☆Hime Gyaru☆

Hime Gyaru, what is it? Firstly its 姫（ひめ） which is Japanese (obviously) for princess. It is another sub-style that falls under the big gyaru umbrella. Why? Well if you want to shop for hime gyaru clothes then you will end up in the same place all other gyaru shop in. Namely Shibuya 109. There are some specialty shops that cater specifically to that hime gyaru look and those shops look amazing. Just pink pastel everywhere, ribbons, lace and you name it. You can also find some shops in takeshita dori in Harajuku, but your best bet is to try Shibuya first. Of coure if you wanted to get a Harajuku true style crepe, than maybe thats your first stop! They just dont sell any good crepes in Shibuya?
Hime gyaru is not this kind of princess. Definitely not the kind of princess we in the western world have ideas about…

Not Disney!

However, hime gyaru takes the basic idea… to look gorgeous. To understand Hime gyaru first we need to look at the big niche magazine that serves this particular portion of the Japanese gyaru culture. Namely Ageha!

First thing you should note is the sparkly nature of the magazine cover. Everything sparkles, it fact it makes it hard to read what is actually on the cover.

The sparkling gorgeous look is ubiquitous, and carries across even on this cover of the same Ageha magazine. This explains somewhat a gyaru hime’s penchant for rhinestone ladden mobile phones and event mint boxes!

Here is another cover, and I really dig the black and white coordination here. As you have noticed hime gyaru have lots of make up = perfect complexion, and big smokey eyes. Sure, having some really soft lighting helps here to bring that amazing perfect sin color too!

Here are some pages from Ageha, hopefully you can get a good appreciation for the hair styles and fashion sense that drive this niche.

Hime Gyaru Pictures

First up some examples of hair styles.

Hime Gyaru Hairstyle

As you can see, a big love for long hair. It has to be long, otherwise you cant do the second most common thing gyaru hime do, curl it! The hallmark then is to add something cute and stick it in those curls, like that white rose? type accessory.

Other Hime Gyaru Hairstyles

Makeup examples now…

Hime Gyaru Makeup

As you can see, the same really as most gyaru makeup. The big 3 that is. big lashes + big contacts + big (dark) eye shadow = hime gyaru eyes. The perfect complexion comes from the way they shoot their models. Which is not to dissimilar to the effect you get at puri-kura picture booths! The light is refracted and works to even out skin tones, then the eye makeup pops out the eyes. Notice that he lips are normal natural lip color, no red or anything that stands out. If you do that, youve got the Lady GaGa look ok.

Hime Gyaru Party Fashion

The large majority of the readers of Ageha work in kyabakura. Ie as hostesses. That is, they work in little clubs where men, usually business men sit and pay money to have a chat with these ladies. If they so like, they will invite the hostesses to diner, dates and clubs. Sex isnt really on the menu for this kind of service, but I imagine if you have the money for it you can buy it.
Now, If you did a image search for gyaru hime in google you tend to get this…

Hime Gyaru on Web

Im going to put my professional image on the line here for  second. I think that kind of fashion we westerners automatically assume is only hime gyaru,  and by all means it looks like princess gyaru… I think that it tends to also border into the lolita side of things as well. If you have ever seen that movie. Shimotsuma monogatari or Kamakaze Girl in the states, you will notice that its about Lolita fashion, the same kind of look that we also call hime gyaru. However princess gyaru fashion actually encompasses a whole other side that we don’t see. A slightly more adult side. Which is no doubt due to the overwhelming reason that the majority of Ageha readers work in the adult industry.
Anyway, I would love to hear you guys opinion on what exactly is this all about?
Thanks for reading!