Dasha Love isn’t only a Cooler x O’Neill ambassador with many talents, she’s also kind of big in Japan. We asked her to tell us what her Japanese persona is all about…

words by Dasha Love

I like to work with Japanese publications because I love Japanese style and to be honest I’m obsessed with Japanese culture. I like the look of Japanese magazines, they always picture unique street style, and have so many little cute accessories and ways to wear things differently. Of course European publications have that too, but there’s just so much more cute funky stuff out there that we don’t have here in Europe. The way people dress out there would seem almost obscene – like the way they combine various pieces of clothing, or boys wearing skirts – for a lot of people from Europe, but the Japanese just don’t seem to care, they have their own style.

I think people in Japan generally take a lot pride in their appearance and are never scared to experiment with accessories, hair styles, layering of clothing and things like that. Fashion in Japan is a lot more diverse than here, and it has strongly influenced certain European and American styles , for example all the variations of the Gothic look that come from Japan. At the same time Japanese fashion was influenced a lot by America too, like baseball games are popular, and so jerseys and american streetwear are very trendy out there too.

I don’t really dress particularly for a Japanese audience. I like to dress funky anyway, me and my best friend used to copy all the trends from Japanese magazines when we were 16 🙂 and took hours to get ready. When I blog for Elle Girl I mix new designs and vintage, use my favourite accessories and just have fun with it.

It’s hard for me to say why they like me in Japan, but I think it’s because they like smiley cute girls that people can identify with rather than beautiful supermodels that just seem surreal.