| 5-07-07
Developing Nation:
Japanese Clothiers Update
Their Lines Changes in Diet Produce Curvier Bodies in Women; The
'Love Bra' Catches Fire
By AMY
CHOZICK
May 7,
2007; Page A1
TOKYO -- All over Japan, retailers
are scrambling to keep up with a new look known as "bon-kyu-bon."
It means "big-small-big" and it signals a change in the way
Japanese women look: They're getting curvier.
Japanese stores that used to
keep just two or three sizes of clothing on hand are rushing to stock
larger sizes. Juicy Couture, known for its figure-hugging terrycloth
tracksuits, opened one of its biggest stores in Tokyo last
year. And Tokyo's high-end Isetan department store, which used
to relegate its bigger sizes to one corner, now prominently features
larger items from designers such as Ralph Lauren, Diane von Furstenberg
and DKNY. Wacoal Corp., Japan's largest lingerie company,
was once known for its super-padded brassieres. Now the company
has a new best-seller: the "Love Bra," a cleavage-boosting
creation with less padding, aimed at curvier women in their 20s.
Today the average Japanese
woman's hips, at 35 inches, are around an inch wider than those of
women a generation older. Women in their 20s wear a bra at
least two sizes larger than that of their mothers, according
to Wacoal. Waist size, meanwhile, has gotten slightly smaller,
accentuating many young women's curves.
The average 20-year-old is also
nearly three inches taller than she was in 1950, according to
government statistics, and the average foot has grown by nearly
a quarter of an inch.
The physical changes are largely
the result of an increasingly Westernized diet, say nutritionists. Meals
that used to consist of mostly fish, vegetables and tofu now lean
heavily toward an American-style menu of red meat, dairy and indulgences
such as Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Cold Stone Creamery ice
cream.
All this extra protein
and calcium has led to longer,
stronger and fuller bodies. Shinichi Tashiro, an endocrinology
professor at Showa Pharmaceutical University, says the intake of
extra fat tends to go to either breasts or hips in adolescent
girls. Marketers say they first started noticing more women
with hourglass figures a few years ago. One of the first people to
act on the change was apparel wholesaler Kazuya Kito.
A
Catalyst
In 2001, Mr. Kito
founded Egoist, a trendy purveyor
of slinky clothing designed to highlight the busty look,
figuring that the curvier bodies would make women want to wear less-modest
outfits. His fashion-industry friends scoffed at the idea. Back then micro-miniskirts
were in style, but women, for the most part, kept their chests
covered. Yet Egoist, whose wares include see-through sweaters
made to show off decorative bras or skinny tube tops, became a
huge hit and a catalyst for other skimpy-clothing brands
"Now that Japanese women are
more proportioned," they're ready for these clothes,
Mr. Kito says. Nami Sakamoto, an advertising-agency employee,
embodies the
new look. The 26-year-old
is tall -- by Japanese standards -- at 5 feet 5 inches. She's
also voluptuous, with a 35-inch bust and 35-inch hips.
"I had a hard time finding
button-down shirts that would close," says the 26-year-old
Ms. Sakamoto, especially when she was in high school and there
were fewer foreign retailers in Japan that sold bigger sizes.
"Sometimes the buttons would burst off." Now she buys clothes
at Western retailers that carry larger sizes. Other young women
are buying special items to flaunt their new physique.
"It's just more fun to show some skin," says Ayami Arii, a
19-year-old vocational-school student, who recently sported a
tiny denim miniskirt and an iridescent pushup bra that peeks out
from below her low-cut blouse. Her bra, a big seller at
boutiques in Tokyo's Shibuya 109 department store, is called a
"Showy Bra." Similar to a string bikini top, the $60 bras,
made to be peeking out of a low-cut blouse, started appearing last year
and come in a variety of colors, from red patent leather to leopard
print and orange sequins. The cleavage craze took off in 2003, when
a young pop star named Kumi Koda appeared in ads
around Tokyo wearing a barely-there metallic bra and not much
else. In one image, she wore coconut shells over her chest.
Then, two years later, she performed at the televised
Japan Record Awards wearing thin tape-like gold satin
straps over her breasts that revealed nearly everything when she
danced. The 24-year-old star has become the champion of a new
"If you've got it, flaunt it" attitude among young Japanese women.
The trend has some families
concerned. Akiko Uchida, a 49-year-old restauran owner, decided to
enroll her 17-year-old daughter, Masumi, who wears an E-cup bra,
in a private all-girls school where she would have to wear a
uniform. She says her daughter is always trying to wear scoop-neck
shirts and other clothes that show off her body. "I don't want
boys to see her
unsupervised," says Ms. Uchida,
who plans to be even stricter when her daughter goes to college next
year.
Complicated
Terrain
Fashion has long been complicated
terrain for women in Japan, a conformist society where showing
some skin is a way to rebel against traditional roles. Fashion
historian Akiko Fukai likens the new look to post-World War II
Japanese women shedding their restrictive kimonos, which are
designed to flatten the chest, in favor of Western garb.
Saki Toraiwa, a 21-year-old
cashier at a bakery, says she likes the look of a tanned body and
curves like Jennifer Lopez. When she's not wearing her work uniform, she
likes to wear skin-tight T-shirts, jeans and high heels.
But she says she has to be
careful not to dress in clothes that look too sexy when she's with her boyfriend,
who prefers her in more-conservative fashions like flowing sundresses and girly
skirts. Ms. Toraiwa wants to get married soon and doesn't want him
to see her as a sex object. "If I'm feeling confident, I'll show
it off," says Ms. Toraiwa, "but lately a lot of it just
depends on what my
boyfriend likes."
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