Why are Asian clothes so pretty/cute compared to American clothes?

[crystaltears]

I’ve always wondered why clothes from Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, etc. look really cute/lacey/frilly compared to American style clothing. Well I mean there are some nice clothes here where I live (in Toronto) too but clothes from American Eagle, Hollister, Aeropostale, etc. seem really casual/ordinary compared to Asian clothing. Last week I was in HK with my family and there were tons of nice clothes. Even the men's clothing stores looked pretty hot. I noticed some familiar stores (Gap, Armani Exchange, Forever21, H&M, etc.) and the style of their clothes looked kinda different from here too for some reason.

[limekiwii]

Fashion trends are determined by a number of factors like cultural values of that current time period, popular trends and the mass media, as well as a countries institutional and political climates More importantly body shape and size varies across countries too, with HK and Japanese BMI scale runs a bit differently from the american one with what is considered a "healthy" and "obese" range
American culture developed much differently than Asian culture and this is reflected in their fashion trends. I'm not a fashion student so i'm not well versed with what influenced American-Canadian/Asian fashion into what it is today, but id have to say its because there wasnt a huge demand for pretty/cute Asian clothes in america (I also live in Toronto). People typically like things that are similar to them and with Canada being such a multicultural country with European roots, its pretty hard finding non western clothes in mainstream stores 

[stervamerzkaya0]

To each his own. I think that lacey and frilly clothes usually look stupid on adult women . There is a large Asian population here in Melbourne and I see Asian fashion quite a lot on the streets. While some girls can definitely pull it off, those 'cute' outfits often look cheap and unstylish.

[Guest hyeongy]

I think that Western fashion generally puts less importance on self-styling (hair, clothes and makeup), maybe it's because of the "au naturel" trend that has been going around lately? I've found that Asian and even European fashion is definitely held to a higher standard, but this is just based on my own observation. 
It could be that I'm just not visiting the right places where all the fashionable people hang out but here in Toronto (Canada) I usually dress in casual Asian-style fashion and people tell me all the time that I'm "fashionable" when I feel that I'm actually dressed quite plainly. I often feel like when you go around dressed all "kawaii" all the time with styled hair and a full face of makeup people look at you a bit like "Who is she trying to impress? It's just university." (I don't really care, though lol) I dunno, it's just a cultural difference I guess!!

[Guest Janie Lee]

i agree,  i looooooove korean clothes.. i went there last year..omgsh.. i fell in love with all the clothes. when i came back to america..literally everyone would ask me where i got my clothes from because it stands out. it's sooo girly and pretty x___X i always shop at small korean boutique stores in america because i just love the asian style more and it fits me better