May 22, 2009

Japanese Slang: Dekofuku

There is a lot of slang that has sprung up around fashion. Previously, we talked about Uniqlo (unibare), fashionalable pets (usanpo), lacking makeup (SPY) and even fail-hats (posharu). We also explored the world of dazzling girls and their diamond studs (agejyou and dekoru).

デコ服 (dekofuku) is related to that last one. As previously found, deko comes from "decoration." The second part of the word, fuku, means clothes. Huh. Sounds kinda like a swear word when it's in romaji like that though. Anyways, dekofuku a little different from dekoru in that while dekoru usually refers to little plastic diamonds applied to things by glue, dekofuku refers to things you attach to you clothes, like buttons and brooches. That way, you can customize every outfit even if it is old. In these times of worldwide economic crisis, dekofuku is seen as a very good way to save money and yet stay stylish.

Of course, the first thing I thought of when I read about dekofuku was "flair."


[J reference]

3 comments:

  1. The first thing I thought about when I learned of the term デコ服 was, "Really? The 80's again? Are you sure about that?"

    And before I learned about the term デコ服, I thought, "What's 凸服?"

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  2. It would seem that the 80s are indeed back: http://blog.jibtv.com/j-bloggers/2009/05/its-all-about-the-plastic-earrings.html

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  3. This post explains a lot. I saw an old guy sleeping under an overpass in Shibuya the other night on a piece of cardboard. He was wearing what looked like a Kangol cap in a Burberry check, with a huge fake diamond flower brooch pinned to the brim.

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