It was a Japanese fashion movement started by women who didn't want to follow the current trendy fashion, at the time the popular women's fashion were Gyaru or Lolita fashion. They had no desire of dressing too cute or too hyper feminine, they also didn't want to wear anything that would attract men. Mori in general is in the middle of both, not too cute, feminine and modest as well.
It's a mix of natural/folklore/boho/ethnic/vintage/retro with a touch of Quirkiness. The fashion was influenced by Northern Europe’s: Forests, Ethnic Clothing and Folk Stories.
The fashion was already worn by women years earlier before it came popular or trendy; it was more of an underground group of women who shared similar tastes.
but it was not seen on the Harajuku streets until 2009 when it reached popularity. After the group became a bit bigger they decided to make a group online so they could meet more people who also enjoyed similar things in 2006. At the time the group wasn't named mori girl.
Choco, who was the admin of the group, used to share outfits of her own, until someone pointed out that she looks like she lives in the forest.
That year 2006 decided to name it mori girl after the group became bigger in order to have a clear idea/image of the style. Little by little her community started having popularity and at one point it surpassed 35k followers.
By 2009 she decided to release her style book showcasing her outfits and giving tips so future mori girls could relate from that year and on mori started to be featured in and fashion magazines, anime and dramas. By 2012 fashion started to die off elegant and sporty outfits, college students who also used to wear morikei entered workforce so they started dressing up more with business attire. Due to the fast movement of fast fashion ,brands started to change, mori kei brands started to close because it isn't popular anymore until the fashion itself began to dissolve in popularity.
Once it started, it became popular online. Naturally people from overseas started following Japanese blogs & Brands, and started experimenting with the fashion and making their own content and blogs specialist in live journal. Even once it stopped being popular in Japan, many tried to archive as much information as possible, some information then was passed to tumbler and then Instagram and just like today Youtube. Some blogs exist today from those years but many have been shut down. :(
These were MY answers on my interview with Cybrgirl on a Youtube video regarding Morikei vs Cottagecore.
I really like this blog thing. It feels more personal than much of the popular social media out there. I do follow you on youtube and insta but this feels so cozy. I have recently fallen in love with Morikei thanks to the video you participated in by Cybrgirl. I have always had a love of fashion and being Audhd I get overstimulated easily so Morikei is such a perfect style for me. I have been interested in the Cottagecore aesthetic but there are still a lot of tight fitting clothes in the fashion style part of that world. I also find that the aesthetic communities are not much of a community its more people just admiring the pretty things to look at but not sharing ideas. The j-fashion communities feel so much like they are about sharing with other people who enjoy the same things.
ReplyDeleteMorikei is everything I wanted and couldn't find before. The idea of being outside of the trends and having a personal beauty that is not about being attractive to others but feeling good about yourself. And also I love the oversized style as a physical comfort thing too. I am so glad you are a resounding voice in this community and I hope I can be a small part of it.
hey there! welcome welcome. you're my first follower here thank you very much. thank you for taking your time to watch the collab video as well. I'm quite liking it here even tho its been couple of days. i have many thoughts and i think just writing helps me out. im very happy that you feel connected as i am. im very happy truly :D im so happy this feel more personal and i do agree with you. when people or influencers in general starts to talk professional it looses that personal friend to friend touch. here im talking like im talking to anyone close to me so im happy that it felt the same way to you :D hope you get more inspired for your mori journey ^^ also i didn't know much about that cottagecore community perspective so it's interesting to see from another person. :D
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