The Engrish Shirt

There is a certain style of t-shirt that is fairly common among en vogue Japanese youth. There's nothing fancy about it; in fact, its quite plain, but many Japanese, especially women, find it to be the perfect compliment to their wardrobe because it can keep casual Sunday attire looking hip.

We call it the Engrish t-shirt, a simple creation comprised of a single base background color with large block letters printed on the front that spell out what the owner thinks is some kind of hip English expression.

The expressions on the shirts, however, are not hip, nor are they really English. Today in Harajuku, I took note of just a few Engrish t-shirts I encountered:

  • "I HEART B.J." (A pink shirt worn by a girl with large breasts)
  • "Such Being Foolisk"
  • "Dip & Toast Single or Double"
  • "TMT Yours"
  • "To Our Heart's Content"
  • "Nobody's Fault But My Own"
  • "Prepare For Grim Death"
  • "Delegation Forbidding Destruction of Nature"
  • "Bada Bound"
  • "Burn Furiouisly"
  • "What's That? Let's Run

    This is only a small sample of a widespread fashion trend among Tokyo's beautiful young women. All the shirts listed above were being worn by women who could easily pass for models.

  • Posted by brett at 01:46 AM Tokyo time

    Comments

    i think engrish.com is one of my favorite websites ever. i really like the big breasted b.j. image.

    Posted by lis on September 28, 2004 08:44 AM Tokyo time
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