A new trend of strongly independent and sexy women

It’s me, Coming Soon Research Lab’s own Head Researcher, Rei Shito!

I’m back to tell you about the appearance of a new style genre for girls, the Musk-style girl!
What’s “Musk-style”?

Allow me to explain. This is a new phase in the Otona Kawaii trend.

It has been 10 years since the appearance of Otona Kawaii. Many of you should still remember clearly the major splash Otona Kawaii made among Otona girls who wanted to continue to wear kawaii styles into their 30s and who refused to give up on being the people they wanted to be. And yet this same trend practically vanished overnight once the fashion icon Rinka announced that she was done with it.

For many Otona girls, even though Otona Kawaii styles are yesterday’s news, they aren’t eager to wear conservative styles either. Pity the Otona girls – lost little lambs in the world of fashion! And yet for these girls – a new style has appeared! It is strong, and it is sexy. It is “strosexy!”

Prioritizing individuality

Musk-style girls do not have the kind of bland sexiness of a woman with a dynamite body, such as Beyoncé. Their sexiness is more “pheromone-type” sexiness. It is the thick scent of musk floating lightly through the air. One might even say it is a Japanese kind of feminine charm.

Musk-style girls do not strive to be popular with the opposite sex. They live for themselves. One Musk-style girl I spoke to told me, “when I was in my 20s, I felt a certain kind of embarrassment about my own femininity or sexiness. And then, right around the time I turned 30, I suddenly came to accept myself very quickly.”

This may have something to do with the changes to our skin as we age. As we grow older, our skin loses its suppleness, and takes on a mellow quality. Once that has happened, girls become suddenly able to wear sexy clothes without giving off too much of an erotic vibe.

What they lack in flirtatiousness or eroticism for the opposite sex, Musk-style girls make up in strength. They have the strength of girls who live their lives as independent women. Indeed, many Musk-style girls are completely independent people.

The main outward characteristics of Musk-style girls are:

1. They are over 30.

2. They show quite a lot of skin. Musk-style girls often where tops with open backs, tank tops with plunging necklines, and skirts with bold slits in them. They don’t care if people can see their bras, and they wear clothes with plunging necklines rivalling an oiran (a prostitute class of geisha). All of that said, they don’t appear debauched. They even often look impressively pure.

3. They use large accessories and a lot of them. In proportion with the excessive skin their clothes show, they may use numerous large bangles or rings on each finger to express their strength and fashion.

Accepting the changes that come with age

While Otona Kawaii was all about not giving up on the person that a girl wanted to be, and persevering with kawaii styles, Musk-style girls accept their bodies and the changes that come with age as they are, and enjoy finding fashion that suits them and cultivating their tastes while accepting all of that.

In that sense, we might even say this is a continuation of the feminist movement! It is all about self-acceptance. To that I say “bravo” to Musk-style girls!
Well, that is all from me. This has been Rei Shito reporting from the front lines of fashion. Hope to write you again soon. Ciao!