International Translation Shirt For the Lazy Traveler

by Justin Glow on

There’s another shirt out on the market designed to make life easier on the road. We talked about this earlier with the Traveler’s Phrase Book T-Shirt, and this International Translation shirt from Threadless is no different.

Never again will you need to worry about taking the time to learn a few common phrases in a foreign language when traveling abroad. With this shirt, you’re free to mindlessly jab at the drawings on your chest when there’s something you want. Communicating with someone — building a relationship, however short — is old news. Now you can breeze through any country without ever interacting with a local.

After all, you know what you want, and you want it now.

Fashion Takes To The Skies

by Brett Atkinson on

The smart marketing team at Air New Zealand have been earning their salaries recently. Earlier this week we reported on the special gay-themed flight from San Francisco to Sydney (presumably via Auckland) that New Zealand’s national carrier is running in the week before Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Now the little airline that could has just run a special fashion flight from Sydney to Auckland. On board the three hour hop across the Tasman Sea were the cream of Australasia’s fashion media, and they were treated to a couple of catwalk shows at 30,000 feet. The flight was specially scheduled to launch Air New Zealand Fashion Week.

Apparently the first show was a little bumpy, but the turbulence subsided in time for the second outing of a few intrepid models. There’s no word if an aisle seat ensured a better goody bag and more champagne than those crammed in by the windows.

Via Stuff. Click here for pics and a video of the Blue Steel sky high shenanigans. Thanks to Stuff for the pic.

Big in Japan: Bandages and Eye Patches are the Hottest New Fashions

by Matthew Firestone on

Think mummies are hot? How about pirates?

What if they were scantily clad women?

This week, Japan’s Weekly Playboy magazine reported that the otaku (geek, ?????????) community is starting to lose interest in eyeglasses and maids. Although these two styles have dominated the geek-friendly Tokyo neighborhood of Akihabara in recent years, ‘one-eyed virginal maid mummies’ is the hottest new fashion.

This increasingly popular style is known as kegadoru (????????????), which roughly translates as ‘injured idols.’ The look popularizes women who wear cute, frilly Lolita-style dresses, and then accessorize with bandages and eye patches.

Only in Japan could gauze and Band-Aids become the latest must-have fashion item!

The idea is simple.

According to a young woman interviewed by Weekly Playboy:

“When you’re covered in bandages, everybody pays attention to you and worries about you. They also provide a chance to start talking to guys, who’ll ask you how you hurt yourself, so the bandages are really, really good. One guy told me he likes seeing a thin woman’s body wrapped in bandages because it made him think about bondage, and made him want to protect me from harm.”

Wow…

But not everyone is convinced that mummies and pirates are going to be taking the catwalks in Paris and Milan by storm. According to psychologist Yu Yuki, the rise of kegadoru is a sign of rising gender equality in Japan.

In an interview with Weekly Playboy, Yu Yuki states:

“Women feigning injury but still swathed in bandages and eye patches look as though they’re weak. This makes the men want to protect the women. In our age of gender equality, the number of strong-willed women has increased. Men still want to protect and look after women, so they seek out those who seem to be in need of help.”

As strange as it may seem to Westerners, the Japanese obsession with cosupre (costume play, コスプレ) has recently exploded in popularity, particularly amongst teenagers and young adults. In a country where individual thought and expression is frequently squashed by a society that values conformity and order, dressing up in bizarre fashions is one of the few outlets that rebellious teens have.

In the teen-fashion district of Harajuku in Tokyo, cosupre has even become a weekly scheduled event, taking place every Sunday in front of the bridge leading to Meiji Shrine. For most of these teens, who grow up in sterile, concrete housing blocks that are typical of much of urban living in Japan, the Sunday street show is sadly their one chance to break away from a repressive culture.

Like most pop fads in Japan, kegadoru is not likely to maintain its popularity for too long. In greater Tokyo, which numbers upwards of 30 million souls, fashions wax and wane in popularity with frightening speed. However, even if kegadoru is short-lived, it’s almost certain that another equally shocking fashion trend will replace it soon enough.

For more on cuteness in Japan, check out Hello Kitty and the Culture of Cute.

For more on the weird, wacky and wonderful world that is Japan, don’t miss the feature column Big in Japan.

For pictures of Japanese fashions, from kimonos to costume plays, see the photo gallery below.

**Special thanks to stock.xchng user Shibuya 86 for the picture of the Harajuku girl **

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Brazilian Fashion from Japan: The Jeankini

by Justin Glow on

Yes, this is a real product. You can really buy it, if you want to. But why would you? Aside from serving no practical purpose, this jean-bikini hybrid available from “Brazil Fashion” store (located in, um, Japan) Sanna’s for ¥ 9.240 (about $80 US), is proabably the trashiest piece of clothing I’ve ever seen. You can’t even swim in them!

[via cynicalc]

Blogging New Orleans Covers the 2007 Jazzfest

by Justin Glow on

New Orleans is one of my favorite towns of all time. It’s like a second home to me; there’s no other city I’ve visited more without actually living there. It’s unfortunate that I’ve never been during Jazzfest, though, because our sister-site, Blogging New Orleans, sure makes it look like a blast. They’ve spent the past weekend partaking in all of the festivities, and meticulously documenting every lick of the guitar and po’boy bite so that those unfortunate souls who couldn’t make it this year can still get their kicks.

Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from the first weekend:

  • Jazz Fest Fashion — “…there is not a much sadder sight than a middle aged man in a baseball cap ogling a nubile twenty-something and then trying to strike up a conversation…”
  • Jazzfest: This Blue’s For You — “Even at Jazzfest on a Sunday afternoon, sometimes a girl can get the blues.”
  • Jazz Fest: Hot 8 Brass Band — “Not only is the music good but a great deal of enjoyment comes from the energy that pours off the stage.”
  • Jazz Fest: First Impressions — A look at Jazzfest from the prospective of a first timer.
  • The Lower 9th: A hidden history of jazz — “It’s fair to say that jazz has revolutionized western music, a fact that makes its early vilification by federal and city law enforcement all the more absurd.”

The second and last weekend of Jazzfest 2007 takes place from May 4-6, so make sure you bookmark Blogging New Olreans and check back to see what you missed.