I was raving with excitement when I saw that Harajuku by Gwen Stefani was now at Target. I ran to the store with my RedCard in hand with the intention of spending that month's entertainment budget. My eyes were met with a technicolor rainbow. There were neon greens and pinks, color I haven't seen since the eighties. There were those loveable Harajuku girls, some with mermaid fins and some without. My personal favorite was the one with the afro. This is perhaps the first disappointment for me. I bought a makeup bag with the same Harajuku girls on it from Sephora. Those girls were all shades of brown, from dark to light. There were no brown Harajuku girls in the Target version.
The styles were adorable. There was military styled jacket, reminiscent of a jacket Michael Jackson once wore. There "scants", a word I use to describe those pants that have a skirt attached. They look like skorts only they have pants instead of shorts. You'd have to be a woman to understand. There was plaid and overalls, something I was sad to see leave in the nineties. There were shoes, barrettes, headbands, sunglasses and knee-high socks. The universal theme was nautical. It was evident in the navy blue and stripes, along with the anchors and military jackets.
My problem was with the style and the price. See I like the real Harajuku style. I was expecting the line to be a little more eclectic and interchangeable and a little less Garanamals meets Macy's fashion. Each piece in the line was at least $12.00. That was for a pair of barrettes. I wouldn't have minded if the afro Harajuku was at least brown. Most of the main clothing pieces were $20 a piece. My husband took a stab at the Harajuku line while I was at work. He didn't know that there was such a thing as matching too much. He bought the light blue hoodie with the mermaids on it, the matching light blue onesie with the pink haired mermaid on the chest and the light blue skirt. Too much blue for me. I added a two pair pack of knee-high socks and a pair of barrettes. The barrettes, socks, hoodie, shirt and skirt cost him almost $80. The same outfit in a Circo version was $30. So you really pay for the name. The items constantly sell out and do not get replaced. I'm assuming either they aren't selling as well as expected or there is another line, spring perhaps, that is on it's way in.
Although there are no brown Harajukus and each piece is slightly overpriced, I will purchase more when or if there is more to buy. The reason, I can't resist the urge too make my daughter look like the Harajuku version of Rainbow Brite as I once did when I was a child.
