Aesthetics Exploring Japanese Shironuri Style

In Japanese, Shinonuri translates to "painted in white", referencing traditional white makeup worn by geishas and stage actors. Shironuri is a broad Japanese style referring to those who wear heavy white makeup on their faces, and some sort of alternative fashion. Shironuri was made popular internationally through the work of popular model Minori. The style is a subculture of Visual Kei.



I was quite fascinated by this style once I discovered it, and since my BJDs have always followed various fashion trends, I became quite determined to take the leap and try it out just for fun. First order of business was to select my experimental victim ‘er, volunteer. I had an extremely old doll with yellowing issues, whose head was becoming increasingly difficult to photograph without her yellowing being too obvious. She is one of the first BJDs ever made, a delightful old Volks 4 sisters Megu from 1999. I’d purchased her a couple of years ago because I loved it that she was from the very beginning of our hobby, and as the “storyteller” character for my collection, she just seemed perfect.

If she doesn’t appear too yellowed in this photo, please consider that she’s actually pureskin white!


First, I removed her existing faceup, then sprayed her head, neck area, hands and feet with a flat white. A good coat of MSC and I was ready to start. What drew me to this style was the sheer storytelling aspect of it: a plain white canvas for self expression, and the intensive utilization of eye makeup for artistic details. Since my girl, named Poetta, is a writer of story poems from her experiences with a hidden fantasy realm beyond the hedgerow, the possibilites for artistic storytelling with this look seemed a perfect fit. So that’s exactly how I approached her faceup.

Now, in Shironuri devotees seem to color coordinate their makeup to match the outfit they’ll be wearing that day. That wouldn’t work for Poetta however, because I didn’t want to redo her faceup every time I changed her outfit obviously. So out of necessity, I decided to use a more colorful approach in her makeup to be able to match multiple looks. I broke out my watercolor pencils and applied one colorway at a time.



Then it was time to do the artwork…I chose to do a forest-y fantasy village motif to best express the stories of my collection.



I finished up with extravagant lashes (part of the Shironuri look) and geisha lips (not necessarily traditional to Shironuri, but I couldn’t resist because I felt it illustrates the story-esque background of this application.)



I finished up the painting process with a simple manicure in bright pink and pedicure in bright green just because I felt her white extremities needed a pop of color too. I didn’t photograph them separately however.

 

Now it was time to play around with her wig and outfit. I felt I needed to make her an elaborate, overdone, extravagant series of Tibetan mohair wigs that I could make myself, to match her outfits (in order to compensate for her multi-colored faceup.) I plan to do several over time, each one in a different color to match whatever outfit she’s currently wearing. And I definitely wanted to enhance her storytelling theme by making each outfit entirely unique…with each one telling its own story. I only recently discovered something called “Slow Stitching” where you create your own fabric by piecing together bits and pieces of whatever you like however you want, working slowly and entirely by hand. It is said to be a very relaxing and meditative process, so I wanted to give it a try. Most “Slow Stitching” projects are quite small, random and quaint, but I wanted to make something useful, with far more pizazz. So I decided upon a sleeveless robe to wear over her more simple country-girl Lolita dresses, and collected together some lovely sari scraps to work with. Here are my supplies for these endeavors:



I must say that “Slow Stitching was every bit as relaxing and fun as they said it would be, and I took my time with it, telling the story of my girl’s poem Guardians of the Gate (about how the head guardian’s pet peacocks guard the gate between the human realm and the fantasy world beyond the hedgerow. Their eerie cries coming from the dark prevent people from entering the deep forest beyond.) This is the result of all my piecing.

 

And here is her completed look, with faceup, wig, and first outfit. I had so much fun creating this style, I see many more wigs and “Slow Stitched” outfits for her in the future. It was so much fun to create this look, and I dearly love the deeper meaning it has for Poetta’s character.

 

Thank you, that’s very kind. It was quite challenging to work that level of detail into such a small space, let alone find a composition that would work that small. But I just took it slowly and persevered, and I am quite satisfied with the result. Like her outfit, things always turn out if you just take your time and give yourself plenty of breaks in between. That way it turns into a fun, more relaxing endeavor.

 

Thank you kindly! I’m hoping to be able to do a new outfit and wig hopefully every month until her wardrobe is built up to the level I want for her. The overall creative process of this is very inspiring to me, and I am only hampered by my need to purchase supplies for her next outfit and wig.

 

I agree about the Four Sisters…it’s a fascinating sculpt that I‘ve loved since my earliest days in this hobby. When I decided to do a Japanese Shironuri look, her yellowing made her the perfect candidate from my collection. Fortunately, these old sculpts do show up in the second-hand market now and then, which is where I found mine at a reasonable price a couple of years ago.

It did take a long time, but I swear I was enjoying it so much as a relaxing and meditative project, the time just flew by. That’s what happens when you “get into the zone” so to speak.

I agree, I think Minori is truly inspiring. There is just something so etherial and other-worldly about her style that I found very compelling. I simply had to try it.

Thank you so much! This one took me to such magical places emotionally and creatively, which made it so much fun to do. Initially I was afraid to do it (it’s daunting to wipe a perfectly good faceup and spray paint one of your favorite dolls’ heads white,) but I’m so happy now that I decided to take that risk and just go for it.

Oh thank you! I’m so happy that my own sense of wonder and mystery about this character and her style translated the way I’d intended. It was a fascinating exercise in expressing her character creatively.

Thank you! That’s very kind. I’m glad you enjoyed her.

That’s certainly a great way to put it. I hadn’t thought of it in those terms but you’re exactly right.

Thank you very much for your kind words. I’m so happy I took the plunge and redid her. Now I love her even more.

Thank you! That’s the exact look I was going for, so I’m glad I was successful in portraying it. Redoing a doll can be a rather nerve-wracking proposition, so in the end it’s good that my initial concept came through.

 

Thank you. You should definitely try slow-stitching…it’s a wonderful way to while away the hours in a creative yet relaxing pursuit (and make something useful in the process!) I find it a very peaceful endeavor.

Thank you very much. I was quite nervous to try this, but I’m so happy now that I did because it’s such a perfect physical expression of her character.

 

This month I managed to get another of Poetta’s story robes completed. Alas, I was not able to make a matching wig for this one because my supplier is out of pale green Tibetan mohair, so for now her yellow blonde one will have to suffice.

It tells the story of Poetta’s poem, Adventures in Bunnyland. (All of Poetta’s poems tell the story of my collection.) You see, years ago my dear hubby surprised me one Easter morning when I went to make the coffee and found the coffee station suddenly populated by tiny resin figurines of bunnies…they were absolutely everywhere! It was such a lovely surprise, and I began to collect bunny BJDs to commemorate his very loving gesture. The half dozen bunny BJDs I collected (4 tinies, 1 msd, and 1 sd) all happily reside in a display with those little resin figures which I call Bunnyland, and that’s where the story for this robe comes from.



My fabrics:




The embellishments. This seemed to take forever…but then, it is called slow-stitching after all!

 

I’d never seen this before…thanks for letting me know! She certainly has a lot of great looks, and I’m quite fascinated by this kind of thing. I’ve always used dolls as my fashion muses, enabling me to experiment with all those fascinating styles I wouldn’t be comfortable wearing at my age. Since the dolls are ageless, they happily let me experiment on them. I’ve done mori, fairy kei, dolly kei, renaissance, bollywood, dia de los muertos, gothic, lolita, etc. and I have a doll currently on order that I’m planning to do up in cyber punk. I love how these dolls are such perfect vessels for artistic experimentation. It really keeps the hobby fun and fresh for me.

 

I just completed another wig and story robe for my shironuri girl, Poetta. In my imagination she has written a story poem about one of my doll displays called Legend of the Genie Palace and this is the story robe that illustrates that.



Here’s the supplies I collected:


And the “slow stitching” embellishments to complete my fabric:







And I made some subtle changes to her faceup. I filled in her lower lashes a bit and added just the slightest hint of blush on her cheeks, but not enough to distract from the shironuri “white face” aesthetic (it just toned down the starkness a tiny bit.) I also decided (after living with it for awhile) that her geisha style lips just weren’t working for me in the long run, so I changed them to a more traditional shironuri lip style.

 

Thank you very much! She’s definitely been a labor of love and a very fun project.

 

Thank you! The basic idea for Poetta was to basically make her a “living illustration” of the story poems she writes. I felt like it was taking her character to the next level. And when I stumbled across the concept of shironuri, I thought it would be the perfect look for her because it is so conducive to that type of artistic expression. I’m having so much fun with her!

 

Thank you very much for your kind words. I don’t know how others do it, but I simply removed the parts I wanted white and used a can of good quality flat white enamel spray paint you can pick up just about anywhere. The dolls I’ve done this with were both very old Volks dolls I’d picked up here in the marketplace second hand that were hopelessly unevenly yellowed (pre-disclosed honestly by their sellers of course.) Once the paint was dried, I sprayed it with MSC and proceeded with the faceup as normal. Here is my other girl, a Volks MSD that I used to create a Mexican “day of the dead” look. I love her like this!

 

I made my shironuri girl, Poetta, a new wig in teal blue. My goal is to have a luxurious, extra-long, tibetan mohair wig to match each of her story robes. It just adds to her visual poetry in my mind. But I’m having to be very patient while I wait for my favorite supplier to stock the colors I need. Fortunately, she finally got in a supply of teal. The wait for other colors continues…

 

I started off the new year with a new creative project for Poetta. This time her story robe is illustrating her poem Journey through the Haunted Forest.

I chose some spooky elements and lovely sari pieces in shades of orange.



Here is the basic piecing before I started on the details:



Here is what it looked like with all my “slow stitching” completed:



And here is the completed story robe on my shironuri girl, Poetta:

 

@Amberay_SH Thank you very much. She has definitely been a labor of love.

 

She truly does, which is so satisfying to me because she was always destined to tell the story of my collection. And her being from the very beginning of the hobby in general (1999) it all just makes a perfect cosmic sort of sense to me. In a way, she was made to tell a story.

 

I’ve done a couple of new story robes for Poetta. The first one is from her “story poem” The Old Woman’s Flower Garden.

Here’s the fabrics I had to choose from:



Here is my base fabric once I pieced it all together:



And here are my “slow stitching” embellishments:







And here is the one I just finished for her story poem, The Treasure of Mermaid Cove

My fabrics:



Here is my pieced base fabric:



Here are the embellishments:

 

Not really, though my husband often has something on I can hear in the background. I mostly just enjoy the rare quiet moment when I hand sew.