Being a princess is a girl’s dream - dress in pretty gowns, living in luxury, attending tea parties - these are just some of the activities associated with that of a royal princess in fantasies. Unfortunately, reality works differently and we don’t live like that, and unfortunately, we don’t have people who will help us make our dresses fit together properly in a way a princess should be treated… or do we?
As you already know, the Gyaru fashion culture has a lot of style that is associated with it, compiled and divided into different variants depending on the type of interest that the enthusiasts have, and surely, there’s at least one culture to accommodate even the most unpredictable ones and so here comes Hime Gyaru.
As Fandom would define it, Himegyaru (Sometimes written as Hime Gyaru or Hime-gyaru) is one of the many sub-styles of Gyaru. The name means 'Princess Gal' which perfectly describes the style. Himegyaru is often linked to Lolita although the styles are very different.
Is Hime Gyaru Lolita?
It is so easy to confuse the hime gyaru style to that of another well-known fashion subculture in Japan - Lolita. This is due to the similar elements that both fashion styles have that it is easy to mix the one with the other. To clear this up, no Hime Gyaru is not Lolita and no, Hime Gyaru is also not Lolita inspired.
Lolita fashion is a fashion substyle that is inspired from the Victorian clothing from the Rococo period, meaning to say that it has a structured inspiration and the subculture itself has certain specific rules to follow for when dressing up in Lolita. Hime Gyaru, on the other hand, is simply just a fashion style created to simply have fun. To say the least, it has a lot of freedom associated with it when someone wants to wear the hime gyaru style as there are no exact right or wrong ways to dress like a hime gyaru. But, it is still important to follow the basics of the style in order to be recognized as part of the hime gyaru community rather than experimenting to the point that it is no longer recognizable.
Makeup
The makeup style of the Hime Gyaru doesn’t have much of a difference really if compared to the basic gyaru makeup elements. The makeup, as usual, focuses more on making the eyes pop and making it look bigger than it’s supposed to be by making use of white and brown eyeliners and then making use of fake lashes to place on both top lash and bottom lash line to create a bigger eye effect. The Hime Gyaru also makes use of light, pink lipstick for their lips so as to create a soft effect for their makeup look in contrast to their already heavy style of fashion with all their wigs, dresses, and other accessories that make up their outfits. They draw their eyebrows thinly and they also make use of light makeup blush for their cheeks to highlight some pink shades there.
On occasions where they feel a little extra, they love to put additional elements to their makeup such as glitters and little jewelry-like pieces near their eyes to have a more dazzling effect.
Hairstyle
Probably one of the most identifying features of the Hime Gyaru are their hairstyles. Unlike the Lolita where you are free to style your hair in any way and/or accordingly depend on the type of hairstyle that you want to go for, the hairstyle for the Hime Gyaru is it’s distinctive puffy hairstyle. I am talking about the mega huge hairpieces that they wear.
The Hime Gyaru loves to wear big, beehive hairstyles anywhere they go. They achieve this by layering multiple wigs to the point that they are satisfied with the style that they are looking for. Their hair often comes in colors brown or blonde and they also make sure that they heat their hair with wavy curls, just as long as it's not exaggerated.
Aside from the colors and heated curls, the hairstyle of the Hime Gyarus also emphasizes their use of hair accessories as an essential part of their hairpiece. This time, aside from putting up a lot of small accessories, the Hime Gyarus love to wear conspicuous ribbons on their hair. Whether they put on the top of their heads a single, big ribbon (or two), you will most certainly know for an instant that the wearer is a Hime Gyaru for that. Aside from the big ribbons, they also make sure that they decorate their hairs with other small hair accessories that they see fit to their style.
Clothing and style in the Hime Gyaru aesthetic
The interesting part of the aesthetic lies on how they style their clothes. The Hime Gyaru basically only wear anything that 1) has the pink, white, or anything related to these colors 2) has frills, ribbons, and laces attached to it 3) has cute patterns attached to their clothing that relates to their outfit.
Being known as the princesses in real life, the Hime Gyaru tries it’s best to showcase their love of being the princesses themselves, though not literally, but hey, if they can do it through fashion, what stops them, right? They are known for their almost consistent pink and white colored clothing. These colors are what they use simply because it is the colors that exudes femininity and purity, also signifying their innocence and class. For their everyday wear, the Hime Gyaru often sports cute, frilly dresses in pink and white colors. Though unlike the Lolita where they need to make sure that their dresses fall into a bell-shaped style, while you see this on many occasions, the Hime Gyaru doesn't necessarily apply that to their style. After all, the Gyaru aesthetic itself in the modern times is simply just a matter of showcasing someone's class and status in society and by wearing Gyaru clothing is an indication to that.
Not only that, the Hime Gyaru even has specific brands that are tailored to fit the Hime Gyaru market, though these brands are slowly dying out, there are still the main brands that exist today that still continues to give way for the Hime Gyaru market namely: Jesus Diamante, Liz Lisa, and La Parfait. If you want to find Hime Gyaru specific styles then these brands are your pick.
But going back to the point of the matter, the Hime Gyaru while still exaggerating by nature, the wearer can choose to dial down the natural exaggeration of the aesthetic and keep it lowkey. As times are also changing, the Hime Gyaru also continues to progress to the more casual way of dressing up. So, aside from those exaggerated beehive hair, the wearer can also dial it down to a less exaggerated tone to fit more of a casual getup that the gyaru aesthetic is leaning towards into.
They also make use of shoes that attract attention to! While doll-like shoes are common for Hime Gyaru styles, you can see a lot of them actually wearing high platform shoes and boots! And ofcourse, in order to complete the aesthetic, these shoes should be in the colors pink or white or a mixture of both, keeping it consistent.
And also as part of their fashion, the Hime Gyaru also makes sure that their nails are maintained. While painting them with different colors is one, they also keep it long to accommodate more accessories and decorations almost like that of the decora nails fashion. There is no end to how a Hime Gyaru should decorate their nails because as a little details the nails have, the Hime Gyaru will never miss the opportunity to make every inch of their body princess-like.
Hime Gyaru today
Just like the rest of the many gyaru substyles, the demand and popularity of the Hime Gyaru is continuously declining and nobody knows if there are ways to bring it back to its prime. While there are still brands that exist for the Hime Gyaru market, there are only a countless few and the ones only surviving are the ones who were already known by the market.
Unfortunately, there’s not much that we can talk about the Hime Gyaru as it is hard to find them these days. As mentioned, even mentioned before in our previous blog, even finding a single gyaru on the streets of Tokyo is hard to recognize now due to the gyaru community slowly conforming into the society of today. Not much is known more about them aside from the foreign enthusiasts that love the aesthetic and continue to use it up until this day.
Will Hime Gyaru evolve into something new or will it just disperse into history just like everything else? Only time will know.
Let us know your thoughts on the comments section below regarding what you think about Hime Gyaru! Do you know someone who loves the aesthetic? Tell us your thoughts!
