Hello everyone!

Hi! So, I'm new -- I was shortlisted a few weeks back through Houston and am an avid follower of fashion blogs, so finding a group fashion blog for foreigners/JETs was just my luck.

Just the basics: My name is Ashley, I'm 22 years old, and I'm a sculptor/art major graduating in two weeks from a tiny liberal arts school in Texas. For clothes, I like wearing black as a base and then covering it with really colorful things (see: scarf collection). My philosophy is "show your damn legs" so I do at every turn, either with skinnies or shorts or miniskirts. It's not everyone's cup of tea but it's worked for me so far.

For today.

White leather jacket: Charlotte Russe.

Black tank-top: ancient/tag-less/probably some discount bin.

Black skinnies: Lei.

Shoes: thrifted/label-less.

Earrings (kinda pictured in the next photo): Cheap black plastic roses from Charlotte Russe.

So I guess that's it! Thanks for letting me post. Looking forward to Japan!

for a party

Black one shoulder dress: Zara (Osaka Shinsaibashi)
Rabbit fur gloves: gift from a friend
Boots: OPA (Osaka Shinsaibashi)

This is for a party occupying the top two floors of the Aqua Hakata Building in Tenjin, Fukuoka. The dress code is "dress to impress, no flip flops." A friend of mine will be attending in a white suit. I think the gloves are a stupidly fun touch.

Hello from Seattle

Hi, was recently shortlisted for a CIR position in the JET program, so I thought I might contribute. I'm not sure of my placement yet, but I'm hoping to be in Hyogo prefecture, as Kobe is the sister city of Seattle. My friend (also shortlisted for JET program) found this blog, I think through a message forum, and sent it to me, and I've following for a bit.

For the past year, I worked as a buyer, mainly for Japanese products, at a men's clothing boutique, so if you have any questions about Japanese clothes, fashion, or textiles that you can't find the answers to on uniqlo.com, feel free to ask! Don't expect too much, though, I fell into the job by accident, and fashion has nothing to do with what I studied in school, only a hobby.

My style is pretty basic (maybe boring), I like simple, well-fitting clothes - I have a relatively small wardrobe, as I value quality of quantity. My favorite keyword is "slouchy," which I guess means "relaxed" without the connotations of ill-fitting dad pants. I usually wear plain long, drapey t-shirts, pants that are loose in the top portion, but taper to the hems, clean boots or sneakers, and a jacket, but I mix things up on occasion.

Thanks for letting me be a part of this blog, and hopefully I'll have the chance to meet some of you in Japan. Sorry my pictures are terrible, not good at taking self-shots, and my camera won't even stand up by itself. Here's what I wore the past two days:


Attachment coat
Non-branded sweater
Dior jeans
Dior boots (not shown)


Rick Owens jacket
Robert Geller shirt
Cloak jeans
Common Projects sneakers

yellow and white

There is actually no black whatsoever in this outfit.

Cardigan is from Costco, sandals from Trial, necklace from some gyaru shop near Triangle Park in Osaka, dress from some boutique in Nice, floral top from the vintage shop in my town.

bet you didn't expect this from me

I've been going a little insane at TRIAL lately...everything but the skirt in this outfit is from TRIAL: sunglasses, cardigan, sandals, white tank top. The skirt was an impulse purchase from Khrush Khrush, the hippie store.

Spring into Florals

IT IS SPRING!

But still sitting below 10 degrees celcius in my end of the country and there is zero sakura bloomage. :(

I love Spring fashion as it usually means we can wear less bulky coats, more colours and of course FLORALS!

After this never ending winter, the country seems to be going nuts for anything floral! From shirts to hats to shoes to shorts! You can find any item of clothing in florals!

While florals are really pretty, wearing them incorrectly can look grandma like.

Keeping this print to one item of clothing at a time is always the best bet =]

Here I am in a floral skirt with purple tights.

Since Alice in Wonderland is coming to the big screens, I have also been inspired to go Alice and added a light blue bow headband.

HAPPY SPRINGING EVERYONE!

Alright y'all. Give me ideas on how to style this outfit.

What shoes should I wear? Necklaces? I like what I have so far, but could use some suggestions!
I know some people have been telling me to wear it with a blouse, but getting a button down blouse to fit over my boobs would be an experience in itself.

new leather

All the stores have spring crap and I have been having a pretty hard time finding black leather/pleather jackets long enough to cover my navel on a thin day, so imagine my joy and pleasant surprise when I came across this hot little moto inspired jacket at Zara today! ¥12,900 for fake leather, but that's okay.

it's been a while

2 new outfits from recent outings!

First this one. I've been obsessed with shirt-dresses lately, and this is one that I bought recently. Skulls, random Engrish, I love it! I'm wearing that with ripped leggings and blue tights underneath. Also an F21 military-style jacket and engineer boots.














And next this one. I thought this gray hoodie would be long enough to be a short dress but I guess not, so I paired it up with uniqlo black pants-leggings. That thing on my head is a pleather-ish bow headband. Also wore glasses, which I haven't worn in a long time, but I love them! And of course, the boots I've been wearing a lot lately, the strappy chunky boots.

a new cami

I picked this little chippy up at a Daiei for ¥1500. It's black.

Quirky Boater Hat

It has been a while since I've posted! It has been too cold in my end of the island to go about my usual prancing around the house and trying on different outfits so I have completely neglected any posts since it got cold. :(

Temperatures have finally risen to double digits today!

Anyway my latest obsession is this:

A boater hat or a カンカン帽子. This one is from LOWRYS FARM.

It is so fun and quirky, I love it! The only problem is, I don't have a particularly good eye for style so I've been trying it with random outfits.

This is a polyvore collage the lovely Miss_igirisu made in honor of my hat!

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=16063005

This is how I wore it to work today:

Because the weather was so nice, I could finally bare some knees in these checked shorts and knee high socks!

This one is a white one I bought locally.

Tee hee hee!

My personal fashion icon

I realize this is my first time posting, but I did not want to waste my debut talking about myself. Instead I will be following in the footsteps of great posters before me and talk about my fashion icon. The man I model my current style on.

Andrew Dice Clay

Andrew Dice Clay circa 1980

Yes, Andrew Dice Clay is a crazy sexist and he is getting old. But, I love his style from the 1980s.
Here are some of my favorite looks:

Ride Hard

Neck Chain

I love clothes with tough and masculine details without being too "hardcore" Andrew Dice Clay managed to do very masculine and sexy looks, and still looked sophisticated. While I could never be as sexy or many as he was in the 80's, I find this style inspirational.

fashion icon?

For my first post, I'll talk about my fashion heroes- Catherine Deneuve and Brigitte Bardot. Yes, Bardot is a crazy racist and they both are getting old. But, I love their style from the 1960's.
Here are some of my favorite looks:





I love clothes with flirty and feminine details without being too "girly." Deneuve and Bardot managed to do very feminine and sexy looks, but still looked sophisticated. While I could never be as sexy or gorgeous as they were in the 60's, I find their style very inspirational.

purple

Don't mind my blurry face, weird pose and messy house.

Picked this up at Pinky & Dianne today; it was on sale for about ¥3600. I need more NSFW clothes like these I've decided.

Dead and Gone.

Two weeks back at home constantly being under the Aussie sun really damaged my hair.

I came back to Japan with a good bottom half of my hair DEAD. :(

It was sooooo terrible I told the hairdresser I want all the dead bits OFF and GONE.


And my long long past boob length hair has now been reduced to this:

It is a bit too cold to have it this short in my opinion but atleast it will be less of a pain to deal with when I go snow boarding. =]