What is Kigurumin?

Well, after Connie posted that awesome dance video.. I thought I would better explain "kigurumin". Kigurumin are people who decide to dress in animal pajamas. It was a very popular Japanese Street style in the late 90's in the harajuku district of Japan. It was mostly part of the subculture of Ganguro. Ganguro is an alternative fashion where young Japanese women get tans and dye their hair blonde. 

"Researchers in the field of Japanese studies believe that ganguro is a form of revenge against traditional Japanese society due to resentment of neglect, isolation, and constraint of Japanese society. This is their attempt at individuality, self-expression, and freedom, in open defiance of school standards and regulations." (Liu, Xuexin) 

Here is an intro video about the fashion. 

I have always love Japanese Street fashion and other alternative fashion. Alternative fashion is creative and expressive. You can go wild with your imagination and you don't feel like everyone else. However, when I wore alternative fashion in public--it was more than just liking the clothes. I think like most people who wear alternative fashion it was about something more; the mutual feeling of loneliness, being an outcast and rebellion against society norms.

As a teenager and young adult, I felt I had little control over my life. Wearing alternative clothes was one of the ways I cope and made myself more in control. Instead of feeling like an outcast for being Korean American, Half-Breed, Loner... I put those feeling into my clothes. A lot of people thought I was weird but people who like me--were similar to me. We shared the same mutual feeling of not belonging. In my social group, alternative fashion gave me a feeling of belonging. 

Alternative fashion help me find a group of people that struggled with not fitting into mainstream America. In our misfit outcast group, we became a family.  A family that experience many similar memories of being teased and feeling different. Instead of "feeling hurt", we expressed our raged through our clothes. If society rejected us, we wanted to show everyone. We found others like us and form a anti-mainstream social group. Alternative fashion made it easier for me to cope with the feelings of being alone and disliked. It gave me a feeling of peace about my place in the world and made me realized that it's okay if I'm not normal.  

I think this video can show you some of my feelings... 

Did you went through a period of time where you felt like you didn't belong? How were you able to cope with those feelings?