Shibuya 109-2: The Wild Party is Over

Dig if you will a picture of packs of dandified men roaming the streets in absurd distressed jeans, limited edition T-shirts with naked women printed on them, adorned with all manner of taste defying metal accessories, capped off by pointy shoes suitable for killing cockroaches in corners. The glittering images conjured up by the brand names alone tell you most of what you need to know about the look: Jackrose, Mayhem, Black Flame, Wild Party, Lick Riot, and, yes, Vice Fairy.

Since opening its Oniikei ("Big Brother Style") men’s floors in 2006, the Shibuya 109-2 building in Shibuya (duh) had become ground zero for those loveable big-haired roustabouts known as Gyaruo (“Male Gals”) and Center Guys and other purveyors of some of the most extreme fashions to be found anywhere on earth.

The logic behind the lifestyle was pure Evolutionary Psychology: some young Japanese men were willing to dress really silly because – like nature’s peacock or another such bird of paradise – resembling one’s own object of desire is sometimes the best way to attract a mate. In short, in order to fuck a Gyaru (the sort slurped down crepes and shopped at Shibuya 109 proper), it often helped to look like a Gyaru. So basically, no. They weren't gay, despite the jokes everyone made about them. Exhibit A below...

Since no was marketing men's clothes for such a highly specialized purpose, early-adopted Gyaruo were said to wear their girlfriend’s – or latest conquest’s – clothes in a pinch. And so, reacting with typical speed to a burgeoning market, the Japanese fashion industry gave these bold men a Kingdom of Their Own.

Originally, the 109-2 building existed merely an afterthought to the main 109-shopping complex just down the street. In addition to housing a Hello Kitty store, it mainly dealt in mega cheap girl’s accessories. The typical customers were female middle school students. But in the wake of the new Gyaruo boom and the instant success of the 109-2 men’s floors, a new empire was forged by foot soldiers who looked like this...  

National demand for Vanquish Sex is Heaven jumbo towels and Buffalo Bobs Coffee and Donut underwear became so high that Mini-men’s floors began popping up at other 109 stores across Japan, including Machida, Shizuoka, and Ichikawa. Competing retailer Marui even got into the act by transforming one of the floors inside their 0101Men building (oringinally set up to compete with high fashion retailer Isetan Mens) into a “Gorgeous” and tacky shopping arena populated by the same brands that had become synonymous with 109-2, such as...

 

Of course, I also got caught up in the madness and mania surrounding the 109-2. After I’d written my book Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbook, I’d become invested and curious about where the energy in trashy low-rent youth culture was headed next. And so, trips to the 109-2 store soon became mandatory for me in order to follow the trail to the new frontier, although the reception to my presence at 109-2 – indeed, to any gaijin who dared to venture inside – was chilly at best. The quizzical and mildly offended expressions from the staff and customers gave off a none-too-subliminal message: THIS IS OUR SCENE, YOU DON’T BELONG, GET OUT AND GO HOME. After a lifetime of not belonging and outsider status, the last thing I was going to do was take this personally. They had a point, so how could I complain? Although I was guilty of dipping my toes into a few pairs of jeans and indulging in a couple of accessories, the last thing I wanted to do was look, or act, like this stupid guy...

Fast forward to Fall 2010…the classic Gyaruo has become an endangered species. You simply don’t the see guys looking like men’s egg models bumming around on the streets of Shibuya anymore. It is as if they’ve already followed the mythic Gonguro and Manba into the dusty pages of history. Clearly, some of the original kids graduated or leveled up to the more complete host clubs look and lifestyle…a trip to Shinjuku, Kabukicho on any given night will turn up hundreds of big haired dudes in cheap suits desperately trying to make a buck. But something deep and fundamental has changed at the base of operations. And all is not quite right at the Shibuya 109-2...  

Wednesday night, around 6pm, scene of the crime: the 5th floor of 109-2…The second I stepped into the Jackrose store, a sales clerk literally begins chasing me around the show floor with a sales catalog in his hand until I broke down and let him give me the hard sell. He lead me to a stack of JACKROSE / ROLLING STONES / AC/DC collaboration shirts – a product line that about as fresh and exciting as Mick Jagger (age 67) and Angus Young (age 55) are themselves.

I passed by the remains of the CASVA store, which once sold “gorgeous” purple zebra jackets and imitation snakeskin trousers, suitable for a ‘70s Times Square pimp or a duke of Dogenzaka street. Now, all that once glittered was gone, replaced by boring and drab American Casual gear. But the main shock came from the simple and plainly apparent lack of customers inside the 109-2. Clerks sat behind registers playing with cell phones or reading from books (!!!), barely trying to look busy anymore. The VANQUISH store, formerly the best-selling brand at 109-2, looked like a Neutron Bomb had gone off inside. A sad black & gold Adidas tracksuit under a fake crystal chandelier surveyed the scene like the Ghost of Christmas Past.

I had to get out. I made for the escalator down and had nearly passed the threshold of safety when someone grabbed my arm and began to pull. It was the clerk from the S.I2.C. store. “Okyakusan! Okyakusan!” (“Customer! Customer!”) he screeched, like one of those man-starved hillbilly women in an old Popeye cartoon – or a post-war street hooker. In America, this is where you reach for the pepper spray, but in Japan, all you can do is meekly say “Sumimasen, sumimasen” and try and get the fuck out. And thus did the 109-2 rid itself of me…

After spilling out on the street, I struggled to find some answers for what had happened. How had 109-2 gone on the skids so fast? Why did everyone inside suddenly want to be my best friend when before they were laughing behind my back? An insider, who chooses to remain anonymous speculates: “It’s sad. No one can afford to wear and enjoy stupid clothes anymore. I think most of those guys are just shopping at (low-budget and largely suburban bad taste retailer) Shimamura now.” Hey, at least it’s not H&M or Forever 21, but still…

Other possible factors at work:

1. The Marxy theory (initially said as a joke, but I’m willing to consider it because crazier things have happened): Since most guys dressed like Gyaru in order to attract Gyaru, maybe the gambit worked all too well. Everyone (even this guy) got a girlfriend or got laid and just didn’t need to invest in Vanquish SEX IS HEAVEN rubber bands anymore.

2. The economic theory: 109 proper remains a busy bustling shopping center that now attracts female customers from around the world. Low priced items are the main draw. The “gorgeous” men’s goods at 109-2 never really reached the same level of affordability, and made a stupid move by beginning to focus on “limited edition” high profile tie-up goods with licensed properties like One Piece, Snoopy, even James Bond at prohibitive prices.

3. The big chill: A fashion movement based on cataclysmic levels of bad taste simply could not be expected to sustain itself for very long. Some of the basic Oniikei style DNA will survive in the form of host fashion and in the pages of Host Knuckle and Men’s Spider magazine but whatever larger trend there was has clearly cooled.

4. The world is not yours: Unlike the Gyaru look typified by Shibuya 109, which offers fare both extreme enough for the really wild girls *and* is diverse enough in terms of style to attract business interest from foreigners, guys dressing up like that was truly Some Next Level Shit that was never acceptable even at the best of times in Japan, let alone something that could attract anything beyond gasps of horror and laughter abroad.

5. Zen. Shinto.

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Although the writing is on the wall, I doubt that 109-2 will go down quietly. The store staff inside have clearly been yelled at and probably slapped around until they bled from the nose to turn up the charm and go after anyone who ventures within, even a weird-looking Mexican American approaching middle age like myself.

But style is a weird and unpredictable thing. You can’t really make anyone wear any of this garbage, especially if they already bought a few items, got the joke, and feel like moving on now. You *can* spend a billion dollars on a marketing campaign, but there are no safe bets on whom, if anyone, will come through the door after total control over the customer base has ceased. And yet, still, it should never be forgotten, even in the heart of darkness that not all sales are final...

I was on my way out the 109-2 building, perhaps for good (although I'll continue to survey the scene from afar via this blog), just as another customer made his arrival. He was surrounded by a group of three or four girls who took his picture as he happily grinned, reveling in the sheer joy of JUST BEING THERE in Shibuya...at the *actual* 109-2, loving the "all new, all different" shopping experience as much as I held contempt for it. The clothes he was wearing were nothing special, but that could be changed easily so long he paid by cash, credit, or debit. I tried to pick up on what he was saying to his adoring flock of females, but I couldn't figure out a word of it.

He was speaking Chinese.

Comments

[David Cabrera]

Please don't tell me SLANGY will go next! Anything but SLANGY!

[Patrick]

David: I've never actually *seen* anyone wearing Slangy, and their store at the 109-2 was a bereft of customers as the rest of 'em, but rest assured, they are still in the game.

[Steve Harrison]

As goes fashion, so goes all pop culture. Bandai, harken to the truth!

Over-specialization leads to DEATH. The snake eats its tail until there is nothing left.

[steve mockus]

Great post. I'm interested to see what bubbles up next.

[Chris_Waltz]

Hi, Patrick, I took this to write something -in spanish- in my Host blog, I hope you dont mind.

You can read it here http://sphostclub.blogspot.com/2010/11/el-fin-del-109-2.html

Cheers from Spain!