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Decora Fashion Style Introduction
Decora fashion is a Japanese youth subculture originated in Harajuku in the late 1990s. All indications are that it peaked in the mid-2000s. Decora is characterized by brightly coloured clothing and accessories.
Decora is a popular Japanese style and has become the face of the Harajuku style in the world. The look includes wearing lots of bright colours and layered accessories. The Decora fashion began in the late 1990s and early 2000s and achieved worldwide popularity. Although it peaked in the mid-2000s, it is still very well known and popular.
Who Launched Decora Fashion?
In 1997, the first issue of a Japanese street fashion magazine, FRUiTS, was published. Cover model Aki Kobayashi has written about her style and her handmade accessories. Following FRUiTS magazine, girls began making quirky accessories, and the style became known as Decora.
Decora Japanese Style Guide: The cult of decorative fashion is so childish and cute that it’s like biting into a bubble gum and razor ice cream that has been kept on the icy moon of Europe for a month. If you’re not afraid to wear 16 hair bows and three pairs of socks at once, the topper might be your style.
The word “decora” is a shortened version of “decoration” and is mainly used by young Japanese teenagers. It can often be confused with FRUiTS-Fashion for that outside of Japan, but it’s more about creating an aura of fun or childlike cuteness with layers, bright colours, and tons of jewellery. Popular Decora items include Hello Kitty and Pokémon products, glittery plastic jewellery, colourful hair clips, pom-poms and plush boots. It’s not just about putting things together: a close look at some girls shows the enormous amount of thought that has gone into their eye-catching outfits.
How to Wear Decora Fashion
- Cloak – Layering is one of the most important elements of decorating. Don’t be afraid to put socks over tights or 3 or 4 different t-shirts together. Layering is everything.
- Don’t look like a walking mark – Decora is kids’ fashion, and yes, Hello Kitty and Pokemon are loved but try adding your own personal “thing” to the clothes. Better yet, make your own.
- Don’t suddenly decide you want to start using only decoration. Insist on it gradually.
- Don’t go out with decorations if you don’t have enough accessories or layers for your taste. Otherwise, it will look messy and incomplete.
- Hair plays a very important role in decoration. The most popular hairstyle is simple and cute pigtails. Accessorize with headbands and a bunch of hair clips. Bows are very popular in the decoration world.
- Feel free to decorate yourself with plastic toys. It adds dimension to the decor of your outfit.
- Pretty body jewellery and sequins are nice too. Stick some stars or a smiley face sticker under your eyes.
- Don’t wear too much makeup. This style is about childish playfulness, and you can hardly expect to achieve this look with a ton of makeup.
- Socks are an integral part of the outfit. Feel free to accessorize the tops with ruffles, ribbons, chains and charms
- Decora isn’t just about wearing sky-scratching stilettos. Far from there! Every Decora girl’s wardrobe has a few pairs of bright and cute sneakers and ballet flats.
- Pink is everything. It forms the bulk of the colour a girl chooses to decorate for the outfit. That doesn’t mean you can’t wear black, but if you do, wear lots of pink to compensate.
- Virtual pets are worth gold. Any decorator you respect is not complete without a virtual pet
- And finally, be confident. Most people outside of Japan aren’t aware of your cool fashion sense and may laugh at you or want to take pictures. So smile and say “cheese”!
Decora Fashion – Known for Style
Decora is a playful and childlike style, more focused on using accessories, motifs, and colour schemes. The most visible colours in the Decora style are Pink and Blue.
Decora is a playful and childish style, more focused on using accessories, prints and colour combinations. Shades of pink and blue are popular, as well as pastels, fluorescent colours are also used. Colours are also often abundant, with multi-colour or rainbow themes being popular.
Black Decora (also called Kuro Decora) is almost identical to Decora, but with the obvious exclusion of the bright colours. Besides, the accessories used in Black Decora often lean towards the skull and gothic designs.
Pink Decora is another subtype of Decora that uses mostly pink, as the name suggests.
Hadeko is a sister style to Decora with an emphasis on the bright colours of the rainbow. Outfits are often androgynous and puffy with different types of tie-dye.
Decora Fashion Clothes
This style can be paired with almost any outfit, but the most popular basic fashions are Pop Kei and Fairy Kei. The outfits combine casual wear with lots of layers in the form of multiple hair clips, bracelets, tulle skirts, tights, leggings and barrettes. Clothes can have many patterns, such as colourful patterns, heart patterns, and many others and also, coloured wigs are worn. Face stickers are very common to use with colorful makeup to match clothes.
Decora is inspired by 1980s cartoon characters and the aesthetics and themes of 1980s shows. Characters such as Strawberry Shortcake, Hello Kitty, Care Bears, Pokemon and The Smurfs are popular themes in outfits Decora. T-shirts with these themes or hoodies are in common use.
Tutu skirts are also popular in this style, as well as leg warmers, arm warmers and knee-high socks. So, Decora often offers a variety of textures in an outfit to add to the eclectic style.
Decora Fashion Accessories
There are not too many accessories in Decora Fashion! Accessories should also be cute and abundant. People use accessories like patterned dental masks, bandages with colourful patterns on the bridge of the nose, headbands, hair clips and bows, bracelets, necklaces, rings, etc. An example of the classic use of decorative accessories is using clips to cover her hair and bangs and wearing lots of bracelets to almost cover her forearm.
Decora Fashion Hairstyles and Makeup
People choose to colour their hair in bright colours and use lots of accessories on the hair. Well-liked hairstyles for women tend to be pigtails, braids or curls. These add to the “cute” look of the outfit. For men, long hairstyles are also more popular.
Decora-style makeup is mostly minimal, giving a childish, playful look rather than a mature one. Some also like to accessorize makeup and use glitter, stickers, or crystals in different shapes, such as hearts and stars under their eyes.