Hi y'all, lil personal thinkpiece today, and I'm going to admit I am not the end all be all of fashion, I am not Anna Wintour. I am just a random person who is noticing things in fashion. I actually was thinking about this more after reading this wonderful blog by Rina READ THE BLOG HERE FIRST!!!! I would read it first before reading the rest of this.
I also am interested in other gals take, or if you're more into the yabi fashion than I am, and I'm happy to be incorrect too. Also dear readers if you do not have an account to comment, please feel free to dm me on instagram... I want to make it abundantly clear I am not coining this phrase and I am just realizing I am witnessing a new gal trend in the reiwa era...
Something I've noticed in the past year is the major influence of the Yabi Subculture and the influence of the Chinese gyaru in recent gyaru trends. A few gals I immediately think of are @ocaso0.00, @77yeeki, @zzzz.uquq.uoa7, and @qiiqiiqiiqiiiii. Though I do personally read them all as gyaru, you can't help but also note they also incorporate Yabi into their coordinates as well.
My understanding of Yabi is that it's easy to incorporate aspects of another fashion subculture (gyaru, y2k, visual kei, and others) with Yabi styling. In my personal opinion, it also adds in that super maximalist aspect of big accessories, clashing patterns, clashing stylistic choices, etc.
I am coming to terms with the fact that the Chinese gyaru have infact pushed for a new substyle which I personally call "yabi gyaru" though I am definitely not the one to coin the phrase nor the first to realize this is a thing!! I do want to give credit to cinnagal as they were the first person to make me aware of yabi fashion, I'll link their youtube video talking about chinese trends here.
And to be honest with yall, I think Yabi Gyaru is a very reiwa trend, the main thing is styling. You can take an Agejo Gyaru influence or a Yamanba Gyaru influence in Yabi Gyaru styling, but it's not really agejo or yamanba as it's not following the OG influence and it feels more Yabi and more... different. I also only really know gyaru from an agejo/koakuma ageha standpoint, so maybe some older substyles could be linked to more of a Yabi styling... if you know dear reader pls let me know I'd love to learn.
And the funny thing is Yabi can pull from Gyaru, but it feels like now the opposite is happening where gyaru are pulling in the concept from Yabi. The two biggest things I see modern day gals doing now is either 1) MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF ACCESSORIZING and 2) Coordinating items together that clash.
I can speak from an Agejo perspective, but you really don't see a lot of clash when it comes to the styling in Koakuma Ageha. As Rina wrote in her blog, Agejo can be seen as a very elegant, and I myself noted the careful styling and the minimal accessorizing even throughout the years. The most OTT gals were the hime gals in the magazine, but even then, their accessorizing was not as massive.
I feel like this did make its way into the gaijin community first, but some of the Japanese gals I follow also seem to incorporate influences of Yabi and its styling. I personally think asupii (asuka__0928) styles herself in a way that takes influence from Yabi but it still reads gyaru to me. Additionally, @ppgalclub has blown up in the past year which has option to have oneself styled in gal, and the vibe of the fashion worn in these typically read as more of the yabi gyaru.
It is at this point I realized mid blog writing that we are in the midst of a new substyle of gyaru and I started asking my fellow gal pals about it. Shout out to the gals for real.
I personally feel as though Yabi Gyaru is going to be a similar substyle to Himekaji Gyaru, where it will take additional styling measures to add the "gyaru" portion, as Gyaru still have distinct looks to them. The reason I personally find the folks I listed above as yabi gyaru and not just yabi as they still have have a recognizable gyaru make and just gyaru vibe. I think a big issue for people trying to dabble in Yabi Gyaru is if they don't incorporate the gyaru aspect and then the look will just end up looking more Yabi and not Yabi Gyaru. Does this make sense??
There have been people dressing up in the new trend... substyle... whatever!!! But I feel like in the western space we feel the need to distinguish Gyaru and Yabi, while also complaining that gyaru will never get a new substyle when its right here, it's happening in front of our eyes people!!
I want to note though that this is going to be a heavily debated substyle, and the validity of the gyaruness of a person may also come up as well. Something that's been a topic in the gyaru community for a while is if people are coming into the community to be seen as "posers", and mix that in with how some view folks in the Yabi subculture as posers (Which Cinnagal also mentions in their video), Yabi Gyaru is going to be seen as risky and there's the risk of being seen as a poser. I've also spoken with a lovely moot who noted that a lot of baby gals seem to like this style as Yabi is much more lax on styling and what pieces work well together, and I do agree with this as I've seen many discussions complaining about the lack of styling.
This is also like a weird inspiration becomes the inspirer in this case, as first the Yabi were pulling from the gyaru, but now the gyaru are pulling from the Yabi... how interesting...
Now if you're wondering if I'll be pulling any inspiration into my looks... no not really lmao... I am currently yearning for more 2013-2014 agejo. I think if you like the vibe, you still would need to pull off the gyaru part very well to have it still read as gyaru.
Ok... more thoughts on this is coming but again I would love. love. love. a discussion on this from any other gals in the comm, pls share ur thoughts with the class!! pls!!!!
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