fairy kei

English

Alternative forms

  • Fairy Kei, fairy-kei

Etymology

From Japanese フェアリー系(けい) (fearī-kei, literally “fairy style”), composed of フェアリー (fearī, “fairy”), itself from English fairy, and 系 (kei, “style”).

Noun

fairy kei (uncountable)

  1. (aesthetic) A Japanese fashion style influenced by 1980s pop culture, characterized by pastel colours and whimsical, childlike elements such as toys, candy, or unicorns.
    • 2012, Timothy Hornyak, Lonely Planet: Tokyo‎[1], page 123:
      Followers of fairy-kei — a light and fluffy '80s throwback look — stock up on candy-coloured accessories at 6% Doki Doki […]
    • 2015 November 19, Isa Giallorenzo, quoting Jimmy Hassett, “Kawaii as a button”, in Chicago Reader‎[2], volume 10, number 44, page 4:
      “I'm into the fairy kei/decora vibe, which is kawaii [Japanese for “cute”] and very pastel,” he says.
    • 2021, Holly Swinyard, A Guide to Film and TV Cosplay‎[3]:
      Most fairy-kei has a colour scheme of pastel colours adding to the childlike wonder of the style, as well as including chunky jewelry, oversized t-shirts and long socks, paired to large light-up trainers or similar.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:fairy kei.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.