Happy Pineapple Day!
Today, June 27th is Pineapple Day! Pineapples are most likely originally native to South America and have become known as a symbol of hospitality. Also, unripe pineapples contain high amounts of bromelain which works as a meat tenderizer (and hurts your tong) and it’s one of the most debated pizza toppings (sorry Hawaiian pizza lovers, I’m team no fruit on pizza).
Pineapple facts aside, pineapples (パイナップル) are also one of the stranger motifs that periodically pops up in Japanese Street Fashion.
Japanese brand Pink House is notorious for using Pineapples as one of their reoccurring motifs in their prints, and while there isn’t a pineapple print dress series for sale right now, they have some cute pineapple logo T-shirts and an iphone 7/8 case in stock (as well as the same items with their bunny mascot).
For those willing to look second hand, a huge variety of pineapple print items exist from the brand, produced over the past few decades. These items range from teeshirts to full length dresses, overalls, shorts, traditional Japanese summer clothing for kids, bags, sweaters, jackets… you name it probably exists. Here are just a couple examples pulled from online auctions and second hand shops. Tip: since the brand has been producing items for so long, many older items are pretty cheap second hand!
Otome brand Emily Temple Cute did a whole series that was a homage to the tropical fruit as part of their Spring / Summer 2018 line, complete with a pineapple necklace and a hat that wouldn’t look out of place on a dole delivery truck driver.
Looking for pineapple jewelry that is currently in stock? Qpot, who is known for their high quality, detailed, and frequently food themed jewelry has a bangle that is styled to look like a pineapple ring encased in what looks like ice.
There are also tropical fruit ice pops as a necklace and a clip on charm that have a small sliver of pineapple inside if you are looking for a more subtle piece.
Lastly, they also offer a gold pineapple charm as part of their custom build-your-own-burger-necklace, but I’m not sold on the likeness of that one.
And last, but not least, what better place to store your pineapple pin collection than this mini pineapple ita bag? It appears to be a pretty generic bag: as far as I know, it’s not bootleg, but I may have missed something. Anyways, while it’s small (it seems to be big enough for a pair of sunglasses, your phone and a card) it’s only about $5 on aliexpress, and you really can’t beat that price-wise.
Do you have a favorite pineapple-featuring Jfashion item? Have feelings about fruit on pizza? Let me know in the comments below!
This post is so cute! I’m very into Pink House, hopefully I can get one of their pineapple items on the second-hand market this year.
Is the pineapple motif in clothing maybe a cross over from old mid-century Hawaiian/Polynesian shirts? Also a lot of “tiki” mid-century decor has elements of tropical and decidedly non-tropical asian elements mixed together. Back then a lot Eastern Asian and Polynesian motifs were combined, in part I’m guessing from WW2 and the Japanese occupation of many Pacific islands and also as an influence from more tropical prefectures like Okinawa. My grandfather was in the Korean war and was stationed in Japan and he brought back a bunch of “Japanese” stuff that was very tropical. Maybe some elements of that just stuck around, like the pineapple. When I lived in japan there were Okinawan restaurants that if you didn’t know they were Okinawan and thus Japanese, as an American I would have assumed they were Hawaiian. Just musings, maybe the simple answer is people just like pineapples. Despite living there while I was in the Navy I didn’t know much (if any) Japanese and was left wondering about many aspects of the culture I saw around me. I would come up with some pretty strange theories haha