Disclaimer!
I will only be referencing manga that I grew up with and manga that has stuck with me through the years. The period I will be referencing will probably be the late 90s, early 00’s, and late 00’s for manga fashion references. Roughly 1990-2009ish… give or take.
Caught Up: Not Only in Storyline but in the aesthetics.
Ok, so growing up, I used to buy my manga in bulk from Broders bookstore, then transitioned into Barnes N Noble when borders filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Not only would I be caught up in the storylines of the manga that I’ve read, but I would also get caught up in the looks of the characters/ visual aesthetic that not only added to the complexity of the character and their overall character development but also contributed to the allure of the series.
Just for reference, I would indulge in titles such as but not limited to Negima, Fruits Baskets, Bleach, Mermaid Melody, Tokyo Mew Mew (regular and a la mode), Mammomote lollipop, Gurren Laggan, Peach girl, Nana, Paradise Kiss, Nana, Kamichama Karen, Death Note, Lucky Star, Shakugan No Shanna, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and the list goes on……forever not even including the art books. I hope these titles give you some taste reference points. But I was mostly into many magical girls, shoujo, and relationship-centered mangas growing up tbh solely because of the character's aesthetics and primarily what they wore.
I would rush through reading about like 5 manga a day because It felt like I was reading a lot when in reality, a lot of the pages were just beautifully detailed photos and pictures of action shots, a plot development that would have one page with like 5 words and the next three pages would be filled with images. I would always kind of rush through the comic books to the page breaks where the characters would be doing very mundane things but dressed in the times' latest fashions. It was like what the characters wore were very well-curated, fit the character’s aesthetic, and added further intrigue.
Now that I’m older, the fashions in these panels would reference the various Japanese fashion magazines, such as ViVi, CanCan, SevenTeen Japan, Egg,
FRuiTS, CUTiE, Hanatsubaki, Nylon Japan, or anything subculturally & exclusively niche to Japan itself at the time of the manag’s publication. I’ve always had an eye for aesthetics, and this was probably one of the main driving forces in my current passion for looking really good and finding the beauty in everything( with an emphasis on aesthetics).
This interest has transcended mangas and extended to the art books, which was just picture of those characters in well-curated looks and aesthetics, stuff like that always made me feel super aspirational growing up. Could I afford the clothes? “No.” Was I allowed to dress anyway and be as expressive as I wanted to…“No,” not only because I had a strict parent, but also I lived in the wrong neighborhood to be walking down the street looking like straight out a manga, let alone a fashion magazine. Safety first! But now that I’m a bit older and no longer live with my parents, I definitely feel like I can take those risks and dress a good or as bad as I want. It’s not like I didn’t have the body; it’s that I didn’t have the creative space I have now to do what I want.
Below I have some manga fashion panels that you can be my personal favorites growing up. Hopefully, it will inspire you to incorporate anything into the way you dress or just images from manga & artbooks that make you feel good and inspired because that’s what they did for me.
They are separated by decades as well.
90’s
Early 00’s
Late 00’s
