For a Kogal, the school bag is essentially worn out by the time they graduate from high school, and has changed in a variety of ways with the times. In modern times of course, there are backpacks in addition to school bags, and diversification and casualization of each are progressing, but it seems that the school bag, or “sukuba” trend still exists.
Designated school bags from the school itself tend to be used reluctantly, but when viewed as a trendy item, the yearning for sukuba is immeasurable in any era. To this day, school bags cost so much more than the standard school bag. So let’s take a look at the school bag; from the brand boom in the early 90’s to the famous school bag boom in the late 90’s, and the 00’s, along with the current trends.
What we know now is that by 1996, the Kogal boom and the Amurer boom were coinciding and going strong, so the late 1990s with loose socks as a staple is strong as well, but looking back on history, it was around 1993 that the Kogal boom actually began to lead the trend. School bags, which are essential items, have changed so much to the point that they are no longer just bags.
In the early 1990s, at the beginning of the Kogal boom, large tote bags from Esprit, GUESS, and Hervé Chapelier were popular due to the trend piggybacking off of the bubble period. Even the casual school bags are somewhat brand-oriented, such as LL Bean backpacks.
By the way, this is also around the time when the SHOPPER boom came about, which many Kogals carried around shopping bags from brands like Murasaki Sports, Bahamas Party, and Labrador Retriever.
In the mid to late 90s, magazines and streetwear began to heat up, and at this time Kogals started to become more aware of the value of being a Kogal (sounds ironic, really–there’s value to staying in school, kids!). From around this time, it became popular to carry school bags from famous schools (the famous school bag hunts I mentioned a while back), and the characteristics of tagging and writing graffiti with Posca can be seen. In addition to tagging their school bags, these were also known to have various surf brand stickers on them.
For Kogals, the school bag itself ended up reaching an iconic position that would determine their own value and individuality.
School bag hunts really took off around 1997. Even though there was no flea market app like Mercari back in that time, other school’s school bags were traded for the same price as a real brand bag. In addition to this, the presence of popular reader models for fashion magazines such as Tokyo Street News and Popteen played a role in the background of this famous school bag boom.
At the height of the sukuba boom, Showa Daiichi High School’s school bag was the most popular, but there were many other popular high schools such as Hosei Second High School. With regards to the search for the “school bag of a famous school”, the popularity ranking changed a bit depending on each school and region.
In the 2000s, being a Kogal was incredibly valuable for street cred, but the actual Kogal boom of the 90s had passed, and the times began to gradually change. In the early ’00s, Kogals were influenced by their seniors from the late 90s, and the popularity of school bags from famous high schools such as Showa Daiichi High School and Hosei Second High School were still alive and well.
On the other hand, around 2003, the East BoyWorld Pegasus school bags of Tokyo Metropolitan Katakura High School had become popular, creating a different atmosphere. In addition, the appearance of uniforms in the media, which had a slightly worn atmosphere until then, were changed from loose socks to navy blue high socks with the appearance of the word “neat Gal”, and ribbon bow-tie attachments were observed.
PS: The term Kisei Gyaru (neat Gal) was coined at this time. Spoiler alert though, it didn’t catch on as fast until another current trend popped up around the time the last Gyaru boom ended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWVVLlgdgdQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu7DUGjyHwE
From then on, everything changed and it can be observed not just in the evolution of school bags but also in the current Kogal uniforms, being different from what they were back in the 90’s. Despite that, if you were to run a search for used school bags, you’d still find the used school bags from decades ago selling at a much higher price than the current school bags.