In our last post, we have talked about History of Japanese School Uniforms ,today we will check the Current Situation of Japanese School Uniforms.
Japanese school uniforms do not only stand for the image of a school and aesthetic standard for the society, but also become symbols for the popular culture of a country. It’s nothing strange to see words like “she choose that school because the school uniforms there look more beautiful” . Even though lots of high school girls put on normal clothes after school, a majority of them still love to wear school uniforms for their group activities, such as going to shopping,KTV or game centers,etc.
For Japanese, they own social identity and cohesiveness that are much stronger than any other nation. Thus, they take school uniforms rather seriously. To better express the personality, they draw more attention on the fabric, craftsmanship and design on their school uniforms. Even though the conservative campus atmosphere requires school uniforms not to be overly fashionable, these clothes still tend to be more on-limits in recent years. Boys’ tsume-eri uniforms root in European officers’ designs, whose theme is still detected on contemporary school uniforms for boys. Dark blue is the main color, which emphasizes masculinity and handsomeness. While school uniforms for girls are deeply affected by sailor suits, which often impress us by cuteness, grace and vitality.
When it comes to sailor uniforms, skirts with different lengths are paired with loose socks, silk stockings, etc, which accentuate the sense of fashion and girls’ glamour. On the contrary, loose slacks can not flatter the silhouettes on girls’ legs. Nor can they well accentuate girls’ female properties.
Comparing with an imperial sportswear, a Japanese school uniform is much more expensive, which often costs 8 to 20 thousands yen (around $100-300 us dollors). New students bring huge economic benefits to clothing manufacturers each year. What perplexes lots of people is why Japanese school girls so deeply love to wear dresses. For this question, two mainstream answers are given. First, being afraid of coldness is considered to be an expression of cowardice. Thus, it’s nothing strange to wear dresses in chilly days. Second, excellent heating system has been built in Japan. Plus the wide popularity of wearing thermal high silk stockings, Japanese girls don’t worry about the coldness.