Lolita Fashion
Lolita fashion (ロリータ・ファッション alt: ゴスロリ) is a Japanese street fashion style that is characterized by vintage and romantic elements and knee length skirts.
History
As with most organic street styles, the exact moment lolita came into existence is hard to pinpoint.
In 1987 “Ryūkō tsūshin”(『流行通信』) published an article titled the ”Critique of Lolita Fashion”, which is often cited as the first time Lolita Fashion is mentioned in Print.[1][2][3] However, this is sometimes disputed because the article also talks about general behavior, and treats lolita girls as a type of person more than as a specific fashion tribe.[4][5] The article also says in an accompanying anti-lolita fashion guide that "the Lolita style with balloon skirts and zouaves like last season should be kept to a minimum." implying that the style was already known to readers for at least a season at this point.[5][3]
Cutie Magazine published a spread in 1993 titled "Lolita, Lolita & Lolita'[6] which shows items that match with the concept of lolita fashion of the time. In the October 1993 issue of Cutie, in one of the street snaps one of the girls describes her outfit as lolita.[7] A 1994 article in Zipper titled ロリータ"って何? (What is Lolita?)[8] explains lolita fashion as if it's a relatively new concept. However, when they talk to three lolita brands (Hiromichi Nakano, MILK, Atsuki Onishi), The PR rep for MILK says that "I think what is now called lolita fashion is the fashion that milk has been making for a long time" and Hiromichi Nakano says that "The fashion people call lolita these days has been around for a long time. It's been around for a while, but it was for certain people. For example, students at a fashion school."[8]
This suggests that the style likely predates the name, and it's therefore of value to look at the history of these brands that were considered to be leaders of the early lolita style.
In the late 1980s, Hiromichi Nakano was designing for Vivayou. Photos from this time reproduced in the '80s Girls Fashion Book show items that are strongly reminiscent of early lolita fashion, and similar to items from MILK at the time.[9]
Atsuki Onishi was founded in 1978 under the same parent company as Pink House.[10] While the 1985 Atsuki Onishi knitting book features a few pieces that wouldn't be out of place in a modern lolita coordinate, by the time of the Zipper article in 1994, most of the looks in their catalog were more closely aligned with the look of Pink House, and likely would not be seen as lolita by modern eyes.[11][12][13]
MILK was founded by Hitomi Okawa in 1970.[6][14] Hitomi Okawa took influence from several things: the magazines she grew up looking at like Harper's Bazaar showing 1950s and 1960s American fashion, the custom fabric, buttons and detailing used in military uniforms, and the current trends in London at the time.[14] She made cute girl's ready-to-wear clothes because she liked cute girls clothes and no one else in Tokyo was selling that style at the time.[14] MILK items were frequently published in magazines like An An and Olive in the 1980s.[14]
Readers of Olive Magazine were commonly called 'Olive Girls' at that time.[15] Olive Girls were an eclectic group and the name is said to have covered three main style tribes.[1] One of those style tribes was a 'Girly' style tribe characterized by ribbons and frills, floral prints and other feminine motifs. The overall look had a fairy-tale like feel, included characters like Alice in Wonderland, and popular brands were Isao Kaneko’s Pink House, Wonderful World, MILK, AO and other similar brands.[15] Early versions of lolita likely fit into this overall style umbrella.
Substyles
There are two main schools of thought among western lolita as far as the categorization of lolita fashion.[16][17] The first school of thought defines three major substyles (Sweet Lolita, Classic Lolita and Gothic Lolita), and proposes that all other things are either themes that could fit under one of more of these categories, or crossovers with other fashion styles. So, for example, Country Lolita, can simultaneously be Sweet Lolita or Classic Lolita, and therefore, under this school of thought, Country Lolita is a theme, and not a substyle.
The second school of thought defines several styles, typically based on the 2006-era Lolita Handbook's list, sometimes with a few more recent additions.
Main Three Substyles
Sweet Lolita
Sweet Lolita often features pastel colors like pink, sax, mint, lavender, etc and print pieces features motifs like fairy tales, fruits, sweets, small pet animals like cats and dogs, and cosmetics/purfumes.[18]
Sweet Lolita has changed in definition over time, for example, Innocent World was labeled as Sweet Lolita in the Gothic & Lolita Bible volume 27, however many people consider Innocent World to be a Classic Lolita brand today.[19]
Classic Lolita
Classic Lolita tends to use darker or more muted tones than sweet lolita.[18] Solids are common, as well as floral prints, royalty/heraldic prints, and prints of vintage/antique items.[18] Classic lolita tends to rely more on the cut of the garment than a print or trim, though there are exceptions to this.[18]
Gothic Lolita
Gothic Lolita typically uses darker colors and themes, with black being the most common.[18] Accent colors are often white, cream, dark blue, red, silver or gold.[18] Common motifs include crosses and religious themes. Gothic lolita is generally cuter/sweeter than American goth fashion, but shares many thematic elements. [18]
Additional Substyles/Themes
Country Lolita
Country lolita is a lolita coordinate that has pastoral elements or themes. Straw hats, calico florals and fruits are common motifs.[18]
Ero Lolita
Ero Lolita uses elements like corsets and other elements traditionally not worn on the outside. [18]
Guro Lolita
Guro (グロ) is short for Grotesque (グロテスク).[20] Guro lolita is lolita that features things like faux blood or injuries for a broken doll sort of look. Eye patches, fake blood splatters and bandages are common tropes. Traditional Guro Lolita is not common, and generally shows up more in photo shoots than real life. [18] In recent years, cross-over pieces between Menhera and lolita have become more popular, and this style, which is sometimes grouped under the Guro umbrella as well, is more commonly worn in real life.
Hime Lolita
Hime or Princess Lolita is lolita that a princess might wear. Commonly uses tiaras, scepters and pink.[18]
Kuro/Shiro Lolita
Kuro and Shiro (literally black and white) lolita traditionally is similar to twinning in that it is a set of two coordinates worn by two people, one in black (kuro) and one in white (shiro). The two coordinates are typically planned to match or compliment each other in some way. There are few other rules beyond the two coordinates being monochrome.[18]
Old School Lolita
Old School Lolita (懐古ロリィタ)[21] is the lolita version of wearing vintage clothing. Pieces typically can either be genuinely vintage lolita items, or new items made to look vintage. Old School Lolita currently is focused on the late 1990s and the first half of the first decade of the 2000s.
Sailor Lolita
OTT / Over The Top
OTT is a modifier than can be combined with other styles to indicate that the style is more elaborate. The definition of OTT has shifted over time, with the baseline becoming increasingly more elaborate.
Tea Party Version / 茶会款
This term is primarily used in the Chinese lolita community to refer to OTT (Over The Top) classic dresses in the sense that one might wear these elaborate pieces to tea party, but not for every day.
Wedding Lolita / 花嫁
This term is primarily used in the Chinese lolita community, and refers to very elaborate dresses that look like bridal or princess gowns. There is some overlap between this term and the English-Speaking community Hime Lolita term, however, Chinese 花嫁 is more likely to be coorded with veils and other bridal accessories.
Crossover Styles
Crossover styles are styles that cross another fashion style with lolita. Theoretically, any style could be crossed over with lolita, these simply represent specific styles which have gotten some degree of attention.
Decololi / Deco Lolita
Decololi combines elements of Decora and lolita fashion. This is different from OTT (Over the Top) sweet, which is merely a ramped up version of Sweet Lolita. OTT Sweet Lolita tends to be more organized than Deco Lolita which tends to be more busy, with overlapping elements not uncommon.
Hanfu lolita
Hanfu lolita combines elements of Hanfu/traditional Korean dress with lolita fashion.[17][18]
Hime Lolita
Hime Lolita was also used as a term for coordinates that combined elements of Hime Gyaru and Lolita fashion. However, this has fallen out of favor as Hime Gyaru has become less popular.
Punk Lolita
Punk lolita combines elements of American and British Punk Fashion with Lolita.[18]
Qi Lolita
Qi Lolita combines elements of traditional Chinese dress with Lolita.[18][17]
Wa Lolita
Wa Lolita combines kimono / traditional Japanese dress with lolita fashion.[18][17]
Non-Standard Substyles
These are substyles that have appeared in various guides to lolita fashion but may not be considered canonical.
Bittersweet
Bittersweet lolita was created by LJ user lilusako in 2008 as a term to specifically use for sweet fruit, floral and music prints on black. [22] The user stated "honestly I personally can't stand sweet lolita and have much distaste for it.". [22] They then went on to explain this new word they had invented to use in place of sweet lolita for the few things that were sweet lolita that they liked.[22] This has been met with some criticism over the years.[23] The Creepy Cute trend around 2012 also caused increased confusion around this term, causing it to be used both to describe creepy cute lolita and black-colorways of OTT sweet. [23] The one thing it's rarely used to describe is what it was invented for; fruit and floral prints that today fall into the area between sweet and classic, in black colorways. [23]
Pinku
Lolita in a pink colorway. Most commonly attributed to a graphic posted on deviantart in 2011.[24]
Mizuiro
Lolita in a blue colorway. Most commonly attributed to a graphic posted on deviantart in 2011.[24]
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 古賀, 令子 (2009). The Cute Empire. Japan: 青土社. ISBN 4791764862.
- ↑ Kawamura, Yuniya (2012). Fashioning Japanese Subcultures. Berg Publishers. ISBN 1847889476.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ryuko Tsushin- Critique of Lolita Fashion. 1987. pp. 20–21.
- ↑ "ロリータ・ファッション". Wikipedia Japan.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Response to 'A Critique of Lolita Fashion'". Crimson Reflections.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "mamoru04021219 - 1993' LOLITA,LOLITA&LOLITA". Twitter.
- ↑ Cutie October 1993.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Zipper Magazine, October 1994.
- ↑ takemura, mana (2020). '80s Girls Fashion Book. Japan. ISBN 9784766133721.
- ↑ Atsuki Onishiのニット絵本. Japan: 文化出版局. 1985. ISBN 4579102711.
- ↑ Atsuki Onishi Knitting Book. 1985. Japan. Check date values in:
|year=(help)CS1 maint: location (link) - ↑ Atsuki Onishi 1993 Autumn Catalog. Japan. 1993.
- ↑ Atsuki Onishi 1994 Winter Catalog. Japan. 1994.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 "大川ひとみ MILK/MILK BOY | それぞれの原宿物語 a long time ago in harajuku Vol.4". blacksense.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 古賀, 令子 (2009). The Cute Empire. Japan: 青土社. pp. 57–61. ISBN 4791764862.
- ↑ "What Defines a Substyle?". EGL. 3 May 2013.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 "A updated guide to Lolita substyles?". Livejournal. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
- ↑ 18.00 18.01 18.02 18.03 18.04 18.05 18.06 18.07 18.08 18.09 18.10 18.11 18.12 18.13 18.14 18.15 "Lolita Handbook".
- ↑ "Gothic Lolita Bible 27". Lolita History Gallery.
- ↑ "グロ". Jisho.
- ↑ "米国のロリィタコミュニティの会合に初めて参加した日".
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 "A new sub catagory? Bittersweet Lolita". EGL.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 "The (Controversial) History of "Bittersweet Lolita"". Crimson Reflections.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Guide to All Lolita Styles". DeviantArt.
