The Fashion within Nana
A brief breakdown on the fashion within the Nana anime and manga
While scrolling on TikTok, I noticed an anime being mentioned frequently, referenced as the holy grail of y2k inspo. 47 episodes, and a few tears later, I realized it’s Ai Yazawa’s most popular manga for a reason. Nana is a painful depiction of everything that could go wrong with love while remaining synchronous with 70’s British punk fashions - often mirroring the internal struggles of its characters.
On Ai Yazawa
Before entering the world of manga Yazawa briefly attended fashion school, which is made clear while analyising the stylish characters featured in her shoujo manga. Following school, Yazawa continued to hone her iconic drawing style with an almost maniacal attention to detail. Her characters are seen to be more like ethereal fashion sketches with sleek proportions and harmonious features. She published her first manga ‘Ano Natsu’ in 1985 and followed with 12 full length series including Neighborhood story, Paradise Kiss, and most famously (yet unfinished) Nana. This led her up to an unfortunate hiatus in 2010 due to illness. However, what unmistakably ties all these manga together is Yazawa’s love for fashion and its various subcultures - most notably, punk street, shibukaji, glam rock and lolita - remain common in her work
On Nana (Anime)
Nana, adapted on April 5th, 2006, rapidly rose to become one of the most popular shoujo anime of all time, ranking 11th as per popularity, and 6th as per overall score (sorted under the shoujo demographic) on MAL. Like most anime adapted by Studio Madhouse namely Hajime no Ippo, Death Note, and Monster, Nana is a tense watch. It’s a realistic, slightly dramatized portrayal of the search for independence, often made my stomach turn. Regardless, I watched the entire thing in two days flat even during my exam season, so take that how you will. It’s like a burning dumpster fire, but regardless I’d wholeheartedly recommend it.
Nana Osaki
Moving past the plot, the reason for this post is to break down the fashion tropes featured in Nana. Starting with one of two main protagonists, Nana Osaki (Punk Nana), is a quintessential portrayal of 70’s punk, or more specifically, the 90s Japanese interpretation of the British punk fashion.
What’s interesting is that Punk Nana doesn’t just wear Sex Pistol’s inspired spikes, chains and leather boots- she also wears platforms, laces, corsets and frilly skirts. This stems from the British emergence of alt-music magazines like Doll, and Victorian-esque boutiques like Milk in the 80’s. These respective fashions intersected and were eventually dubbed ‘Doll-Fashion’. By the 90’s, Doll fashion diverged into various subcultures like doll, goth, lotita and Visual Kei (VK). However, one designer reunited all these elements, popularizing these subcultures in Tokyo after opening her first store in Harajuku.
Can you guess who the designer is?
In almost every scene of the anime, Osaki, the singer of VK punk band ‘Black Rocks’ or ‘Blast’ is sporting Vivienne Westwood. Westwood’s' iconic ‘Sovereigns Orb’ is omnipresent on Osaki, whether it’s seen on earrings, chokers, corsets and rings. Most notably, the orb can be seen on Osaki’s massive ‘Armour Ring’ in which our second Nana (yes there are two Nana’s) spots in the opening scenes of the anime. This gives us a perfect idea of the rebellious personality of our fan-favorite Punk Nana.
Shinichi Okazaki
Similarly, one of Osaki’s bandmates ‘Shin’ is a 15-year-old boy fully immersed in the world of punk, after an unfortunate upbringing. His inspiration from Vivienne Westwood (sidenote - who styled the Sex Pistols), particularly her 1974 ‘Bondage Collection’ is evident in his style as he sports tops with provocative political slogans, fetish, S&M, and bondage inspired gear playing further this ‘jaded’ character trope. He notably wears various different accessories at once further pushing the VK connotations of ‘Blast’. However, his most characteristic accessory is the massive gold orb lighter, perpetually worn as his necklace. Today, this rare Westwood item is virtually unobtainable.
Honorable Mentions
Now, Nana is an extraordinary fashion forward anime that amalgamates different subcultures through its diverse cast list. Characters including Ren Honjo pay direct homage to Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols while Misato embodies 90’s doll, himegyaru, and lolita fashions. Meanwhile, Nami Komatsu portrays a textbook gyaru, or more specifically known in the 90’s as shibuya-centric heavily tanned Ganguro Gal. But me personally, I’d like to focus on our other protagonist: Nana Komatsu (Hachiko - Yes, again, there are two Nana’s).
Nana Komatsu (Hachiko)
Hachiko’s fatal flaw is her indecisiveness. She follows the crowd in the worst way possible and lacks a personal or stylistic identity. She has no stable dreams, frequently changing her occupation and wardrobe in the hope of becoming a self-sustaining, independent woman. Hachi’s constant pivots are perfect for us since it gives us plenty of styles to talk about. At the start of the anime, as a highschooler, she sports a Ko-gal look characterized by thick, slouch socks. After graduating and joining art school she adopts 70’s bohemian aesthetic with baggy linen pants, platform shoes, floral blouses and headscarves - largely influenced by her best friend. In this era, she lacked any male influence where interestingly enough this became her most boyish look. Later, Hachi then goes shifts her style between the jobs she works and the people she talks to: For example, seen in her adoption of Westwood Jewelry from Osaki, however, near the end of the anime, she plateaus out to a more vintage housewife inspired, Mori Girl look as she rocks flowy pastel dresses and modest skirts to match a more feminine vibe. The most stable characteristic of Hachiko is her incorporation of scarves in all of her outfits, so if you were ever using her as inspiration, it would be criminal to miss this detail.
Takeaway
Well, with all of that being said, Ai Yazawa’s raw portrayal of soul-searching, change, and reinvention of self-image in Nana will continue to resonate with the youth of our generation. Even if the themes face redundancy in the future, the referenced fashion in this show will remain timeless.
References:
NANA fashion & Vivienne Westwood
Nana and Vivienne Westwood: An Ode to Punk Style — sabukaru
How To Dress Like a Character From the Nana Anime
Ai Yazawa, the mangaka in love with Vivienne Westwood
Examining The Ways Punk Fashion Influenced Ai Yazawa's NANA - Anime Herald
Punk Rock in Japan: A thriving subculture of rebellion and precision | Japan Experience