Shopping for Japanese fashion on Yahoo! Auctions: what to look for

A handy way to dig up limited-edition Japanese streetwear and second-hand clothes is on Yahoo! Auctions Japan.

Yep, the resellers are real. But it’s a good thing for you, when you rock up and start bidding. With so much choice, you’re bound to find what you want. Eventually… Once you work out if it’s better to search in kanji, katakana, or English.

The home page is the place to start, and there are hundreds of great places you could end up. Save some time instead of hesitating over the search bar. Skip straight to listings for the coolest, most coveted fashion brands using the links below. (We’ve made the language choice for you, no translation skills needed.)

Menswear: Supreme, Cav Empt, Comme des Garcons, BAPE, visvim…

We have no idea how it happened, but Japan claims some of the most coveted fashions for men in the world.

Let’s face it, getting stuff from a Supreme drop on the day is like trying to catch a fly with chopsticks. Get that ‘yesssss’ feeling by putting a snipe bid in online instead.

Men’s fashion on Y!A:

• Supreme
• Cav Empt
• Edwin
• Comme des Garcons
• BAPE
• Visvim
• Undercover
• Yohji Yamamoto

Ladieswear: Liz Lisa, PUNYUS, Angelic Pretty, Candy Stripper…

Japanese fashion for women comes in all shapes and sizes. Crazy colourful Harajuku style is only the start.

Labels like Liz Lisa, PUNYUS, and others make a lot of their clothes in one size (‘free size’). It’s done with stretchy shirring at the back. So you can be pretty sure it’s gonna fit, even with Japanese sizing.

Women’s fashion on Y!A:

• Liz Lisa
• Angelic Pretty
• Candy Stripper
• PUNYUS
• Majestic Legon
• WEGO
• Baby, The Stars Shine Bright (and Alice & The Pirates)
• Metamorphose temps de fille
• Spinns
• earth, music & ecology

Shoes & socks: Converse, Onitsuka Tiger, Bapesta, Tutuanna…

More often than not, Japan gets a lot of the cool exclusive shoe designs. And we’re talking about more than Adidas Originals and the Nike Dunk Low JP.

Japanese shoe sizes are listed in cm. Here’s a really quick guide to size conversions. To be honest, you might want to have a tape measure handy.

Footwear on Y!A:

• Tutuanna
• Tabio (Kutsushitaya)
• Converse
• Nike
• Bapesta
• Onitsuka Tiger
• Asics
• Liz Lisa
• ORiental TRaffic

Collabs: Adidas, Sailor Moon, LV…

Fashion collaborations are like Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen with clothes. BAPE does tie-ins with other brands all the time, across men’s, women’s, and the kids range. BABY MILO x MINIONS, anyone?

Auctions are maybe one of the few places you’ll find UNIQLO x Sailor Moon items. Those sold out in stores before we could even get a look at them. And let’s not talk about how the Supreme-LV pop-up idea went down in New York…

Collab suggestions:

• UNIQLO x Sailor Moon
• BAPE x Everybody!
• Supreme x Comme des Garcons
• Undercover x Nike
• Supreme x Nike
• G-Shock x Gundam
• Shimamura x Harris Tweed
• Supreme x Louis Vuitton

Bid on a bargain

Shop until you drop your mouse, with Yahoo! Auctions Japan in English on DEJAPAN.