Soul Sister Vol. 2 ♡ Review& Highlights | The Name I Love

So~ Caly started her blog not so long ago and that’s super good news because with that she’s also scanning her magazines and making videos! How cool is that?! So this time I collabed with her to bring you a review of the second volume of the Soul Sister Magazine. \(^ヮ^)/ So you may be asking, are you really talking about Ora Ora today? Aren’t you into Himekaji and cuter styles? And yes, I am. However years ago when I started Gyaru I was more into Ora Ora / Ane looks because I really wanted to be cool and badass. Ayame was one of my top models and Soul Sister was one of my top magazines by default. That’s why today I’ll make this blog post to give some love to the old me. And that’s cute ~ (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

So first of all if you want to watch the flip through video Caly made showing the pages, I’ll leave that video here. And right after that, we can start with the review and the main highlights I loved about this edition. 

In case you don’t know this magazine, Soul Sister is the female version of Soul Japan, a fashion & lifestyle magazine for men. Both versions talk about similar topics like: Customized cars and bikes, tattoos, clubbing and fashion. You can also see some gangs there (or at least communities of people into those activities) and sukeban / banchō themed photoshoots. Specially sukeban that has always been connected with Gyaru because of the badass leader concept in that. So it’s really common to see gals getting sukeban costumes or inspired clothing.  If there’s one thing that Soul Sister is always bringing us is looks!  The main color in Ora Ora is black but you can see cool combos with white, gold and leopard print. I really love how versatile the style is and how you can wear from the most casual looks for daily life to the wildest parties.  I could talk all day about the looks and I would end up sharing every single page. So instead of that I recommend you to check Caly’s post with all the scans to enjoy it completely. Meanwhile, let’s keep analyzing the magazine. In this edition they show this 5 trends:

Black x Black: The main focus is on the details and I know, that sounds pretty generic but it’s like that. When you have an all black co*de you have to pay special attention to the fabrics (so you can match black denim, leather, lace, mesh, etc.). This way to can balance your co*de to not look plain. You need dimensions on your looks to create volumes and shapes

Black x Gold: You could think this trend is specially for glam looks, like parties or night dates, but not necessarily. You can also incorporate gold details on print. Eg. Hats and tracksuits with gold logos. Tracksuits are super common in Ora Ora. Specially if you wear them with heels.

Black x Pattern (all patterns): This combo is a nice mix between Ora Ora, Ane and Rokku. And the nice thing about this trends is that you can also work super good with layers. So you can mix textured tees with leather jackets for example.

Black x Skull: This is one of my fav trends because I used to be obssesd with skulls. I still have some dresses with this prints lol. But in this special you can see it more often on stamps and details. You can add skull jewelry too.

Black x Animal Print (leopard print): And the best print of all, of course, leopard print! And even if the honey leopard print is the most common, you can also get red, grey or even black and white leopard print. And remember, is never too much of animal print. You can dress it head to toe like La Tigresa del Oriente! (Ultimate goals in life).

 
This is one of the things we love the most about magazines because we can find what is really trending on the streets. And in this case, the street snaps had two specials: Regular looks and Mamas! 

In this volume the regular street snaps were divided in the same trends we mentioned before but how real people wear it and that’s awesome. And they added some extra ones like the sporty / casual looks with tees, tracksuits and even sneakers. And the various category with jumpsuits, denim and d.i.a belts you can also wear for Ora Ora. 

And for the Mama special, you can see the key points to be stylish: Animal print  you can include in blankets, baby carriages and even your bags. Then we have black x denim looks and heels. But my favorite thing was to match your hairstyle with your kid. Best combo! 

Custom Cars & Bikes

We love to see Soul Sister issues knowing that we probably never would be able to have so cool bikes and cars! But we can dream and get inspo for then we become rich.  Nanchatte seifuku (fake uniforms) are super popular among gals and bōsōzoku gangs. That’s where the kogal looks for non-kogals comes from. But in this case they’re sukeban girls who keep wearing their uniforms after finishing school but it’s more as a themed look. It’s also common to see other kind of unifirms asociated to these girls, for example, the construction uniforms because some of them also work on repair shops or garages and  having that as a base they could customize them to have them as gang uniforms. 

Tattoos

Then you have the tattoo section, which I think it’s exclusive of this magazine because I haven’t seen specials like this in other ones. But don’t take my word, I have the worst memory.  I personally love this specials because I’ve always loved tattoos and specially Japanese tattoos are whole different world so it’s super cool to see traditional designs in gals.  I’ve seen not all gals get tattoos with modern equipement but there are still traditional tattoo studios so it’s really cultural to see this.  Usually gals have this misconsception or fear about being gal with tattoos. Is that possible? Is that allowed?  Were commons questions when I started, but I always thought tattoos are part of our identity just like Gyaru and just like the Japanese culture to those girls.  A gal magazine is not a gal magazine without tutorials.  So in this edition you will see hairstyle tutorials. Many of them are not that hard to do and pretty casual. The only sad thing is that I didn’t find makeup tutorials in this edition, but it’s ok. 

And other things you’re going to find on this editions is a nailart special, brands special, accesories special and many other things! I recommend you the blog post Caly is working in so I’ll make sure to add her link here as soon as possible. Keep an eye on this post! And share it if you like Ora Ora as well. 

So that was it for today. I really liked this edition and specially since Ora Ora is not one of the most popular Gyaru substyles and Soul Sister is not as knwon as other magazines it’s not that easy to check their issues, so I’m super happy I could do this one. And I’ll be trying to do more in the future. I’m enjoying doing this magazine and catalogues reviews.