Lolita Fashion is a fashion subculture in Japan that is primarily influenced by Victorian children's clothing as well as costumes from the Rococo period. Lolita has made this into a unique fashion by adding gothic and original design elements to the look.
Lolita fashion has evolved into several different sub styles and has created a devoted subculture in Japan. The Lolita look consists primarily of a knee length skirt or dress, head dress, blouse, petticoat, knee high socks or stockings and high heel or platform shoes.
Although the origin of Lolita fashion is unclear, it is likely the movement started in the late 1970s when famous labels including Pink House, Milk and Angelic Pretty began selling clothes that would be considered "Lolita" by today's standards. Shortly after that came Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, and Metamorphose temps de fille. In the 1990s, Lolita fashion became better recognised, with bands like Malice Mizer and other Visual Kei (or visual type) bands coming into popularity. These bands wore intricate costumes, which fans began adopting as their own style.
The style soon spread from its origins in the Kansai region, and ultimately reached Tokyo where it became popularized throughout Japanese youth culture. Today, Lolita fashion has grown so much in popularity that it can be found even in department stores in Japan. Today many young people wear the fashion all around the world.
Lolita is a Japanese street fashion inspired primarily by the clothing and general aesthetics of the Rococo and Victorian periods. This fashion movement started in Japan in the 1980's and has evolved greatly since. Nowadays Lolita Fashion has grown to be relatively popular all over the world. Relatively popular for an obscure Japanese street fashion, that is.
While it is true that most fashions are open to various interpretations, the term Lolita is used exclusively to describe a very specific (one could say narrow) look that is created by abiding by a number of strict guidelines and principles.
The "rules" of Lolita fashion don't exist to limit the wearer but are rather qualifiers of what makes an outfit Lolita. Within these rules however there are a variety of styles.
Gothic Lolita is probably the style associated most with Lolita Fashion outside of Japan. Lolita Fashion is often referred to as GothLoli or EGL. While GothLoli can be a correct term it only applies to the specific Gothic subset and not Lolita fashion as a whole, however EGL is an abbreviation of the term Elegant Gothic Lolita, which was coined by the Japanese musician Mana to describe his specific Lolita clothing line.
The term "Lolita" may be off-putting to those who first hear about the fashion because of the connotation it holds from Vladimir Nabokov's novel, "Lolita", which changed the meaning of the name for most people in the Western world.
It is generally assumed though that the name of the fashion comes from a distortion of the meaning while word-borrowing from English. In the case of the fashion the term "Lolita" only refers to the child-like nature of some of the clothes and is also used because of the beauty or cuteness of the name. Lolita Fashion is emphatically not about looking sexy and is instead about looking cute or elegant.
In addition to being a fashion, some people enjoy living a "Lolita Lifestyle" in which one sees Lolita as more of a philosophy of living beautifully rather than just dressing it. Someone living a Lolita Lifestyle may try and live like a princess, surrounding themselves with things of beauty, and taking part in a number of ‘proper’ feminine activities such as baking, embroidery, sewing and other old-fashioned "women's" activities.
Lolita is an interesting fashion, in that there is an incredible variety of styles within it: so much so that it is very easy for a newbie to become overwhelmed. I have often seen questions of this nature: Can I be Lolita if I don't like too much lace? Am I a "real" Lolita if I only like Punk Lolita? Do I have to choose only one style and stick with it forever? Can I wear Sweet and Gothic style together?
First off, because there are many styles of Lolita, no style is "more Lolita" than another. Sweet may be more popular than Classic, but there is no rule that says Sweet Lolitas are the be all and end all of Lolita Land.
There is also no rule which says you cannot wear any or all of the styles to your heart's content. Most Lolitas do dabble in at least two styles. And of course, there is no hard-and-fast line between what defines something as Sweet and what defines it as Gothic, when both can come in black and both can have the same silhouette. The problem is (and this is why you will find that most Lolitas stay close to their favorite style) the cost.
Most Lolita styles have a basic color scheme. Sweet, for example, barely deviates from the black/white/pink/blue color wheel. Lolita also looks best when it works with only two or three colors in a single outfit, and so that pink Angelic Pretty skirt you just bought will probably need entirely pink and white accessories. Consider how much you will have to buy to match with that skirt: head dress, blouse, petticoat, bloomers, socks, shoes, maybe a jacket, maybe a purse, maybe some jewellry. This is for just one outfit.
Lolita fashion has evolved into several different sub styles and has created a devoted subculture in Japan. The Lolita look consists primarily of a knee length skirt or dress, head dress, blouse, petticoat, knee high socks or stockings and high heel or platform shoes.
Although the origin of Lolita fashion is unclear, it is likely the movement started in the late 1970s when famous labels including Pink House, Milk and Angelic Pretty began selling clothes that would be considered "Lolita" by today's standards. Shortly after that came Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, and Metamorphose temps de fille. In the 1990s, Lolita fashion became better recognised, with bands like Malice Mizer and other Visual Kei (or visual type) bands coming into popularity. These bands wore intricate costumes, which fans began adopting as their own style.
The style soon spread from its origins in the Kansai region, and ultimately reached Tokyo where it became popularized throughout Japanese youth culture. Today, Lolita fashion has grown so much in popularity that it can be found even in department stores in Japan. Today many young people wear the fashion all around the world.
Lolita is a Japanese street fashion inspired primarily by the clothing and general aesthetics of the Rococo and Victorian periods. This fashion movement started in Japan in the 1980's and has evolved greatly since. Nowadays Lolita Fashion has grown to be relatively popular all over the world. Relatively popular for an obscure Japanese street fashion, that is.
While it is true that most fashions are open to various interpretations, the term Lolita is used exclusively to describe a very specific (one could say narrow) look that is created by abiding by a number of strict guidelines and principles.
The "rules" of Lolita fashion don't exist to limit the wearer but are rather qualifiers of what makes an outfit Lolita. Within these rules however there are a variety of styles.
Gothic Lolita is probably the style associated most with Lolita Fashion outside of Japan. Lolita Fashion is often referred to as GothLoli or EGL. While GothLoli can be a correct term it only applies to the specific Gothic subset and not Lolita fashion as a whole, however EGL is an abbreviation of the term Elegant Gothic Lolita, which was coined by the Japanese musician Mana to describe his specific Lolita clothing line.
The term "Lolita" may be off-putting to those who first hear about the fashion because of the connotation it holds from Vladimir Nabokov's novel, "Lolita", which changed the meaning of the name for most people in the Western world.
It is generally assumed though that the name of the fashion comes from a distortion of the meaning while word-borrowing from English. In the case of the fashion the term "Lolita" only refers to the child-like nature of some of the clothes and is also used because of the beauty or cuteness of the name. Lolita Fashion is emphatically not about looking sexy and is instead about looking cute or elegant.
In addition to being a fashion, some people enjoy living a "Lolita Lifestyle" in which one sees Lolita as more of a philosophy of living beautifully rather than just dressing it. Someone living a Lolita Lifestyle may try and live like a princess, surrounding themselves with things of beauty, and taking part in a number of ‘proper’ feminine activities such as baking, embroidery, sewing and other old-fashioned "women's" activities.
Lolita is an interesting fashion, in that there is an incredible variety of styles within it: so much so that it is very easy for a newbie to become overwhelmed. I have often seen questions of this nature: Can I be Lolita if I don't like too much lace? Am I a "real" Lolita if I only like Punk Lolita? Do I have to choose only one style and stick with it forever? Can I wear Sweet and Gothic style together?
First off, because there are many styles of Lolita, no style is "more Lolita" than another. Sweet may be more popular than Classic, but there is no rule that says Sweet Lolitas are the be all and end all of Lolita Land.
There is also no rule which says you cannot wear any or all of the styles to your heart's content. Most Lolitas do dabble in at least two styles. And of course, there is no hard-and-fast line between what defines something as Sweet and what defines it as Gothic, when both can come in black and both can have the same silhouette. The problem is (and this is why you will find that most Lolitas stay close to their favorite style) the cost.
Most Lolita styles have a basic color scheme. Sweet, for example, barely deviates from the black/white/pink/blue color wheel. Lolita also looks best when it works with only two or three colors in a single outfit, and so that pink Angelic Pretty skirt you just bought will probably need entirely pink and white accessories. Consider how much you will have to buy to match with that skirt: head dress, blouse, petticoat, bloomers, socks, shoes, maybe a jacket, maybe a purse, maybe some jewellry. This is for just one outfit.