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May 14, 2021 14 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Today in pulp I try to decipher 1980s Japanese street style, with the help of Olive: The Magazine for Romantic Girls!

This may involve frills... Image
Street style is an ever changing mix of styles, brands, attitudes and poses with various influences. And you normally have to be in the right place at the right time to capture it. Image
Which is where magazines come in! Photograping, documenting and deconstructing fashion never goes out of style, and in the late 1970s Japanese youth had one key guide to help them: Popeye! Image
Popeye was the Magazine for City Boys, with the City Style - a bit Preppy, a bit Paninaro- becoming one of the dominant '80s looks. At least for the chaps. ImageImage
Women's street style was a more complicated affair on Japan with many competing trends. Kawaii - the aesthetic of cuteness - vied with Otome ("maiden style"), Lolita, Pink House, Prarie Look and many other influences in the 1980s. Image
So in 1982 the publishers of Popeye released a new magazine: Olive. Aimed at City Girls looking for a City Style it lasted for only a few issues before it was withdrawn, radically retooled and reissued. Image
Olive: The Magazine for Romantic Girls hit the newsstands in 1983 and for many years was the go-to guide for Japanese street style.

But what was the "Romantic Look" and where did it come from? Image
Well ther were a number of Olive styles over the years. The classic look was French high school style - Lycéene - with lots of volume and details. Image
Natural Kei, often associated with the Pink House label, involved soft patterns and lots of layering. Long skirts were the norm. ImageImage
Character fashion was also a notable influence, with fashion styles reflecting popular singers and bands from Madonna to Bananarama. Image
By the early '90s the focus had moved from specific brands towards specific ways of combining clothes and accessories. How you wore it mattered more than what you wore. Image
And by the mid-90s the French high school lok was giving way to Schoolgirl Style, although Olive Girls still wove the maiden-type aesthetic through them. ImageImage
The Age of Magazines may be passing, but Instagram can't replace the well-curated insights or the sheer pleasure of a good fashion magazine. So here's to Olive and all the Romantic Girls it influenced!

More stories another time... Image
(Big 6th form common room vibes here...) ImageImageImageImage

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More from @PulpLibrarian

Nov 7
The Time Machine, Brave New World, 1984: these weren’t the first dystopian novels. There's an interesting history of Victorian and Edwardian literature looking at the impact of modernity on humans and finding it worrying.

Today in pulp I look at some early dystopian books… Image
Paris in the Twentieth Century, written in 1863, was the second novel penned by Jules Verne. However his publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel rejected it as too gloomy. The manuscript was only discovered in 1994 when Verne’s grandson hired a locksmith to break into an old family safe. Image
The novel, set in 1961, warns of the dangers of a utilitarian culture. Paris has street lights, motor cars and the electric chair but no artists or writers any more. Instead industry and commerce dominate and citizens see themselves as cogs in a great economic machine. Image
Read 25 tweets
Oct 31
Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"

I assume everyone's doing it this #Halloween ? Image
The Legend Of Crownpoint, by Monica Heath. Signet Books, 1974.

A lot of moss on that heath... Image
The Legend Of Holderly Hall, by Kate Cameron. Leisure Books, 1974.

This is number one in a series of four novels, proving that nobody really reads Trip Advisor hotel reviews... Image
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Oct 28
In January 1919 a new magazine heralded the dawn of the Weimar era. Its aesthetic was a kind of demented Jugendstil, and its stories were dark gothic fantasies.

This is the story of Der Orchideengarten... Image
Der Orchideengarten: Phantastische Blätter (The orchid garden: fantastic pages) is probably the first ever fantasy magazine. Published in Munich by Dreiländerverlag, a trial issue appeared in 1918 before the first full 24 page edition was published in January 1919. Image
"The orchid garden is full of beautiful - now terribly gruesome, now satirically pleasing - graphic jewelery" announced the advanced publicity. It was certainly a huge departure from the Art Nouveau of Jugend magazine, which German readers were already familiar with. Image
Read 12 tweets
Oct 22
Time for a pulp countdown now, and today I'm looking at my top 10 animals in pulp horror! Image
At no 10: cats! Pretty evil, but can be easily defeated with a laser pointer. Image
At no 9: bees! They only attack if you annoy them, or if you're standing near a jam sandwich. Best to take care in either situation. Image
Read 12 tweets
Oct 15
If stock photography has taught us one thing it's how to recognise a hacker! But how much do we really know about these shady characters, with their ill-fitting balaclavas and their Windows 7 laptops?

Here's my essential stock photography guide to cybersecurity... Image
First things first, hacking has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. Backing up your sensitive data on C60 cassette and labelling it "Flock of Seagulls Megamix' is no longer enough to keep your information safe! Image
And hackers are actually very hard to spot. That's because they dress head-to-toe in black (or very very very dark grey) since they live on the Dark Web and want to blend into the background. Image
Read 12 tweets
Oct 5
Time once again for our occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"

And today I count down my Top 10 of most gothic goths a' fleeing... Image
At No 10: The Unlamented, by Dorothy Daniels. Pocket Books, 1975. That's a great goth coat! Image
At No 9: The Haunting of Drumroe, by Claudette Nicole. Fawcett Gold Medal, 1971. Who says a gothic lady can't rock a white nightie in the snow? Image
Read 12 tweets

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