From the 1990s to early 2000s, the use of plastic shopping bags was a boom and people who carried their own shopping bags became common. However, around the mid-2000s, the fashion for shop bags evolved into sub-bags for magazine appendices, which are still popular today. I’d like to talk about the shopping bag boom in the Heisei era and how this secondary bag has continued in the Reiwa era.
If you’ve been in the Gyaru community long enough or actively read this blog, you’ve probably heard the term SHOPPER from time to time. When one thinks about shoppers, you probably think of brands like MeJane and Alba Rosa, maybe even MA*RS first. These shopping bags were nicknamed “SHOPPERS” and became one of the most popular items of the 90s.
Street brand shoppers such as Murasaki Sports, BEAMS, and Hysteric Glamour are popular even if they are not Gyaru brand shops in Shibuya as mentioned above. Shoppers from brands like these were also carried by a lot more people. The shoppers were used mainly for gym clothes and used as sub-bags to store small items.
In retrospect, it may have been the pride of carrying the logo of the brand you admired.
It can be traced back to the 1993 “LA Style” boom. The “LA style” mentioned here is not the refreshing West Coast style of cut-off jeans trainers and sneakers introduced in a Japanese fashion magazine back in 1992, but the evolution of surfer fashion mixed with long brown hair, loose long sweaters, and sheepskin; It’s a typical 90’s Kogal style that everyone can easily imagine, such as skin boots and bright pink lipstick.
Shibuya style shops for young gals who support this “LA style” had sparked the popularity of shoppers. In 1993, the most popular “LA style” shops were the aforementioned brands like MeJane and Alba Rosa. In particular, the drawstring-type vinyl shopper gained popularity and carrying it diagonally spread into the usual school uniform style was the norm for Kogals; It was accepted as part of the fashion of young women in the meantime.
In the late ’90s, the shopper style continued to be popular.
Gyaru shop representatives MeJane and Alba Rosa had become popular around this time with handbags, and shoppers from Harajuku and street brands had equally become as popular.
In the 2000s, the shopper boom seemed to have calmed down, but it was still popular with students who had a lot of belongings. Instead, the old style of carrying a purse-type shopper diagonally had decreased, and handbag-type shoppers and paper bag shoppers gradually started gaining popularity.
In 2006, the name “shopper” changed to “shobukuro”. This paper bag not only appealed to the brand’s logo, but it was also useful because it could create a sense of class between consumers.
In the 2000s, the number of shoppers using non-woven fabrics such as LIZ LISA increased, and the shopper culture that had continued since the 1990s changed to become more practical. In addition, the number of sizes gradually increased from this time, and it evolved to be used not only for carrying things used at school on weekdays, but also for going out for a short time on the weekends.
The evolution of the shopper boom that had continued since the 1990s seems to have led to the appearance of sub-bags in magazine appendices and shop original sub-bags that began around 2007. The style of carrying a bag in addition to the main bag gradually became a standard along with the trend of small-size bags.
In recent years, it has become commonplace for magazines to come with extravagant appendices: From “Cher” and “Crystal Ball” lunch totes to luxurious ones, “Yves Saint-Laurent”. Also, although it is not an appendix, the popularity of sub-bags such as “American Apparel” is also a feature of the mid-2000s. Sub-bags, which basically have logos and brand features, are accepted not only by teenagers, but also by people in their 20s, 30s, and even their 40s.
Apparel brands used to be the standard for shoppers and sub-bags, but since 2010, original sub-bags for fashionable restaurants and cafes such as DEAN & DELUCA and Starbucks have been used.