The GazettE & Fashion - Ruki
Lately I've been immersing myself in the Tom + Lorenzo fashion/pop culture blog, and feel like doing some entries on fashion myself. Since, however, I have no actual expertise in this area, my posts are going to be more like lists of my favourite & not-so-favourite Gazemen looks rather than detailed analyses on the fails and wins of outfits & accessories. And it's not like you can really even judge visual kei in the usual fashion terms anyway, so.
I apologize in advance for the shitty pictures; couldn't find better ones. (I should really learn how to take screen caps myself...)
RUKI - the fashionista
Ruki is, as is well-known, the most fashion-savvy and experimental member of the GazettE. He has a varied, endless appetite for all sorts of looks and styles, but he still always looks like Ruki (and sometimes like Kiyoharu, but let's not go there) and knows how to make something his own. He's usually a delight to the eyes, and very rarely looks terrible. In the early days his style was more that of a colourful punk rocker, while nowadays he's more about glamour and elegance, although he's also clearly been showing a preference for comfort and ease in his stage outfits. Like all people with keen interest in clothes and trends, Ruki has a good idea of what kind of shapes and colours fit him and what sort of things go together. Thus, it comes as no surprise that most of my (very short) list consists of compliments.
This one is from the backstage of Repeated Countless Error tour finale (2008), and it was the best pic I could find which showed the hair-do from this angle. The clothes he wore - the silver suit and the black getup for the encore - were fine too, but it's the hair that I want to focus on. In my opinion it's the best he's ever had! To be fair, I'm more than a little partial to mohawks, but than again it's a style that truly fits only a select few people and Ruki just happens to be one of them with his sharp profile and round head. Just look at it! It's edgy and chic and just a little bit gangsta; a neat variation of a modern fauxhawk. Actually a bit of combination of frohawk (the cornrows) and Chelsea hawk (the fringe), I think? In any event, his hair stylist - presumably Kaolu Asanuma back then too - rocks.
The first is from a photoshoot with MASSIVE magazine, vol.2 (2011), and the second with SHOXX, vol. 215 (also 2011). These are basically the kind of Ruki looks that we've gotten a lot lately: relatively low-key (for Ruki), dark colours, hipster-y, well-fitted jackets and sleek trousers. Semi-long, brownish, side partition hair that heavily frames the face. A style for a fashion editor or designer. Very professional but with a touch of rock star. Sexy as hell!
(Side note: I'm so glad that Ruki has decided to mostly stick with brown shades for his hair - it really suits him the best.)
Here we have two examples of Ruki's more outrageous suits - one in silver with blue shapes (End of Stillness tour backstage, 2011), and one in silver glitter (Arena 37 Degrees, October 2010). I love it when Ruki really glams up, but he doesn't always quite hit the mark. The first look is one of my ultimate favourites - I adore the gloves, the eyeshadow, the hair! - but the second look was oddly stuffy, old-fashioned. It doesn't look that bad in this photo shoot, but in the PV for RED it was downright painful. The fabric of the suit is so heavy and stiff, the hair and face too done-up... There's the possibility that he wasn't even trying to look pretty or aesthetically pleasing (I've always suspected that was very much the case with Before I Decay), but I don't think that's what he was going for. In any event, I heartily commend Ruki for not giving a shit about going overboard.
This look (for NeoGenesis vol. 46) gets the honour of representing all the (rare) mistakes that Ruki makes with jacket cuts, although it's not a very good example, because the problem with this one is quite unique. He wore this jacket for the two Nameless Liberty Six Bullets tour opening concerts at Budoukan, and I had a hard time watching that broadcast show because of this stupid outfit. You can't see it from this picture, but it's cut really high at the back and thus gives a clear view of his arse. This is in fact quite likely heavily a YMMV thing, but I just don't think those insanely tight trousers and the long jacket lapels centering the focus on his backside really flattered his figure, somehow. Or maybe it was just too overtly sexual for me; I am kind of a prude when it comes to fashion. Anyway, another example of a jacket fail would be the one he wore for the Cassis PV: it was basically too A-shaped, cut both too close to the waist and a little too high.