Portrait of a Gyaru
Towards the last chapter of the 20th Century, Gal culture was on display at full force on the streets of Shibuya.
The cutting edge fashions and culture were organic products of the momentum of the youth. The excitement with just a hint of the carefree and colorful attitudes in the air, are forever preserved in just 369 pages within the captivating photo book, Shibuya 1999.
Captured by CLOWN, a collaborative unit consisting of legendary photographer Mike Nogami and Masami Takahashi, and published by Tokyo's Zen Photo Gallery. The photos capture a captivating array of portraiture and full street scenes, of which Nogami was especially fascinated.
"After twenty years of living in the United States, I returned to Tokyo and found that countless things had changed." He wrote "I saw many Westerners and was glad to see Tokyo as a cosmopolitan city. Yes, there are many blonde-haired "Westerners" in Tokyo. But to my amazement, most of them are actually young Japanese who have dyed their hair bleach blonde. Among them are a group of girls who call themselves “Gals”
Most are 16 to 18 years old. In a characteristic accent and vocabulary, they chat loudly with one another, or on cell phones in public places such as commuter trains. Sometimes they crouch in the middle of a busy sidewalk in small groups, chatting and smoking endlessly. They squat down on the sidewalk just like peasants used to in the past. Most people consider them very rude since modesty is expected for Japanese girls. While many people find little good in them, I can see a certain kind of aesthetic sense in these Gals”
Vividly capturing over 500 images of the scenes of youth culture at such a defining time in history. Sources tend to incorrectly describe the fashion as having been an imitation of western trends, but the whole core of the movement was to dress like those closer to home. The charismatic shop staff at the towering landmark; Shibuya 109, magazine models and superstar musicians like Amuro Namie and Hamasaki Ayumi.
