what is mori kei?

alright, so, here's the thing. i'm not the best at explaining things, and several more well-spoken and articulated wordsmiths are out there who have detailed mori kei in more depth than i ever could. however, a lot of these people no longer wear the fashion, or have very little resources linked for ease of access! so to make things easy for the totally uninitiated, here is a quick overview of the fashion subculture known as mori kei:

• mori kei has it's roots in a fashion content creator known as choco who dubbed the fashion "mori girl," or "森ガール" after a comment from a friend said she looked like she had come from the forest.
• the main highlights of this fashion are, as the name suggests, to look like you're from the forest. loose clothes, natural fabrics, natural colors, and a BIG emphasis on layers on layers
• choco would go on to publish a fashion photobook with some rules and examples for this "mori girl" fashion which include the following:
  • loose fitting one-piece dresses
  • wearing natural fashions with in a unique, quirky way
  • focus on deep earthy colors (warm brown, dark blue, olive green)
  • staying away from flashy fashions (lolita, fairy kei)
  • heavy focus on accessories without being flashy (think scarfs, boleros, ear muffs, soft knits)
  • staying away from tight fitting garments of any kind
  ...among others. for the full english translated list, visit this page!

here in the west, we called "mori girl" "mori kei" instead, as it's more inclusive and fits into the j-fashion moniker style most of us are used to seeing (visual kei, jirai kei...). note that this fashion is similar to cottage and fairy core, and a lot of the pieces for these fashion can overlap, but the manner in which you style mori kei outfits is wildly different. cottage core outfits love a good corset or open shoulder dress line- both of which are styles you will not find in mori kei.

let's look at some examples! the following scans are directly from choco's book, provided to us by the ever amazing mori magazine scans compilation, put together by kathryn. please visit her blog when you're done here!

now this screams mori kei to me. aside from just being a very well put-together and cute coord- look at those layers! we'll start from the base that we can sort of see and work our way out. on the bottom appears to be a loose, white a-line dress. under this are some light gray leggings. on top of those is a more ivory or cream colored light cardigan, followed by a large green scarf with a pink floral pattern, followed by another scarf, this time white and lacy to compliment the base dress. the final touches- her hat and bracelets, both have a more green or earthy tone to pair with her green scarf.
do you see what i mean by layers? this is what i personally love about mori!

did you think that was it for layers? you were wrong! check this coord out. here, instead of a dress, we have a beige/yellow pleated skirt paired with an untucked white button down (tucking in clothes is usually a big no-no for mori kei) that we can presume is long sleeved, as the cuffs poke out of her nice brown cardigan. on top of this is a large transparent red lace scarf draped around her shoulders. she's also wearing plain black tights and simple... silver or green flats. the quality of the image makes it a bit tricky to tell.

now, does this mean you have to throw on layer after layer all the time? no way! check out this coord from the mori girl note magazine:

lets look at her layering: a lacy white skirt, ivory blouse, and an off-white cardigan on top. 1-2-3- it's as simple as that! notice how none of her clothes are form fitting, the silhouette they create gives you a similar formless effect to the multi-layered coords we saw earlier. you don't need five layers as a baseline to put together a coord that reads as mori kei. instead, your focus should always remain on the texture, colors, and fit of your clothes.