Loli-Goth makes the Stars Shine Brighter

I decided that I have to mention the gothic Lolita craze, simply because I love its cuteness and bizarreness, and because I've been wanting to talk about it for a long time. I'd say this post has nothing to do with making manga if I could, but of course that's crazy talk. As niche as the gothic Lolita style of dress is, it has permeated the manga culture, so I feel it has great relevance and deserves a mention. Plus, Elicia did a paper on it for her Psychology of Clothing class, and dressed Loli-goth for her presentation, so I think the post is very timely.

I do realize that while Elicia and I are fascinated by Loli-Goth, since we don't live in Japan and don't wear it ourselves we are both posers on the subject. But we are fascinated posers. =)

One of our friends gets the Asian (AZN) network on her cable package. And on it was the funniest movie I have seen in a long time: Shimotsuma Monogatari, or Kamikaze Girls. I had seen gothic lolita pics before on the web and read travel diaries talking about seen girls wearing these clothes on the street, but the movie made me aware of loli-goth's place in the modern Japanese youth culture. Apparently it was originally a novel, then a manga, and now an awesome movie. Elicia bought the DVD at Borders, and it is now one of her most prized possesions I swear. A fun feature on the DVD is that you can run the movie with little facts about the Japanese culture popping up every so often. There are blurbs about the lolita fashion and the Baby store. Speaking of Baby, the Stars Shine Bright: they have the cutest clothes on their site. I think Elicia spent two hours or more there yesterday, just looking.

Elicia's paper has good links about the clothing, the culture, the movie, and Baby. I can't find any of the sites I originally saw the style in, but her sources are really excellent. If I do find those original sites or other good sources I will add them to the end of this post.

Here is Elicia's paper on the topic that she wrote for her class:

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Lolita Fashion

The Japanese Lolita style merges Victorian and Rococo clothing together in a delicate doll-like look. It is a very specialized sub-culture, and is often looked down on or seen as silly or even ugly by more mainstream Japanese society. Lolita is what’s known as a “street style.” This can be termed as what the youth wear on the weekends as they roam the city streets, seeking a reprieve from the homogeneity of school uniforms and all around conformity lauded by adults.

Around the late 90’s this look really started to emerge and gained a larger following after 2000. Credit for the fashion is often given to Mana, the guitarist of Malice Miser, a popular rock band in Japan. Perhaps it is because this style was started by an androgynous male that it is focused on elegance instead of sexuality, despite the fact that the name has been derived from Nabukov’s novel of the same title. Lolita stays an ultimately innocent look, and is supposed to make the wearer appear dainty as a little girl.

There are a multiple sub-categories of Lolita, but the main two are Gothic and Sweet. But the differences between are based mostly on the palate used. Gothic tends to be darker, with large amounts of black, white, and red. Sweet is more pastel with pinks, blues, and yellows being predominant.

It is interesting though, that a style born for escapism and individuality would enforce a strict code of acceptable dress. There are quite a few guidelines that simply must be followed when dressing Lolita.

- Skirts are worn at mini length to knee length, poofy and usually supported by a crinoline. Pants are never worn.
- Blouses, dresses, etc. should be elegantly ruffled
- Stockings are always worn, fishnet or opaque
- Headdresses are incredibly important, though they can vary from an elaborate hat to simply a large bow
- Shoes can be: Mary Jane’s, platformed shoes, feminine boots. If heels are worn they cannot be stilettos
- A purse is always carried, often times they’re large. It is also common to carry dolls or stuffed animals
- Parasols must be used on sunny days
- Hair should be curled, or worn long and straight
- Complexion should be pale, black and red lipstick and use of eyeliner is common though only for Gothic Lolita. In Sweet Lolita a minimum amount of makeup would be worn
- Gloves and opera length arm warmers are common, but are worn depending on the situation
- Elegance is key

An important factor in establishing and unifying this style in the magazine called “The Gothic and Lolita Bible.” It contains ideas, tips, pictures, patterns, and sometimes even recipes.

Though there are stores that carry this look currently, a lot of the fashion is homemade. A popular place to shop is Marui Young in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The store has four floors filled with Lolita style clothing. Another well-known Lolita store is Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, abbreviated sometimes as BTSSB or simply called “Baby.”
Located in Daikanyama, Tokyo, the label was originally founded in 1988 by Akinori Isobe, who hopes to expand business outside of Japan. Baby carries mostly Sweet Lolita, but also has darker versions available. Prices are around $100 for a blouse and $200 for a dress.

Lolita fashion is spreading slowly outside of Japan. There a few stores in Hong Kong that carry it, and it has popularity among anime fans across the globe thanks to shows like Cardcaptor Sakura, Paradise Kiss, Rozen Maiden, and Tsukuyomi Moon Phase. Another important factor in the international recognition of the Lolita style is the live action film, Kamikaze Girls.

Watching Kamikaze Girls is what made me personally interested in the Lolita style. I’d seen the Lolita dress before in anime and thought it was cute, but it wasn’t until watching this adorable little film, that my I became aware of Lolita as an actual style that I might actually enjoy looking at and maybe even wearing.

Sources:

Hell, Kyshah. “Elegant Gothic Lolita.” Morbid Outlook
http://www.morbidoutlook.com/fashion/articles/2002_07_gothiclolita.html

“Baby, The Stars Shine Bright”
Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby%2C_The_Stars_Shine_Bright

“Gothic Lolita” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_Lolita

“Lolita Fashion” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_fashion

“Sweet Lolita” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Lolita

Avant Gauche. http://www.avantgauche.co.uk/

Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. http://www.babyssb.co.jp/index.html

Kamikaze Girls. http://www.kamikazegirls.net/story.html

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Before I finish this post I thought I'd mention what Elicia did to dress Loli-Goth for her presentation. Keep in mind she doesn't dress Lolita but recreated it to give her class an idea of what it looks like.

Since she has a lot of black and red items, she went with the gothic look. First, she had a black lace cap-sleeve shirt with mandarin collar. Over that she put on her black corset (yes, she has a corset, don't ask.) She put on black fishnets and a black calf-length dress with lace trim. Over the corset I helped her tie on a long red sash and bow that she originally made for her Temari cosplay. On her hands she put on opera gloves with long lace at the hands. On her head she first tied a black crochet hair band thing, and over that wore one of our mom's black dress hats with a red bow tied around it. On her feet, she wore these red clog heeled Mary Janes she has, that really tied the outfit together. For makeup she did lots of eyeliner, red lipstick, and powered her face very pale (but like our complexions make that very difficult, really.) For accessories she had a silver cross necklace, an oversized purse and a black kitty stuffed animal. I'm not sure what people will think today when they see her, and I wish I could follow her around and see their faces. Elicia has a male friend who wears a long, almost scots-like black skirt thing to school, and I've heard about him in my department. This costume is like ten times more flamboyant than that. Oh well, Elicia will have to tell me if she got any fun reactions when I see her tonight.