Frumpy geekiness is height of Tokyo cool - IHT Article

[nqth]

from
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/17/opinion/rnerd.php#

A frumpy geekiness is height of Tokyo cool
By Kaori Shoji
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2006


TOKYO You would never think such a thing could happen, but evidence points to the once-unthinkable conclusion: It's hip to be a geek, at least if you live in Tokyo.

Fashionwise, this means boys in specs have come to have almost the same subtext as boys in leather jackets, and the same goes for oversized lumber-jack shirts, discount shop jeans, shapeless sneakers.

Salon-cut hair is out as well, since geek style calls for the kind of hair that looks as if it had fallen on a guy's head as he fought his way through a wind tunnel. The geek also favors synthetic materials over natural ones (much easier to clean and maintain) and will choose to wear shapeless fleece pullovers in colors like spinach green (such colors are the last to go and therefore always on sale), purchased at the local casualwear outlet Uniqlo, where China-manufactured fleece jackets sell for ¥1,500, or about $13. For the geek, springing for a wool jacket or sweater is the height of useless extravagance; money should be spent on the latest videogame software.

As for a frenetic workout at the local gym to attain that washboard stomach, nothing could be further from the mind of this new class of hipsters. If a geek has an extra hour, he'll spend it by his computer. Unsexy is the new sexy.

"They just look so much more sincere and relaxed about things. At this point, guys who dress well and take care of their appearances are slightly ridiculous," said Sayaka Miyazaki, a 23-year-old party girl. "I can't take them seriously." Actually, Miyazaki isn't saying anything new; glasses and a gentle, humble demeanor have been in for the past two years or more, with the enormous popularity of the Korean star Be Onjun. Be, who looks too shy and too decent to have ever asserted himself over a woman, has become a sex symbol without even undressing from the neck down.

"I think Japanese women are turned off when Japanese or Asian guys advertise themselves," adds Miyazaki. "It feels all wrong, somehow."

In fact, last season's most popular TV series, "Train Man," told the story of a romance between a genuine virgin geek who was totally clueless about how to behave on a date and a successful, immaculately suited woman working in the financial district. She went by the nickname of Hermès (and dressed accordingly), while he wore baggy jeans and plaid shirts.

The whole look now is about not trying. In addition to glasses, the other must-have item for the sexy geek is the sweatshirt and pants set, known in Japan as the jyaajii, or jersey. The Japanese jersey is at once nostalgic and embarrassing; you may find a Japanese who has never worn jeans, but you won't find anyone who has never worn a jyaajii. We wore it during our school years (mandatory during gym and extracurricular activities) and later, men held onto their sets as the ideal home/loungewear.

Pure stretch polyester, totally unflattering on the male body and kitsch to the very core, the jyaajii was a metaphor for the caricature geek, the standard uniform for the stay-at-home guy, munching donuts in front of the computer as the bluish lights of the screen flicker on his glasses.

That metaphor is outdated now as even Comme des Garçons Hommes has come out with the ultimate anti-fashion statement, consisting of classic, old-school jyaajiis that sell for more than ¥40,000 a set (women's sets come with polyester pleated jyaajii skirts). The Japanese sports label Onitsuka Tiger, once considered too absurdly nerdy for words, has opened a Parisian outlet.

"The jyaajii is a strange outfit," says Masanobu Kotani, an Onitsuka fan. "It's neither streetwear nor sportswear. No one can look good in it, not even Brad Pitt or David Beckham. Still, we can't not wear it. Personally, I can't think of relaxing in anything else than the jyaajii."

Kotani will take pains to dress nicely when he's out on a date with his girlfriend, but the minute they return to his apartment, the jyaajii comes on.

"My girlfriend says I look cute and geeky. She says it makes her feel secure that I won't go off and have affairs on the sly," he says. For Christmas, she got him a jyaajii set from Burberry.

As for Kotani, he forgot to get her a gift. "I'm not really good with stuff like romance and presents," he says.

Maybe not, but his girlfriend doesn't seem to mind. Kotani is one of a growing number of sexy geeks who were persuaded by young, sophisticated women to enter into relationships, but being "typical of the model," as he describes himself, he couldn't care less whether love is at his doorstep or not.

Any true-blue geek will tell you that women, after all, are no match for the comfort and pleasure of sitting around in a jyaajii and munching donuts as the lights of the computer screen flicker on his glasses.

:-P

 

[snowqueen]

How perculiar

 

[susie_bubble]

Geek chic has been a trend for quite some time not just in Japan. But I'm VERY intrigued by this jyajii garment - I can't even picture it and I'm racking my brains trying to figure what the hell they're going on about (since I read a ton of Japanese magazines and have been to Japan a few times).

 

[nqth]

I found an article by the same author:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ek20051213ks.htm

Sweetness counts for women in search of geeks
By KAORI SHOJI

First of all, they're not called otaku anymore but go by the much snazzier name of Akiba-kei. With this recasting, it looks like Japan's muscle-less, girlfriend-less, PC/iPod obsessed class of bespectacled oddballs have moved en masse into the cultural mainstream.
No longer the shunned weirdos of yesteryear, Akiba-kei are now reputed to influence everything from stock points to semantics to sexual relationships. So while the New Yorkers looked to the television series "Sex and the City," Tokyoites are looking to Akiba-kei for pointers on love.

After all, the season's most popular TV drama, "Densha-Otoko (Train Man)," was about the relationship between a virgin Akiba-kei who had never dated and an intimidatingly beautiful, sophisticated career woman. To borrow a phrase from my niece Asami (15 "Ussssoooooo, arienaaaaaai! (You're kidding! It can't be happening!)"

Naturally, Akihabara has now been upgraded to Akiba. Though the majority that stomp its streets are still the classic geek types in sleep-flattened hair and bad jeans, there has been a noticeable surge in hip foreigners and sightings of young women, two segments of the populace who until recently, would not have been caught dead anywhere near the place. Supermodels like Naomi Campbell have reportedly been seen there, and actress Daryl Hannah was walking around in Akiba-kei jyaajii (sweats) in Omotesando with a "Toyoko Takkyubu (Toyo High School Ping Pong Club)" inscription. Akiba has actually become oshare (fashionable), a transformation I rate on par with Baghdad becoming a Club Med destination.

And who would have thought that the Akiba-kei could ever become an object of desire among young women looking for marriage? Says my friend Maiko (32 "Mou, moteotoko no jidai wa owatta. Akiba-kei no houga yasashikute, dasakute, kawaii (The age of the hunk is over. I prefer the kinder, nerdier, cuddlier Akiba-kei.)" Indeed, Maiko and her friends profess that the less dating experience a guy has, the more they are susceptible to -- and appreciative of -- feminine charms. So what if they're a little overweight, a little sloppy and have never, ever shopped for Armani? They're sweet, and in the end, sweetness is what counts.

At the same time, Maiko admits: "Akiba-kei otoshi wa muzukashii (It's difficult to bag an Akiba-kei.)" She's right: having played around with digitally animated cuties in cyberspace for most of their lives, Akiba-kei are notorious for their impossibly high standards. To catch their attention a woman must be "kawaii, atsukaiyasui, kyo-nyu, ashi-hoso, dekame de ecchi (cute, malleable, big-breasted, thin-legged, large-eyed and erotic)," as described by hard-core Akiba-kei Yuusuke (35), whose most recent dating experience goes back to his second year in college. "Nama no onna wa dejitaru no kawaiko-chan ni doushitemo makeru (a real woman will always lose out to a digital chick)" he claims and says it's OK because he prefers the digital versions anyway. Asked if he doesn't feel the usual, "I've-been-single-too-long symptoms of loneliness, alienation and self-doubt," Yuusuke shook his head. "I'm not after sexual or conventional relationships. It was never about any of that."

This is precisely what Maiko and other women are up against: the Akiba-kei is uninterested in intimacy; they are after sensations. The closest they get to falling in love is the state of moe (pronounced mo-ay) which means "blossoming." They want to look at a woman (digital or otherwise) and feel an agrarian bloom somewhere in their jaded brains. After that, the Akiba-kei will tend to their blossoms like gardeners fussing over their favorite roses, and if the blossoms should die, well they'll look around for something new.

Nowadays, that something can often be found in the Akiba-specialty: the Medo Cafe (Maid Cafe). In these establishments the waitresses are decked out in full Victorian maid regalia, complete with huge white aprons and little lace caps adorning shiny black braids that hang from each side of their pixie faces. And they will refrain politely from any personal interaction. The Maid Cafes are the Akiba-kei's current No.1 moe hot spots; in the maids, they see a shyness, stoicism and demure charm long gone from ordinary Japanese women. Indeed, why go out with a namano onna when A-kiba beckons, twinkling in all its cyberspace, kosu-pure (costume-play) glory?

The Japan Times: Dec. 13, 2005

*Edit: I don't know if the second article fits in, so please delete if it is not:-)

 

[softgrey]

Geek chic has been a trend for quite some time not just in Japan. But I'm VERY intrigued by this jyajii garment - I can't even picture it and I'm racking my brains trying to figure what the hell they're going on about (since I read a ton of Japanese magazines and have been to Japan a few times).

i was wondering the same thing about the jyajii...
the second article says they are sweats...


thanks nqth....
runner...
have you seen any of this in tokyo?...

 

[Lena]

interesting counter-reaction and quite 'predictable' for young people growing up in a heavy style-consious society like japan.. could start an epidemic..

thanks for the articles ngth

 

[nqth]

You are welcome, Lena:-)

 

[BettyCooper]

pictures!!

 

[helena]

yes thanks nqth - i also feel like geek chic has been around for ages

 

[copper]

that is fab

i must admit, i HATE a guy who is dressed head to toe in logo

 

[runner]

i was wondering the same thing about the jyajii...
the second article says they are sweats...


thanks nqth....
runner...
have you seen any of this in tokyo?...

they are just tracksuits made of synthetic or cotton stockinet.
you'd see people such as frequented secondhand clothing stores wearing them.
those "geeks" have been there.
attention just happened to be being focused on them because of that train man.

 

[nqth]

I saw yellow nylon tracksuit RdC ala Kill Bill, looked very attractive:-P

You are welcome Softgrey, Helena,
Thanks Runner:-)

 

[fixoid]

heh

i guess nobody cares how intelligent the geek is.just like always

.being a geek has always been about image though.if you don't live in your mothers basement and spend more time on the net than bothering with real people then you might as use microsoft.spend more than $12 bucks on clothes and they will disown you in a nanosecond(unless it is an anime merchandising)

one assumes there must be some kind of apocalyptic irony lurking beneath the surface waiting to make people who love dressing up dress as characters form final fantasy.

in conclusion i don't think the nerds will give a f@ck until they actually gat laid.

i should drink less

 

[gius]

it would be awesome to see some pictures too

but i do hope it won't go too far to the point where it's like in canada, where some people don't care at all what they wear. i think it's nice (and maybe important?) to at least look nice and clean...?

 

[nqth]

heh

i guess nobody cares how intelligent the geek is.just like always

Oh def. we are interested in their jerseys only:-))

 

[softgrey]

Oh def. we are interested in their jerseys only:-))

thanks runner...
i have recently also read an article in the ny times about japanese boys who stay in their rooms for many years...
i will try to post this if i can find it again...
i wonder how true this is as well...

 

[Melisande]

googled Jaajii's for you, this is the best I could do to give you an idea of the style...

from bontv.web.infoseek.co.jp

 

[Lena]

hehe, as long as geek-silly cannot be possibly pretentious (too much of a ridicule for a stiff lip to adapt) i accept it as fun / tribal, some kind of anti-fashion approach (i dont care about your comme, i 'do' mainstream and ridiculous)

i can see this jacket being mixed with something more 'interesting' and still 'deliver' the image, still the total look could be hilarious.. wont be too surprised to see this catching up as a mainstream 'direction' for streetwear labels, it's interesting.

btw, i think i've noticed geek/jaajis adapted by -the local- low bap crew..

 

[Sweets]

true true true this look is definitely prevalent

 

[fashionista-ta]

As someone who works with geeks all day long, I must say I hope this trend doesn't spread ...