Hey Y’all, it's Kirarin! ✨
In my previous post, I talked about the revival of Egg magazine in 2019, which sparked a revival of Gyaru style’s overall popularity in Japan & world-wide! :D
Today's post is a deeper dive into the first few years of Gyaru’s Reiwa Era revival!
I'll talk about the characteristics of Gyaru fashion, makeup, & culture during the years of 2019 to 2022!✨
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The 2020s Definition of Reiwa Gal
With the turn of the era from Heisei (1989-2019) to Reiwa (2019-present), Gyaru style has evolved to include many different characteristics & values that differ from the past.
The Japanese news program “ZIP!” Cover the topic of Reiwa gals in 2020, and they included a "definition of Reiwa gals"!
According to Galture, their definition includes the following:
✨Hair dye
✨Colored Contact Lenses
✨Nose Bridge Makeup
…Yeah that's it LOL
During the years of 2020 and 2021, the dominating trend within gal was to appear “pure and sweet”. There was a big emphasis on "looking good in a natural way." (Galture, 2021)
Also in contrast with the popular tanning culture with gals from the Heisei era, the trend in 2020 to 2021 was fair skin. Some would even lighten their skin. These types of gals were called “shiro-gyaru”.
(more on Shiro Gyaru)
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Makeup, hair, & overall appearance
-Hair
In the early 2020s, many gals would dye and bleach their hair to create a more “sophisticated and mature” look. These girls put an emphasis on taking proper care of their hair so that it looked healthy and shiny while still being bleached. (Galture, 2021)
There are also many more black-haired gals.
Hairstyles took a more simple turn, with more gals opting for straight hair, as well as simpler wavy and curled styles. ~
Lizzie Bee Mentions in her review of Egg’s revival issue that this helps with accessibility, especially with those who wouldn't consider themselves very good at styling their hair.
-Circle Lenses
Color contacts and circle lenses are still a staple of Gal makeup regardless of how natural of a look they're going for. A focal point of Gyaru makeup is big Dolly eyes and that still remains true!
Apparently the types of color contact lenses that were popular in 2010 were still popular in 2020! (Galture, 2021)
-Nose contour
Applying Shadow and highlight to the nose bridge is also a big part of gal make.
For Reiwa gals, this makeup is used to create a subtle three-dimensional look.
Fashion Trends
Gyaru fashion trends of the 2020s place less importance on specific brands or substyles.
The general trend is to wear clothes that make you look mature, hip, and stylish.
The key point is not so much the clothing items that are worn, but HOW those items are styled. ✨
Gals buy their clothes from a variety of different places, but some places that are popular with the Gyaru models of today are: SheIn, GYDA, EGOIST, EMODA, SPIRALGIRL, Avail, GRL, etc ~
Styles are much more diverse, featuring a variety of genres. Gals today can be casual, refined, sexy, sweet, or even sporty! (Galture, 2021)
An example of this is the revival issue of egg magazine.
You'll see that the models are wearing normal clothes but styling them to make them look very gal.✨
Here is a list of some of the popular outfit combos at the time, as provided by Galture (example illustrations are provided on the site:
-Oversized hoodies w/ striped leggings & platform sneakers
-Choker tops w/ hip-slit skinny jeans
-Denim jumpsuits w/ platform sandals
-White T-shirts w/ flared pants that include python pattern (or other animal print)
-Oversized hoodies w/ loose socks
-Voluminous frilled blouse w/ form-fitting skirts
Popular individual clothing items (also from Galture)
-Oversized hoodies
-Striped leggings
-Denim jumpsuits and overalls
-Flared pants / bellbottoms (especially high-waisted)
-Platform sneakers and sandals (sometimes w glitter / bedazzling)
-Bucket hats
-Loose socks
Misc. Characteristics / traits
-Good impression and friendly:
There's a difference in the overall perception and impression of gals today then there was in the Heisei era.
Heisei era gals were often characterized by negative stereotypes such as defiant, irresponsible, unclean, and bratty, etc. :/
Unfortunately a lot of this was because of the overall appearance of gals. :/
However, because of the Trends in the early 2020s of wanting to appear sweet, clean, mature, and approachable, the overall impression of gals has changed a little bit. (Galture, 2021)
This new pure impression has made gals more popular w/ both men and women! (onecosme)
-Freedom of style
As previously mentioned, Reiwa gals have a variety of different styles when it comes to fashion.
There's also a huge variety with makeup, as it's okay to go either flashy or modest.
Hair color ranges from bleached blonde to even black. Some girls even dye their hair in different colors. (Galture, 2021)
-There isn't as much focus on gathering in Shibuya
During the Heisei era, Shibuya was considered THE popular spot to hang out for gals!
It was common for these gals to spend all night hanging out in Shibuya with their friends, shopping and doing other various activities. Shibuya 109 was the popular shopping center among gals. ✨
HOWEVER, nowadays with more of an emphasis on online shopping and less emphasis on brands from specific stores, it's become less common for girls to hang out there.
Also, with social media making it easier to communicate with friends, there's less of a need for daily in-person hangouts. (Galture, 2021)
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Gal Mind
The gal mindset has become a very important part of Gyaru! 💪🏾
As gal style becomes more flexible with a wide range of fashion styles & the makeup ranging from flashy to modest, it’s said to have become more difficult to pinpoint whether or not someone is gal based on just their appearance.
According to Galture, what separates a gal from any other random person on the street is if they have a gal mind in addition to their gal-like appearance.
So what exactly is a Gal Mind? 🤔
Here are some quotes from Galture that illustrates it pretty well:
“The gal mindset is about not being influenced by others and enjoying what you think is cool and fashion that you think is good”
“someone who has the strength of mind to stick to their favorite fashion and style without worrying about what others think”
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Popular activities
-Tiktok has become an explosive hit among Reiwa gals
-parapara, which was a dance that was incredibly popular among Heisei gals (with many nightclubs in Tokyo purely dedicated to parapara) has become popular again w Reiwa gals. A lot of parapara’s popularity with Reiwa gals and gen Z is because of social media like tiktok, and even YouTube!✨
Many Reiwa gals (including myself!) will upload tiktoks of them dancing to parapara!
Parapara dance routines become TikTok trends within the community, much like other TikTok dance trends!🎶
The Revival of Kurogal
In the beginning of the Reiwa era (2019-2022), the most popular trend was to be a “pure gal”, but there are a lot of popular gal models such as Momoa from Egg, and models from LOALO magazine who are helping to re-popularize the tanning culture that was popular with gals in the Heisei era, as well as more flashy makeup and clothing.✨
For a more detailed deep dive into the revival of kurogal and more of the trends that were popular back in the Heisei era, check out my previous post about the overall evolution of gal trends from 2019 to present day!
BTW! I'm including this post is part of an ongoing project I'm working on to build an interactive database about the latest Gyaru trends! Eventually I'd like to be able to fill it up only w/ articles I wrote myself, so please cheer me on as I write more of these. :D So far 4/6 of the sources are written by me, and the other 2 are Wiki pages.
Thanks for reading and look forward to more! :D
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