Recs for a Good Japanese Fashion Magazine - for Women?

[CityHunter]

After dragging my female roomie to a ton of menswear stores in NYC and grabbing a hold of some Japanese menswear magazines I had (Sense, 2nd, Non-No, etc) she really wants to try to change up her style. She wants to get out of the Forever 21/H&M/typical girl mold. She really liked how some meanswear is put together (from the mannequins at Odin, Nepenthes, etc).

Can you recommend any Japanese mags that showcase girls dressing well? I guess not girly-girly. Like Engineered Garments FWK models or some something. I tried looking for some but of the 5 I flipped through, I only got some Sailor Moon steez or Ganguro clubber ****. And there were way too many to choose from so I gave up.

 

[bbaquiran]

Originally Posted by CityHunter

Can you recommend any Japanese mags that showcase girls dressing well? I guess not girly-girly. Like Engineered Garments FWK models or some something. I tried looking for some but of the 5 I flipped through, I only got some Sailor Moon steez or Ganguro clubber ****. And there were way too many to choose from so I gave up.

No specific recommendations, but you can browse through a lot of Japanese magazines (old issues) here: http://www.vvshu.com/

There's some LEON and Men's Non-no there.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Good link. Thanks.

 

[ratboycom]

Depends on the aesthetic she wants. The most popular ones are Can Cam, Non-no, Pinky, and some others I cant think of off the top of my head.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Vivi Sa cocopop.

 

[NaTionS]

I find Japanese women's fashion magazines to be separated in two catagories. The upscale designer look similar to Vogue, Elle, etc and the cutesy Japanese look, lots of flowery prints, lace, etc...

What is she going for?

 

[impolyt_one]

Every Japanese magazine has a core fan base, a lifestyle aesthetic that is followed. Many seem similar, but each one is a different mix, and for many people the magazines are like monthly bibles.

Examples:
Huge is high end style (read: imported clothing) for men, editorials are styled almost vis a vis with the runway stylings sometimes, and everything is expensive. Very serious and focused, though lately they've gone overboard with the art photos and heritage 'urban cabin' lifestyle stuff. Reader base may be more like 25-40.
Mens Non No is a huge monthly focused at like, teenagers to people no more than 25 year olds. Street snaps, tons of multi-page advertisements disguised as editorials, Japanese mid-market cheap clothing for college student types who are intersted in the status quo of streetwear.
There is Mens Non-No 'G' that is a quarterly within the same concentration as Huge, but with less emphasis on art and more emphasis on luxury brands.
SENSE: It's supposed to be 'black clothes' (the color, not the race) for people in their 20's and 40's - the 'representative outfit' is a black leather Perfecto, white tee, faded jeans. High fashion meets street mid-market.
Men's Ex: bespoke, order-made, MTM men's wear, with a dash of Barney's updates. Italian, American, and English traditional styles, so reader age group would be 40-60+ years old, and probably highly successful/rich. Brands like Lobb bespoke and Berluti get tossed around a lot, $3-400 handsewn camiccia, these are for guys who've succeeded beyond the salaryman level. You can tell by the wristwatch editorials in these mags, Men's Ex has no price limit on the watches they feature.
Men's Club: the salaryman's version of Men's Ex. many magazines like this. Watches may cap at $5K (Japanese price)
Oceans: Casual weekend style for Men's Club reader's, like the Men's Non-no for boring 32 year olds with a kid and a beige apartment their wife controls.
Gainer: Really low-ranking salarymen's magazine, suits are like $300-400 and shirts are a bill. Wristwatch features are no more than a grand. Basically, for guys who are within their first 3 years of entering their first company job and have near-zero disposable income, because they feed their monthly paychecks to their dates.
Men's Egg: the polar opposite to Men's Ex, this is like Uncontrol posting in the MC forums. It's for Shibuya Onii-kei/gyaru-o/host aesthetics.

etc, etc

As for women's - I don't really know. All of those mags you listed are very different, but if she likes the way current menswear leans, with the heritage/Americana/natural type things, then that is pretty much 'generic' Japanese women's wear, those elements have been there for a long time. In all honesty, you can find interesting women's fashion like that in a lot of variety magazines touting 'natural style' - an outfit would be like, Saint James/APC/Topshop/H+M/Bless/Repetto or something like that. Those are more like, 30-40 year suburban Japanese housewife parameters.

 

[CityHunter]

Thanks for all the recs guys.
She is trying to go for a tomboy-ish layed looked...I'm thinking drape-y cardigans, beanies, oxfords, shrunken jackets, etc. A huge change from the ho-ey garb she usually rolls to bars in. Ha!

Off to Kinokuniya for another look-see. Thanks again!

 

[CityHunter]

PS
Thanks for the menswear mag breakdown impolyt_one! Really interesting...going to look through some of those you mentioned. Usually I just go straight for Sense or Non-No