saw a guy walking along with a bracelet fastened around his right leg above the calf. Wrists, of course. Ankles, increasingly – but this was quite deliberately done just below the right knee. What can it all mean?
I’m expecting bracelet-below-the-knee will be the mysterious fashion statement of the summer among boys in the know. I’ll keep an eye out for sightings in a constant effort to confirm and refine the cork sandal index and will, of course, keep you posted.
* Kyodo, it must be said, is definitely becoming a cooler place. It’s a university neighbourhood so there’s a big student population. The twist is that it’s the Tokyo Agricultural University, so a lot of farmers’ kids come in from the countryside to spend a few years learning how to receive massive government subsidies. Not generally known for their inherent coolness, these out-of-towners act as great barometers for what’s trendy because they’re such coolness sponges, just soaking it up wherever they find it. The other reason Kyodo is becoming more switched on is that Shimokitazawa (just down the tracks) is becoming somewhat gentrified (a funny word to apply to Shimokitazawa, but there you go). Daizawa, its main residential area just to the south of the station, is through the roof these days, so a lot of the action moves outward from the centre as the centre is taken over by money. Between Shimokitazawa and here (four stops on the local) there isn’t really another station with the bars and atmosphere that can absorb the spill-over cool, so I think Kyodo is looking at some funky times ahead while Shimokitazawa has the inevitable yuppies braying at the gates.
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2002.06.07 (Fri) • 00:28
Comments
Posted by kitchen 2003.09.02, 14:08
Yea that is so true! remember the bell bottoms from the 70’s? they also came back in the late 90’s and are still kinda here. anyway, very good post keep up the good work.
Posted by nathan 2006.09.23, 02:01
what are the leg bracelets called? so i can google and buy one..
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