You define creativity as “variations”!? I’m far from lost my friend.

I do not doubt at all that Harajuku had an incredibly diverse underground culture which led to huge full blown trends like Gothic Lolitas and Punks. But please do not define that as “creativity.” Those are trends not creativity.

regarding noodles comment:
>>Nothing original has ever come out of harajuku, they have just reinvented or reinterpreted the past with Japanese precision.

You could say that about nearly any modern artform. I think you misunderstanding creativity: it’s all about variations on a theme my friend.

That is Harajuku today, We can all ooh and aah about the fabled harajuku past but those days have long gone. The independents that once graced the scene have gone.

Nothing original has ever come out of harajuku, they have just reinvented or reinterpreted the past with Japanese precision.

Okay, point taken.

I am also the author of the essay and chose those exact words to express what I wanted to say, despite those words not being the perfect phrasing for some readers.

Personally, I don’t see Harajuku as any well-spring of fashion creativity at all.

There is creativity from kids, stylists, brands, editors, and companies – but it is not just solely kids who are making it all work. Harajuku has been a locus of creativity for Japanese fashion, but it’s a complex ecosystem involving all parties.

A lot of the looks do get overly-codified like Punk and Goth, but some do not. I am not trying to make the same case as you that these subcultures are not “real” enough.

hum…then maybe start by use words like “commerce” and “advertising” instead of the more politically charged “capitalist transaction” and “artifical need creation”

>Harajuku, of course, is not the only youth culture mecca owning its power to capitalist transaction and artificial need-creation…

You seems to be using the language of political and economic studies in comdemning that very line of argument as it applies to Harajuku. To me the idea of “artifical need creation” is laden with socio-economic notions of wastefulness, conspicuous consumption, materialism, and perhaps even class and exploitation.

It’s as if you’re saying “let me have the final word on capitalism as it relates to Harajuku–let’s not have another word on this moving forward”

Personally, I don’t see Harajuku as any well-spring of fashion creativity at all. One could argument it’s perhaps populated with some of the most unoriginal youth fashion around: the dominant looks are based around dressing up like some Visual Kei band members who established the look at least a decade ago right? A look that, like punk rock, once evoked notions of rebellion and confrontation which is now purchased on the open marketplace like so much lifestyle advertising.

Punk and Goth ceases to be a valid form of social statement when you’re getting your painstakenly stylized jeans dry cleaned in Saitama, and as an act of individual expression it’s pretty powerless considering they are more or less faithful rips of visual kei band members, which are themselves derivations of prior bands.