My Japanese School Uniform (Nanchatte Seifuku)

I received a lot of emails from people asking about the Japanese school uniforms and my uniform. I was really looking forward to school uniforms too since they are known to be very flattering (at least in animes). To my big surprise, my host school didn’t have a uniform… What a shock!!

A lot of girls at my school wear “Nannchatte Seifuku(なんちゃって制服)” which are “fake” school uniforms that are more fashionable and cute. This allows them to mix and match with the colours they liked and the styles that please them. Some brands that sell this kind of clothes are East Boy, Don Quijote and Body Line, the first one being more expensive than the second one. Some stores are located in shopping malls (like East Boy is in Isetan) or places where young people shop at (Shibuya, Harajuku, Akihabara, etc.).

Some people might find these clothes very expensive (a skirt at East Boy could be around 100$ while a blazer could be over 250$), if you thought about it they are expensive but most girls will wear the clothes during most days in their 3 years of high school. The girls usually have multiple pieces of clothing to mix and match and of course allow their clothes to be washed. I have three skirts, a couple of dress shirts and couple of cardigans. I personally prefer this outfit because it’s simple and allow me to wear accessories if I wanted to, without being over decorated like a Xmas tree. Most girls at my school had mainly pink coloured items (pink skirt, pink dress shirt, pink cardigan, etc.) I prefer the boyish look so I usually wear a tie. I never knew how to tie a tie so I always had to ask my host dad to do it for me, when I’m in a hurry, I just wear a ribbon which is much easier to wear (just put it around your neck and you’re done!)