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. However, according to Japanese Wikipedia, the article talks more about the behavior of women past a certain age, than about any specific fashion.

Cutie Magazine published a spread in 1993 titled "Lolita, Lolita & Lolita' 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. A 1994 article in Zipper titled ロリータ"って何? (What is Lolita?) 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."

Because the style likely predates the name, one must assume that the history of lolita begins with the history of the brands that were considered lolita when the name was young.

In 1970, Hitomi Okawa started MILK, which would go on to be considered a quintessential lolita brand by 1993. 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. 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. Milk items were frequently published in An An and Olive in the 1980s.

Readers of Olive Magazine were called 'Olive Girls'. Olive Girls could be broken down into three main style tribes. The first style tribe 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.

Substyles

There are two main schools of thought among western lolita as far as the categorization of lolita fashion. 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

Gothic Lolita

Gothic lolita

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.

Guro Lolita

Guro (グロ) is short for Grotesque (グロテスク). 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. 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.

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.

Old School Lolita

Old School Lolita (懐古ロリィタ) 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.

Wedding Lolita / 花嫁

This term is not frequently used in the west, but refers to very elaborate dresses that look like bridal or princess gowns. There is some overlap between this term and the western Hime Lolita term.

Crossover Styles

Crossover styles are styles that cross another fashion style with lolita.

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.

Hanfu lolita

Hanfu lolita combines elements of Hanfu/traditional Korean dress with lolita fashion.

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.

Qi Lolita

Qi Lolita combines elements of traditional Chinese dress with Lolita.

Wa Lolita

Wa Lolita combines kimono / traditional Japanese dress with lolita fashion.

External links

• ロリータファッションクロニクル (Lolita Fashion Chronicle)