Beauty under the umbrella

1 Dec 2008

Beauty under the umbrellaThe ideal of  Japanese female beauty includes white skin: the more white the better. It is not a temporary fashion. It is an ingrained concept established in the Japanese culture. An old Japanese proverb states that “white skin makes up for seven defects”. Brown skin for women is considered to be unclean and, for that reason, the Japanese cosmetic industry gets a great part of its revenue by selling products to preserve or restore the natural paleness of the skin. Practically the only Japanese women who don’t want to have a white skin are the ganguro girls, which are young women who follow the opposite trend since the ’90s; that is to say, they are characterized by having an extremely brown skin, which is often highlighted thanks to chemical products.

For most Japanese women, paleness of the skin (especially in the face) is an important part of their look. To protect it, they not only trust in skin creams but also they avoid to be exposed under sunlight more than necessary. To this purpose, they often wear long gloves, caps, big brim hats and especially umbrellas. In the second half of the 20. th. century, the use of these accessories was decreasing, and they were used by old women or women who didn’t worry about the fashion trends. However, in the last decades, umbrellas are back in fashion, and nowadays, young women are using them. In this way, there are now a lot of umbrella designs for everyone in Japan.

Other decisive factors for increasing umbrellas popularity at the end of the last century were the publication of alarming reports on the ozone hole in Earth’s atmosphere and news on the increasing number of people who suffer with skin cancer. Some companies moved quickly with products that filter out ultraviolet rays (UV radiation) in order to protect the skin in a better way.

When winter ends and summer arrives, umbrellas are still really popular in Japanese streets. Actually, they are used during the whole year. Even on cloudy days, you often can see a Japanese woman walking under one of them. It might be a strange thing for an uninformed foreign traveler who wonders if it is starting to rain. :)

Image by Gokujyo-Japan-World-Wide

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