Remember when I said that I was going to have a series about Gal substyles? No? Sorry, it was foreeever ago.

I wanted to (FINALLY) continue my Gal sub-style and spectrum series by talking about one of my favourite movements within Gal called Haaady Gyaru, which was a relatively short-lived trend which was popular around 2006-2008.

What is Haaady Gyaru?

Haaady Gyaru was a short lived sub-style that started around 2007 and peaked in 2009. It combined a Gal silhouette with British and American rock and hip-hop motifs and lurid colours. Haaady Gyaru was a look that was birthed by Egg magazine and it's most popular model at the time.

Your eyes hurt now yes?

Haaady (give or take a fews 'a's ) comes from the Japanese word 派手 (hade) meaning flashy or in-you-face and is used to describe someone or something's appearance or personality. If you google image search 'Hade' you get presented with stuff like this.

Breh...

It's bright, it's rainbow, it's neon, it's highly patterned and kind of offensive on the eyes so Haaady Gyaru is along this same wave of thought. If you're really into your Japanese substyles, you might be aware of the Hadeko movement which was a combination of Decora style and Hade. You can see a picture of some Hadeko girls in that car up there.


I think Haaady Gal was one of the looks that caused the most mixed opinions in the international gal community. While many other sub-styles at the time ticked all the boxes of being a combination of 'flashy+sexy+another cool thing', Haady gal was 'flashy+weird+more weird' and not everyone knew how to feel about it.

Haaady gyaru was neon, colourful and made use of every colour of the rainbow. Pop-prints were clashed, character motifs were abundant. It was glorious. But let's talk a little bit about the history of this look.

Where did Haaady gyaru come from?

The more important question would be, WHO did Haaady Gyaru come from, and the answer to that is charisma model superstar, Kaoru Watanabe. 

Kaoru began modeling for Egg in the early 2000s and quickly became one of the most popular models for her outlandish style and general craziness.

Even amongst gals, Kaoru broke all the rules. She'd have dark hair, drew inspiration from different styles and didn't even try to look cute. She didn't wear lenses or lashes most of the time but people never doubted her gal-ness. She did her own thing, was weird and everyone loved it.


Kaoru loved bright colours, rock motifs and blending the cute with the ugly. Her look really had a sense of humour and she never took herself too seriously. These traits summed up the look of what Haaady Gyaru was going to become i.e. loudness and not giving a shit. Kaoru and her Haaady look were pushed several times a year in Egg magazine in Kaoru's own spreads.

In 2006, Kaoru helped to found a brand called JSG (Japanese Super Girl) which became synonymous with the look. With Kaoru's celebrity backing, the look gained a good traction and JSG was definitely one of the more interesting brands in 109 at the time it was really fun. Despite being the epitome of Gal, the brand wouldn't look out of place in Harajuku and many of its clothes transcend the gal subculture. One of their most popular items was their Nekomimi or cat-eared hoodie dresses.

#2 queen Tsubasa working the iconic pink leopard nekomimi hoodie on the left.

Kaoru retired from Egg magazine back in 2009 when she became pregnant with her first child but she still has legions of fans. She rarely ever posts on her instagram and she boasts over 12,000 followers!

Weep. She's still nuts though.

Aesthetic: 

MOVING ON!

Haaady Gyaru brands

JSG, obviously as well as Kaoru's next design venture which was Galaxxxy,
Early Tutuha, the predecessor of Glavil and Cocolulu to an extent. Anything that Kaoru put her name to in this time frame was going to incorporate some kind of Haaady look.

Themes and motifs:

Pallet: 

Haaady is 98% neon, black and white and 2% pastel. The entire rainbow spectrum is worn at once and there is no problem. NO GREY. NO BROWN. NO. NO JEWEL COLOURS. NO.
Outfits usually start out with a black base with with coloured accents throughout. Occasionally you will see pastel colours in Haaady outfits but all-over pastels would make an outfit look fairy kei, which is it's own seperate look, outside of Gal fashion.

Use all of the colours at once.

Silhouette:

Makeup

Where most Gal looks would use eyeshadows or liners that were in in the brown/black spectrum (including gold), Haaady would use bright primary colours on the eyes. Lips were bright red, pink or nude.

There we aaaarrreeee. 

I hope you learned something about Haaady gyaru. I remember back in the late 2000s in the old gal forum ricoche, there was a lot of debate over whether Haaady gyaru was truly gal because of it's lack of sexy but PISH. It was peak Gal!

I really really loved this trend, not only because of my love of Kaoru and everything that she stood for in terms of fashion but because of how Haaady transcended Gal and it's sense of humour. It was both inspired by rock trends, which were often associated with the Harajuku district of Tokyo and influenced it, especially with their cat-ear hoodies.

In recent years, the number of  fashion brands that appeared in Shibuya 109 that were associated with a Gal image have depleted. Whenever a brand in 109 shuts down a little part of me dies as I pine for the Gal era between 2007 and 2011. In recent years we have seen the deaths of JSG, Glad News, Cocolulu, Marple Q, Ghost of Harlem, Tutuha amongst many others.
YEs it is easy to get sad by all these iconic brands with strong brand images but there are still a large amount of brands who had their roots in Gal who have survived through the ages, like Cecil McBee, Moussy, Rienda, Egoist, and Lip Service. The key to sticking around for so long was their ability to adapt, while still retaining their points of difference.

One of the keys to the success and longevity of Gal is the fact that it had adapted constantly for more than 20 years. In 2017, Gals still exist, but the Gals of 2017 are their own monster and with print media being less prevalent than before, a new era of gal influencers have begun springing up where you see other bored young people; on social media. Mainly instagram. With that power of influence these gals sometimes opt to maximise their large reach by starting their own fashion brands, such as brand producer for Fig&Viper , Alisa Ueno.

Shush I know the discord over whether neo-gyaru is really gal is rife but FYI Alisa said it's not, but she is an ex gal

Who knows how she has to time to front that brand with all the fun she's having galavanting around the world.

On a separate note, there is a perception in the West that Gal is a lifestyle choice and to some Gals in Japan, yes it is, but Gal is more obviously an aesthetic choice. While it is sad to see these brands disappear, it is still possible to create Gal looks from clothing that isn't catered specifically towards a Gal audience, in the same way that you could easily make an emo-style outfit from stuff just you'd find at Topshop rather than going to shop that catered specifically for people interested in emo and alternative fashions.  Yes it is going to be a little harder to do,but in the words of Blea makeup tutor Maiko Sano, Gals love a challange! 

ANYWAY what I'm trying to say is that there are actually a lot of Gal-ish brands that are still out there, you might just have to hunt for them

Here are some of my top fave brands at the moment. Some of them are fronted by Gal influencers, others by fancy ladies and others by big-ass companies. This list also includes brands that started out as online stores but did well enough to open their own physical stores!

Darich