Popteen July 2013, June 2013 and May 2013
To encourage to post more, I’ve decided to start a special feature, ‘Japanese magazine of the week’ or JMofW. Still working on that acronym so bare with me (suggestions are really appreciated). This is where I feature one Japanese magazine a week as the name states. I talk about the magazine give basic information, show who the popular models of the magazine, the style and even scans from the latest issue. It’s my way of spreading out Japanese fashion to the masses.
This week’s magazine is Popteen. Now when I first got interested in gyaru back in ‘06, it was all research and besides Egg, Popteen was my book. I loved to dig through the various sites to catch glimpses of Tsubasa Masuwaka rocking the latest style at the time. Over the years, people have said it’s no longer gyaru. But I disagree, it’s just a different form of gyaru, maybe leaning more towards mainstream. But they regularly talk about gyaru fashion within those pages.
Popteen’s publisher is Kadokawa Haruki Office and the magazine’s official site is http://www.galspop.jp/. It goes on sale on the first day of each new month. Right now the July issue is out however the latest one I have is the June issue. In Japan it sells for 480 yen (approx $4.80 USD) in Japan. That’s extra cheap to me considering I used to spend $20 USD for a magazine over here.
The magazine was first published October 1st, 1980. It is a women’s fashion magazine targeting teenagers or those in the 10s range. The magazine contains articles on fashion, beauty and teen life. According to neojaponisme’s The Japanese Diet vs. Popteen, Popteen wasn’t always a ‘boring’ magazine and used to have more sexual content until government intervention. I guess it’s the definition of you don’t really know someone until you’ve looked into their closet. Probably changing to consumer demand. They have had various celebrities on the covers over the years such as Koda Kumi, Namie Amuro, Ayumi Hamasaki and Britney Spears to name a few.
Two popular faces for the magazine right now are Shiina Hikari or Pikarin. Last year she had a major debut as a Akiba-Gyaru-Harajuku idol singer. As well as Funayama Kumiko or Kumicky, who is now the face of the magazine. I like to think of her as Tsubasa’s replacement.
Kumicky couple years ago → Kumicky 2013
Pikarin couple years ago → Pikarin 2013
Some popular former models who are now in the mainstream include Tsubasa Masuwaka, Komori Jun, Suzuki Nana and Rola.
Here are some old covers from back in the day, taken from here (more at the source). As you can see, there’s a lot of Koda Kumi, Namie Amuro, BoA and Ayumi Hamasaki. That’s why I refer to them as the ‘queens of J-pop’ because of influence they had fashion-wise on an entire subculture. Whether purposely or not, is another story.
Magazines from the early to mid 2000s
I want to say that Popteen is constantly changing to the latest trends. You can see back in the early 2000s, bronzers and a light tan was the ‘it’ trend. Around mid 2000s they started to stop that, going more white skin look. While the hair ranges from black to blonde in varying shades of browns and blondes. The thing arch eyebrows are now thicker, and the Korean eyebag, all in the attempt to look younger. I’d be lying if I said they looked older. I feel the trend is for lighter make up, some where I read that new gyaru trend is looking ‘haafu’ (mixed-race) rather than foreign. And I can see that, definitely. It’ll be interesting how their August and December issues look since those are the ones where the editors try to switch it up a bit. Though I do love the June issue from straying away from the overused pink.
Credits go to Zasshiko for the scansLabels: fashion, gyaru, japanese fashion, Japanese magazine, Magazine, Magazine of the week, Popteen
