And what could be sexier than a young woman who looks fresh from triage after a terrible car accident?

Presenting kegadoru: Japan’s incomprehensible new fashion statement.

Literally translated, kegadoru (ケガドル) means “injured dolls.” Imagine pretty — and entirely healthy — young women swathed in bandages, surgical tape, gauze, and eyepatches. It’s Emergency Room chic.

Kegadoru bubbled up from Japan’s colorful fetish scene. But now it’s not uncommon to see otherwise fetching lasses out on the town, shopping, and riding trains looking as if they should probably be back home with their feet propped up.

One woman, who identified herself only as S, explained kegadoru to Weekly Playboy.

“When you’re covered in bandages, everybody pays attention to you and worries about you,” says S. “They also provide a chance to start talking to guys, who’ll ask you how you hurt yourself, so the bandages are really, really good,”

Costume play is big in Japanese pop culture, where young people have long lashed out against their society’s tendency toward conformity with all manner of outlandish fashion. Kegadoru has become a familiar site in Tokyo’s trendy Harajuku district, where teens turn up every Sunday to strut their band-aids and arm splints on the bridge which leads to the Meiji shrine.

Like most fads, it won’t last. Then again, that’s what they said about Hello Kitty.

Link: Mental Floss