Boots for Summer

I do belive that Japanese people are quite keen about catching up with the trend of the moment, and are pretty good at presenting themselves as fashionable. Boots have always been part of the fashion trend and as far as I can remember for about the past decade, the trend varied from super-thick soles and high heels, round toes, squared toes, pointy toes, baggy boots, tight boots, boots with accessories, flat/low heels and so on. But all of that was only for winter.

Beginning last year or perhaps a nother year ago, boots became a fashion item for spring and even summer. Until it became a social stream to wear boots in those seasons, boots were kind of tacitly understood to put away by the end of March. I think that there are chiefly two reasons for this: one is simply because of the climatical reasons because April is warm enough to walk outside without wearing layers of sweaters and coats, and the other is the change of school/fiscal year because March is the end and April is the beginning. Even if you're not directly involved in the change of the year it is highly likely that your surroundings are, and dragging a fashion item from the "past" is not exactly a cool thing to do if you want to make yourself a social person.

Anyway, going back to the boots talk: last winter boots that resemble Western (cowboy/cowgirl) boots became extremely popular especially among women, often coordinated with tiered skirts, short skirts or pants, and blue jeans tucking them inside the boots. Unlike the skinny leg-hugging elegant boots that come up to your knees with pointy toes and pin heels, these Western boots are more casual and easier to wear together with a wider varietion of clothes. They also come in a variety of designs and materials, don't look as season-picky as the other shapes, and go along well with girly clothing so the trend extended into spring (also with the fashion industry's intentions and promotion, needless to say)... and even summer... though I don't exactly remember that many people actually wearing summer boots. For your background knowledge, summer in Japan can be pretty hot and humid and boots can make it worse.

It seems like, however, the fashion industry is trying to establish a firm summer boots fashion this summer be it temporarily or continuous to the following summers. By the way they claim the mainstream for this year are strong colors, and huge (futuristic) prints. Seeing that an increasing number of young people are wearing boots in the season of high temperature and humidity, the brands are coming up with designs that show your toes and heels bare, as well as transparent (plastic) heels. And of course, the parts that wrap your legs are kept short and fresh.

Let's see how much of a real trend this'll become...

Today's update on Japan Mode: budo - "naginata"... the "budo" (Japanese martial arts) section hasn't had an update for a looong time now, and because I introduced a naginata event for this weekend's event I thought I'd give an explanation for what it actually is.