Natalie Alvarenga
Integrative Seminar 2: Fashion
Research Paper Proposal
Research Question (see chapters 3-4 of The Craft of Research for more info on fleshing this out)
I am studying the way Japanese subcultures have been appropriated because I want to find out why or how the subculture in japan has declined in order to help my reader understand how taking appropriating a style and making it mainstream affect the smaller subculture negatively.
Keywords (terms related to your research topic that you’re using to find academic sources)
Culture appropriation, Japan, Harajuku, Subculture, Style, Mainstream.
Background/Context (what you currently know about this topic)
In Harajuku, Japan in the 90’s there was a strong sense of style and creativity bursting in that district, Fruits Magazine would document this phenomenon and inspiration for his magazine. Now the magazine has stopped publishing, because there aren’t enough unique and free styles to document. The subcultures that existed within that space during that time have disappeared. Some blame Gwen Stefani for using them as inspiration in her videos and perfume campaigns. She culturally appropriated the Japanese styles she saw in Harajuku, spreading the subculture style of Japan to the US. As the Harajuku area gained popularity, big companies opened there like UNIQLO, changing the style of the area.
Preliminary Argument (your current stance on the research question based on initial research)
I intend to argue that the spread of Harjuku’s subcultures to the mainstream led to the disappearance of their unique style.
Significance (the “so-what” factor; think about the significance to our IS2 class, Parsons School of Design, The New School University, and the larger fashion community)
The significance of this research is to examine how a subculture disappears and why this happens.
Research Outcomes (discuss the final paper and the larger connections you intend to make to your Studio garment project, if any)
My research will result in a final research paper that connects the Harajuku style to subcultures in New York City in the 90’s and how their style gets accepted in to the mainstream culture.
Annotated Bibliography (include a CMoS bibliographic citation and brief annotation for reach source that informs your understanding and writing)
Requirements:
- Primary sources – at least one
- Secondary sources:
- 2 books (one of these two must be an academic/university press)
- 2 journal articles (Academic Search Complete, ProQuest, JSTOR, etc.)
- Variety of at least 7 other credible sources.
Below is an example of a proper entry:
Annotated Bibliography
Wilson, Andrew. Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin. New York: Scribner, 2015.
This recently published biography by Andrew Wilson provides deeper insight into Alexander McQueen’s personal life, including information on his upbringing, romantic relationships, and the struggles that continued to haunt him after he attained success. This text will inform my understanding of the designer’s life, both in a professional and personal sense, allowing me to bridge connections to his design work. I will use this biography to supplement my current understanding of McQueen’s life, further considering the struggles he faced while working on collections such as my primary focus, Plato’s Atlantis.
Research Table: This ongoing table will include evidence from the sources in your Annotated Bibliography. As you read and process each of your sources, record information that helps you answer your research question in each of the following columns. Use footnotes to denote the individual citations. *Research Paper Hack: If you create the footnotes here, you can just copy and paste them into your paper in the coming weeks. Below is an example:
| Observation | Location | Interpretation |
| The use of armadillo shoes created quite the spectacle. | “The famous ‘Armadillo’ shoes shocked fashion insiders and the general public alike. These twelve-inch python stilettos literally stole the show despite the face that several models refused to step out onto the runway in them, for fear of breaking a leg.” | These shoes are a major piece of McQueen’s vision for the show, revealing his ideas for the interaction of humans and nature. |
| 2. Repeat process with second piece of evidence … |
Citation: Bain, Marc. “Japan’s wild, creative Harajuku street style is dead. Long live Uniqlo.” Quartz. February 22, 2017. Accessed March 12, 2018. https://qz.com/909573/japans-wild-creative-harajuku-street-style-is-dead-long-live-uniqlo/.
| Building big business in a creative district with small business kills the creativity and way to flourish. | “In Tokyo there is a kind of flow of energy when it comes to fashion,” Aoki explains. “Harajuku is the source of this flow. If you picture it as the source of a river, then recently there have been factories erected on its banks, and businesses have appeared, but they have stressed the limits of this little fountainhead.”
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The big factory’s they refer to are stores like Uniqlo. Having them in an area such as Harajuku threatens the creative wave that existed in the area. This will kill smaller shops that are selling more creative fashion that a uniform type of clothes found at uniqlo.
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| Harajuku’s style hotspot has changed as years gone by since its peak of unique style in the 1990’s. | “But Harajuku has changed. That frenetic signature image has been co-opted and commercialized by corporations, celebrities, and attention-seekers, and ultimately replaced by one more conservative and less unique among Tokyo’s style-conscious kids. These days, they’re more likely to wear mass-market clothing from Uniqlo and other international clothing chains.”
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Big name brands have taken over Harajuku and taken the truly unique style. Brands like uniqlo sell clothes that are more uniform that you would find in a thrift store or a small business in the area. Since corporations have taken over the style seems to have become more uniform. It’s almost like the brands replace ways to think creatively about clothing and the “rules” of fashion. |
| Harajuku in the 90’s allowed for smaller designers to prosper and spread. | “In the mid-1990s, the less-commercial Ura-Harajuku section of the area—urameaning “back”—blew up. From this base, the pioneering Japanese streetwear labels Undercover and A Bathing Ape launched their globally popular style, known locally as Ura-Harajuku-kei.”
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Now Harajuku’s commercials take over with shops like h&m and Forever 21, there is lack in the creativity in the way people dress. In the past brands were experimenting and creating new ideas and had a place to spread them, but their influence dies down next to commercial stores. |
| Aoki would photograph unique rebellious style that would challenge ideas of fashion, showing him style he’d never seen. | “But these girls had made a style that was completely theirs,” Aoki says, describing how they mixed Japanese styles and motifs with Western clothes, to create an image that wasn’t dictated by any brands. “This kind of adventurousness was unheard of,” he recalled. “I had never seen yellow hair before. These completely new girls appeared and seemed to have the potential to make a new style that had never existed previously in Japan. What’s more, this new style was coming from the street, and I had a feeling that this was the first time for this to happen in Japanese fashion history.”
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The magic of creating a rebellious sense of style is taking from creative influence or just your own intuition and creating that sense of adventure and experimentation Harajuku once had. Aoki says, people still look good, but are not unique. Reflecting the way people have stopped to think creatively about the act of dressing. |
Notes: (you can organize notes according to source or topic. Clearly distinguish three kinds of notes: (1) what you quote, (2) what you paragraph and summarize, and (3) your own thoughts. You can use different colors to distinguish this).
