Plus bonus tie that goes with anything!

2006-10-12

Plus bonus tie that goes with anything!

An ad I found in this week's Shonen Magajin:

"Six co-ordinated-by-100-OLs-so-there's-no-mistake [shirt-and-tie] sets!"

This is, I guess, the male equivalent of the aisare wanpi (literally, "be-loved one-piece [dress]") that turn up in women's fashion magazines so often. (Actually, the aisare part turns up attached to all sorts of things; it's practically a productive morpheme.)

There is one big and entertaining difference, though: the extra selling point of "not in error!" Deep down, everyone knows that mail-order shirts from the back of a comic book aren't going to make any female co-workers fall in love with them. But the reassurance that they will, at the very least, save you from fashion blunders -- that is aimed at a far more vulnerable and desperate place in the male psyche.

Maybe... just maybe...

Popularity factor: 5

Anonymous:

I don't know, the entire fashion magazine business is about "no error" guidance. This ad is just much more specific about its aims - because, as you mention, it is not exactly in the best media real estate. Every fashion label has its own stories about how consumers will not buy color-ways not featured in a magazine - there can never be any extrapolation from the written word.

Also, aisare seems to be a code-word for the opposite of "mote-kei/CanCam" - i.e., girls who know they are not that appealing to men so they want to be "loved" by one man instead of thought of as cute by everyone.

Marxy

Matt:

Yeah, I agree that aisare is in opposition to mote-kei (or maybe koakuma-kei?), but I don't really think it's quite so severe a distinction or so dependent on the subject's essential qualities like that. I see it more as just another broad label for a type of image that anyone can aspire to, depending on how they feel.

Plus, CanCam features aisare items too. Surely you didn't miss their "aisare akikami" (-gami?) hairdo special last issue. Journalism at its finest.

Gaijin Biker:

Of course, the poor saps who buy these shirt and tie sets can still screw up by wearing them with the wrong suit. Clearly some sort of Garanimals-for-salarymen is needed.

Morgan:

The aisare, machigainai one-piece business suit is surely not far off.

denske:

I guess some guys don't realize that one of the few pleasant aspects of buying clothes is getting the hot sales clerk to give you fashion advice while she flirts with you.
On the other hand, anyone who would purchase 6 shirts and 7 ties for 10,000 yen is probably beyond redemption.

2006-10-12