Tokyo a la Mode. Web Magazine for Japanese Fashion and Urban Culture

Seifuku

By Bobby / Sep 06, 2007
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It’s back to school time and so for this article let’s take a look at the Japanese school uniform known as “seifuku.”

In the mid-90s, Tokyo high school girls set off a fashion craze known as the kogal.  The kogal boom grew into something of a social phenomenon that spawned a number of different sub-genres like the ganguro and yamamba.  Kogals were identified by wearing a school uniform with an altered short skirt and loose socks.  But long before kogals, school uniforms were an institution of Japanese society.

School uniforms date back to a time when Japan was militarizing in the early part of the 20th century.  The boys’ dark uniform with standing collar was modeled after a Prussian army uniform.  The girls’ sailor outfit was introduced in 1921 and modeled after the British Royal Navy.  Uniforms were a way of institutionalizing the masses by making them conform to authority.

A yanki from an old manga.  Teen characters in popular manga and anime often wear seifuku.

In modern times, as teens rebelled, the uniform took on a new significance.  Yankis were the tough kids who smoked and started fights.  These guys (and some girls) kept the uniforms but wore their hair differently from the others.  In the 80s this hairstyle was the pompadour.  Yankis tended to hangout with their classmates and their enemies were often rival schools, so the school uniform gave them a group identity.  Other ways of rebelling was by wearing their uniforms with the top unbuttoned or the shirt untucked to the constant annoyance of the teachers.

Typical kogals.

As for the girls, rebellion wasn’t the reason for shortening a skirt or making an alteration.  It was fashion.  Kogals were girls who cared more about their looks than their grades.  But that craze is gone now and kids are back to wearing their uniforms like normal.

A gyaru sporting the ganguro look in seifuku.

School uniform fashion has changed with the times however.  Many of the larger urban schools have their own uniforms and you can tell where a teen goes by her uniform.  Also, the newer fashion is like the styles you find at Western private schools.  Today you can see high school boys wearing ties and blazers and girls wearing sweaters and tartan skirts.

Even if a teen is not a Yanki or Kogal, the seifuku represents a big part of growing up in Japan.

SIDEBAR: The second button of the top of a male’s uniform is often given away to the female in love with him, and is considered a way of confession. The second button is the one closest to the heart and is said to contain the emotions from all three years attendance at the school. [source: Wikipedia]

SIDEBAR 2: While it’s back to school time here in America, the academic year in Japan starts in April.

LINKS:
An online school uniform supply store
A school’s guidelines for uniforms

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