Yap - Gal brands and if they were to ever to revive. (Lots of Alba Rosa Yap)

 Woooow it's been a whole week!! It's been very un-eventful due to illness and just... snow. So much snow. I wanted to just blog about like the accessibility/idea return of the heisei gal brands returning and my thoughts, a lot of concerns I guess. I don't have a structure to this so i'm just gonna go crazy with my fingers on the keyboard.

I'm gonna start with talking about Alba Rosa, as they shared this article from Zozotown today on instagram and it was a pretty insightful read. They put out an english version for us all to read which I really like.

I think if you're just new to learning about the gyaru subculture, you've heard of this brand. You think "this is a big gal brand!". But you may have also watched one of Darla's tiktoks about how Alba Rosa was actually like, not supposed to, nor did they really want to be a gyaru brand. Alba Rosa was meant to be resort wear, made for wearing on the beach, for vacations. This was a brand image they really wanted to keep, and it's sad to read that the boom of Alba Rosa being popular with gyaru is like, not what they wanted for their image and one of the contributing factors of closing down stores. 

It can be kind of like "well shouldn't they be happy with business being business?!" I think Alba Rosa is not in it for the money. They had a specific vision in mind and if they really wanted money wouldn't they have still been around today? They could be selling coats left and right.

The other being counterfeits! This made me think about buying the MA*RS dupes, which I originally was like, "well they don't make it anymore, so it's fine", but hm, I'm conflicted sometimes. 

Something also mentioned in the article was how the garments were made. A whole image showing the blanket coat process, and how they manufactured their clothing in Japan using specific techniques, and they're only really interested in collaborations if those companies are willing to use those techniques. I own not only two blanket coats, but some other Alba Rosa pieces as well, and I have to say, the quality of the clothing is MUCH different than other brands popular in gyaru. Alba Rosa is also very expensive.  A lot of gals talk about how they wouldn't want to pay more than 50-100 for an alba coat (used... that makes sense), but at retail those coats were EXPENSIVE! I opened up my Rinka in Mexico collection book and a top was like 17000 yen. A top. I pulled out one of my tops and noted the materials were 70% rayon and 30% cotton, compared to my MA*RS items which are mostly polyester. 

I gained an understanding that Alba Rosa was that they had a curated vision, a curated mission, and was just the opposite of what gyaru was at the time, trend after trend after trend. And in today's society were trend cycles are sped up like crazy, I think Alba Rosa has no interest in participating in the fast fashion trend cycle. Also, I think if Alba Rosa were too, the prices for the items would not be cheap. Most of their recent collaborations are the in 35000 -70000 yen range depending on the item. I think for many gyaru and just people today, can people even afford that? I think also many gyaru want to just wear the Alba Rosa hibiscus print, which is only such a small portion of what Alba Rosa had to offer. I would like to see Alba Rosa maybe one day come back, but I think for now, it's good to check out the second hand options and see what there is, and just appreciate the archive, they are super active on instagram!

Which now I am going to bring up, the other brands, and why I think right now it's not going to happen. I think the simple answer of why is: Trend Cycles and Shein.

Trend cycles are simple: If it's not trending in Japan, they won't profit. It's why MA*RS and other brands has stuck to ryosangata and jirai kei these past few years, it's been popular, and people want to buy that. There would have to be a push for old brands to go back to old 2010s which I'm not sure is trending in Japanese fashion like it is in the United States. Japanese stores probably rely more on their Japanese markets than their international markets. I know a few folks on the gram have been talking about a push for gyaru to return, but I think it's more of a generic tsuyome-esque style and a biiit of Hime. Not sure how Agejo would fit in there.

Shein has been replicating old brand pieces for gals to buy and gals are buying them, because it's cheap and accessible. I'll be honest, I think Shein and Temu have kind of warped our sense of how much things should cost, and have ruined our consumption, but also at the same time I get no one wants to spent 300 dollars on polyester tanktop from MA*RS or d.i.a. I have bought from Shein in the past, but everytime it's just been... disappointing. And with Shein on the wave of making agejo dupes, and we have Yuki on taobao, it's probably better for MA*RS to like, not go back to sugargloss, unless they make a whole bunch of new stuff. It'd be interesting to see, but if MA*RS goes back to their old prices (60-100 usd probably) I can picture gals complaining that it's too much and you can get it on Shein.

There's a few things I think that would help gal brands come back, which I think for 2025 I am going to work on/see if it plays out:

• (See if it plays out) If the US removes the de minimis exemption for apparel items that would shake things up in the e-commerce world. So many companies utilize the de-minimis exemption and the lesser import fees of other countries to just not distribute worldwide. Though, import fees are paid for by the consumer, the sender has to fill out a lot more forms! I know recently Mexico has restricted duty-free imports on apparel items, which e-commerce companies utilized to ship clothing to the US (mass import to mexico, de minimis exemption ur order to the US!). This I think is going to shake things up, but the US would have to update the deminimis rules to change how e-commerce worked.
• With current claims for upping tariffs, my research made me realize this only will affect big box shopping for mass imports but your e-commerce packages are affected if they're under 800 dollars. I think if we honestly just kept tariffs the same but removed de minimis, e-commerce would change like crazy. I am not a global trade expert btw just a gal who was confused seeing US gyaru panic about their mercari JP shipments (are yall typically buying more than 800 dollars worth of items each haul?)
• I think this year, no more ma*rs yuki dupes for me. I purchased them last year with the idea of adding more to my closet, and they are nice, and I won't judge other gals who do, it's what we got. 
• If MA*RS ever moves back to the sugargloss days or another gal brand pops back up/comes out, I want to support them! 
• I know when Himekiss released some gal prints of their items I copped one, I still need to wear it out! 
• I also follow Ribbon Rose and hope to get one of their dresses later this year, they're super cute for the Hime Gyaru out there looking for a new brand.
• I won't buy from Shein. I won't judge ya if ya do though! For me, I just want to not buy cheaper clothing because it's what there is. I think this year I want to get second hand pieces (for a good price) or save up for higher quality items. I think for everyone, we're all on different levels of consumption, and that's OK!
• I also will re-iterate that I will not judge those who buy from Shein. I also understand that different countries are WAY different than the states, and Shein may just be all ya got! This is a personal thing.
• I'd like to get more into researching fashion and textiles to see what kind of techniques could be used to make clothing! Maybe 2026 I'll have to make an Agejo brand myself! 😉