Mixing it up

Whitney McFerron

Abby Wong is a fashionista.

The style-conscious 24-year-old, originally from Bangkok, Thailand, loves to "mix it up" when it comes to dressing herself. On a typical day of waiting tables at her family's Thai restaurant, Cafe n' Me in Cape Girardeau, she might wear a fitted orange and white striped shirt with Asian-style embroidery on the upper-left side, a silver tongue ring and a short gray skirt layered over dark blue jeans.

"I don't like to wear jeans by itself, because I think it's too simple," she said.

Like many young people from Southeast Asia, Wong's style falls into the phenomena of Japanese Street Fashion, a trend named for the array of offbeat looks found first on the city streets of Japan. In Japanese Street Fashion, almost anything goes as long as it's personally unique and focused heavily on the details. Colors are often bright but don't always have to match, shoes can range from wacky to chic, and clothes can be layered or accented with fun or sometimes unusual accessories.

Wong, who has lived in Cape Girardeau for more than two years, doesn't think any single thing she wears is different from how most people dress in America. Instead, she said, it's how she puts her clothes together that makes her style stand out.

"I don't think it's really that different if you just mix it up," she said. "Like this skirt with jeans. Some might say it's weird, but I think it's cute, just not simple."

Finding style on the Web

Wong attributes her unique look to her own personal preferences. She gets many of her style ideas from ViVi, a popular Japanese street fashion magazine, and from her friend Natsumi Negishi, who lived in Cape Girardeau until recently returning to her home near Tokyo.

"We both like to change hair," Wong said. "She wears wigs, and I change color. It went from pink to blond, and it just got back to black last night."

Wong said neither she nor Negishi care for any specific brands, and sometimes they even make their own clothes.

Wong has found some things locally that match her tastes. Her favorite place to shop in Cape Girardeau is Wet Seal in Westfield West Park Mall, but she has come across fashionable finds in some surprising places.

"I saw a skirt I like in a magazine, and then I found one in Wal-Mart similar to it, and I just buy that and add something to it," she said. Wong sometimes uses scarves or belts to accessorize.

Wong does a lot of shopping in St. Louis. Sometimes her family in Thailand sends her clothes, and she also shops on the Internet.

Wong's boyfriend, James Nguyen, also has a unique style which he describes as casual or "urban." Like Wong's, most of his clothing came from overseas.

Nguyen does like some American brands, but fashion just isn't the same in Cape Girardeau as it is in his home country, Vietnam.

"There, clothing just fits better, you actually customize your own clothes," he said. "They come in, measure, you tell them how you want it, and it fits you perfectly. And it's cheaper."

Just about the only thing he buys in Cape Girardeau is jeans, which he usually gets at The Buckle, and he sometimes cuts the bottoms for a more ragged look. When he does shop in America, he usually goes online or to stores in St. Louis.

Like Wong, Nguyen also uses his hair as a form of expression, usually coloring it every two to three months. Now it's black with light brown highlights.

"Red is in for this year. It's what I'm going to do with mine next," he said.

wmcferron@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127