Fairy Kei

Fairy Kei (フェアリー系) is a Japanese fashion based on children's popculture from the 80s. As the name suggests, it is characterized by a pastel color palette as well as a fluffy or floaty appearance. When not refering to the fashion on its own, the term "fancy" (ファンシー) is commonly used within Japan to describe its nostalgic aesthetic.

Visuals[]

Fairy Kei visuals include:

Conversation hearts
Cotton candy
Rainbows
Unicorns
Milkshakes
Confetti
Polkadots
Balloons
Vinyl record
Rollerblades
80's & 90's toys

Fashion[]

Fairy Kei is centered around muted pastels and 80's revivalist cartoons and motifs such as My Little Pony G1, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, vintage 80's Barbie, etc. The look is very much a ‘fantasy style’, emulating the worlds of 80's girls’ cartoons and early shoujo manga. It began with Tavuchi, founder of the vintage and repurposed vintage boutique SPANK!, as her personal style, and then the look took off from there.

Fabric is usually lightweight for dresses and skirts, such as the loose A-line dresses and the fluttery colored petticoats. Thick, fluffy sweaters, over-sized 80's sweatshirts; this is also the land from whence comes the mokomoko accessories craze, and stuffed animals are sewn onto sweaters and scarves, or as the usual purse. Dress length can be ankle length, knee-length or mini-skirt length; anything fluttery and flowy works.

The most important aspects of fairy kei are the vintage/fantasy world factor, and the color palette. Color is one of the most important features here, less so the structure or item. Pastels and neon-tinted pastels, or high-saturated pastels. Popular colors are pastel pink, baby blue, lavender, light yellow and in smaller doses, ‘white-with-black-dots’. Dark and overly bright colors are not allowed outside of accents. Several motifs and themes are often found in fairy kei as well: most notably the unicorn, followed by kittens, any vintage 80's toy or franchise, moons and stars, rainbows, and naturally sweets such as cotton candy and conversation hearts (the chalky American candy that say things like UR CUTE).

Media[]

Television[]

80s Barbie series
Care Bears
Creamy Mami
Go! Princess PreCure
Herself the Elf
Himitsu no Akko-chan (1988)
Jem and the Holograms
Lady Lovelylocks
Maxie's World
Moon Dreamers
Muppet Babies
My Little Pony
Popples
Rainbow Brite
Rose Petal Place
Strawberry Shortcake
The Get Along Gang
Wuzzles

Manga & Anime[]

Candy Candy
Creamy Mami
Fancy Lala
Lalabel, the Magical Girl
Little Twin Stars
Lovely Sara
Magical Angel Sweet Mint
Magical Emi, the Magic Star
Magical Princess Minky Momo
Marmelade Boy
Pastel Yumi, the Magic Idol
Persia, the Magic Fairy
Sally the Witch

Toys[]

B.A.B.Y. (Baby Aliens Belonging To You)
Barbie form the 80s & 90s (Happy Birthday 1990, Cool Times Barbie, etc.)
Brush-a-Loves
Care Bears
Cherry Merry Muffin
Cuddle Brites
Cupcake Dolls (90s)
Doodle Bear
Furby
Girl Talk (board game)
Glo Worm
Herself the Elf
Keypers
Kitty Check-Up
Kitty Surprise
Lady Lovely Locks
Lalaloopsy
Li'l Miss
Lite-Brite
Little Pretty
Little Twin Stars
Magical girl toys from the 80s (Creamy Mami, Minky Momo, etc.)
Magic Bottle Pets
Magic Nursery Pets
My Little Pony G1
Nosey Bears
Peppermint Rose
P. J. Sparkles
Polly Pocket G1
Popples
Pound Puppies
Puppy Check-Up
Puppy Surprise
Rainbow Brite
Rose Petal Place
Rub-A-Dub Doggie (Tyco)
Shampoodle
Sky Dancers
Snugglebumms
Strawberry Shortacake
Sweet Secrets
Sylvanian Families
Tea Bunnies
The Wuzzles
Tottles
Troll Dolls
Twinkle Bears
Wonder Whims
Wuzzles
Yum Yums

Subgenres[]

Uchuu Kei[]

This substyle of fairy kei has a focus on outer space (uchuu) and space alien (uchuujin) motifs. The outfits combine the typical pastel look with flurescent colors and artificial/PVC materials. The make-up can be anything from simple to very colorful and often features unusual lipstick colors. Accessories often include space helmets, fluffies/vinyl legwarmers, headbands and futuristic headphones.

Vendors

Party Kei[]

12141052 465909320279125 3770920317908238933 o — Jillian Vessey wearing Party Kei.

Party Kei is a fashion style created by Canadian YouTuber Jillian Vessey (Pixielocks), inspired by Japanese street fashion. There is considerable confusion over what this style truly entails: its first stages as drawn out by Vessey were similar to both Larme and Cult Party Kei, with delicate clothes in pastel colors and motifs related to birthday parties. However, the style mutated in the following years: Vessey and her fanbase, the "Confetti Club", now wear louder garments from Western brands such as Lazy Oaf, with the previous party references becoming more overt and rainbows used as a common motif.

Since Vessey is not Japanese or a fluent speaker of the corresponding language, her use of the Kei suffix has been subject to controversy, as its most used for fashion styles and trends hailing from the specific Harajuku locale, while Party Kei fashion is now almost entirely made up of Western brands. Vessey and her fanbase are frequently targeted and discussed in gossip forums like lolcow.farms, where the style has been negatively criticized for its inconsistent aesthetic. Additionally, some people believe this aesthetic is "forced" because Vessey has been trying to promote it for a long time.