Gothic Lolita

The fashion style of the 'Gothloli' (Gosurori, or Gothic Lolita), a member of the contemporary 'Lolita' movement, is inexorably bound to the archetypal 'Alice'. Members of this subculture dress in garments inspired by the Victorian age, whilst the silhouette is reminiscent, particularly, of Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s heroine, and defined by Walt Disney’s Alice. Most often, the design is referential and, other times, the translation is more literal, whereby outfits may be decorated with Alice figures and motifs, or the wearer more consciously mimics Alice’s appearance.

The Alice-Lolita image is prolific, especially in Japan. Here, the relationship between Alice and Lolita also appears in other areas of popular culture; in the art of Nori Tomizaki; shōjo graphic novels and anime; and live-action film. In Nori’s digital paintings and manipulated photographs, which portray doll-like figures and lifelike dolls, there is an emphasis on the Gothic aspect, whereby Alice and the Gothloli are juxtaposed to represent the epitome of a sweet but scary little girl. The leading characters of the manga and animated series, Rozen Maiden Träumend, may appear to be sweeter but also display a macabre edge. These Lolita-type dolls come to life and war against each other in order to win the prize of becoming 'Alice', an ultimate human Gothloli. For this chance to transform into this real little girl, they must fight and beat all other dolls at the 'Alice game'.

However, there may be more than a superficial connection between Alice and Lolita, in that, it may be argued, there is perhaps no coincidence that the author, Lewis Carroll, or Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (his true identity), is believed to have suffered from a syndrome known as the 'Lolita Complex', the condition that takes its name from the female protagonist of Vladimir Nabokov’s notorious novel, and designated as an unhealthy obsession with young girls. Though – whilst Carroll’s Alice stories, Nabokov’s Lolita and Gothloli are similar in the fact that they serve to immortalise the Little Girl – the Lolita fashion style, formed in Alice’s image and bearing the title of the Nabokovian child, is determined to be neither directly, nor circumstantially, related to its namesake.

This paper explores these intertextual relationships between Alice, Lolita and the Lolita fashion-based movement, and investigates the validity of the subculture’s identification with the Lolita Complex.

Japanese contemporary culture, including fashion, has increasingly gained popularity outside Japan, making it a timely topic for both scholarly and wider publics. Most current studies of popular culture focuses on manga, anime, and other such forms of visual culture, and dress and design studies are also emerging as a rapidly growing field. Building on the works of McVeigh (2000), Miller (2006), Slade (2010) and Steele (2010), this book addresses this new interest in an innovative fashion, expanding the significance of dress and delving into a wide range of examples from films, magazines, music videos and literature. By connecting diverse topic areas including dress, gender, media and cultural studies, Japanese Fashion Cultures analyzes the relationship of fashion aesthetics and gender identity within an increasingly interconnected, transnational world.
The book pays particular attention to the relationship of past and present. It examines contemporary Japanese fashion trends that adopt and restyle European historical clothing forms: the Edwardian dandy style, Victorian little girls’ dresses, and the Rococo and Romantic dress typical of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Japanese fashion culture actively promoted European clothing styles both politically and aesthetically, particularly since the country’s re-engagement with Euro-America in 1868. Throughout this book, I refer to the theory of “format” and “product” articulated by cultural sociologist Keiko Okamura (2003) where a cultural form, in this case Euro-American clothing styles, can be seen as a “format” when accepted globally. This standardized “format” becomes a carrier of the locality of cultures, allowing its “local” characteristics to be visible, measurable, and comparable with that of other cultures. Through this theoretical idea, I explain complex cultural theory using compelling examples. For instance, differences in preferred modes of masculinity and fashionability in Japan and Euro-America will be explained via garments and advertisement campaigns of Dolce and Gabbana. This process will therefore reveal the characteristics both universal and culturally specific to the Japanese context, including the ways in which Japanese men and women engage with fashion today. This poses a challenge to a widely held, often Eurocentric notion that Japanese men and women simply desire to imitate their Euro-American counterparts.

Japanese Fashion Cultures provides comprehensive insights into representations of clothes and gender in a society still poorly understood by outsiders. I dispel the popular misconception that Japan approves of gender inequalities and that women still occupy inferior social positions to men, expressed also in clothing. I argue that using the lens of fashion reveals the complexities of gender relations in Japan. Four contemporary case studies position the argument: young men’s fashion magazines, female performers’ use of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” in music video, “Lolita” fashion and Tetsuya Nakashima’s film Shimotsuma monogatari (Kamikaze Girls, 2004), and the continuing remarking of “Ivy-League” style in Japan. These four examples are notable for their adoption of historic European and American clothing forms. Their relatively “mainstream” stature in contemporary Japanese culture comes with a “twist” or unconventional characteristics. The “mainstream” standing of these types of popular culture indicates their reach, consumed by a great number of individuals within Japan. Certain qualities they manifest, on the other hand, impose a subtle, almost “delicate” kind of revolt against a set of idées fixes surrounding the relationship between clothes and gender. Using media and cultural texts as a primary source for discussion enables consideration of these complex links between distortion and reality. As Diana Crane (1990) has argued, both are parts of the “real” world where these case studies are first produced.

The first important issue this book raises is that, through negotiating male readers’ desire to attract admirers and to dress for their own pleasure, young men’s fashion magazines endorse the idea that crafting a pleasant look is the foundation of self-assurance and a successful life. Secondly, I show that female Japanese singers allow an accentuation of femininity without necessarily sexualization through the use of Japanese cute (kawaii) aesthetics. The third possibility this book explores is that highly decorative styles of Japanese Lolita fashion should not be read as symbolic of restriction and passivity. The fourth point this book addresses is that, as illustrated by the Japanese embrace of the “Ivy style,” both men and women engage with fashion in very similar ways. This is a major point of difference with the role of fashion historically in Euro-America.

These readings offer novel ways to understand the relationship between gender and dress, which is often blamed for maintaining repressive distinctions between “man” and “woman” in contemporary culture. Ultimately, this book aims to show that the Japanese appropriation of European clothing forms shows that there might be different, and hence less rigid approaches to understanding the relationship between fashion and gender. Japanese refashioning of European clothing concepts, this book argues, offers a compelling case for the implication of the aesthetics of fashion, gender, and cross-culturalism.

“Masafumi Monden's book is a gem. By bringing together and exploring colourful examples from Japan's vibrant street culture and fashion, he artfully demonstrates just how individualistic, innovative, and original the Japanese are. He also dismantles myths and misperceptions about gender relations, sexuality, and social relations in Japan.” –  Brian J. McVeigh, University of Arizona, USA,

“Monden provides a rich and detailed examination of the subtle intricacies of gendering and sexuality in contemporary Japanese fashion. While exploring the extremes of Tokyo street fashion he is able to illuminate some of the mechanism behind the perplexingly divergent ways to be a man or a woman in today's Japan.” –  Toby Slade, University of Tokyo, Japan,

“Masafumi Monden's fascinating and important book, Japanese Fashion Cultures, will be of great interest to everyone interested in fashion, gender, globalization, and youth culture. His research on young Japanese men and their attitudes towards fashion is especially significant, as it calls into question persistent stereotypes about how men and women are assumed to engage with fashion.” –  Valerie Steele, Director and Chief Curator, The Museum at FIT, New York City, USA

“From the possibility of subversion in lace-trimmed Lolita outfits and petite pinafores straight out of Alice in Wonderland, to the enchantments of Milkboy dandyism, Masafumi Monden's Japanese Fashion Cultures offers up a delightful combination of case studies that reveal the very best thinking in fashion theory today.” –  Laura Miller, Eiichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Endowed Professor of Japanese Studies and Professor of Anthropology, University of Missouri–St. Louis, USA

"Masafumi Monden’s Japanese Fashion Cultures shines a spotlight on many of the looks that brought the world’s attention to an island nation which, like Britain, has consistently punched above its weight in matters of dress and appearance...In Japanese Fashion Cultures you have some most interesting comments about gender and I for one have learned a lot about the less reported (in the West at least) looks for young Japanese males." - Ted Polheums, Author of Streetstyle: From Sidewalk to Catwalk

Originating in Japan, the Lolita fashion subculture is identifiable by its frilly dresses reminiscent of Victorian, Rococo and fantasy themes. The resulting child-like appearance of the wearer, along with the fact that its ‘Lolita’ moniker is in reference to Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel of the same name, has fuelled suggestions that Lolita fashion celebrates under-age sexuality. This paper investigates these concerns, exploring the fashion’s primary origins, motivators and principles, as it seeks to determine whether or not it represents a malevolent influence that aims to eroticise our youth or a harmless, cute aesthetic.

Lolita: Dreaming, Despairing, Defying 97 J a p a n As it exists in Japan, Lolita Fashion, like other Japanese subcultures, developed as a response to social pressures and anxieties felt by young women and men in the 1970s and 1980s. Rather than dealing with the difficult reality of rapid commercialization, destabilization of society, a rigid social system, and an increasingly body-focused fashion norm, a select group of youth chose to find comfort in the over-the-top imaginary world of lace, frills, bows, tulle, and ribbons that is Lolita Fashion. However, the more gothic elements of the style reflect that behind this cute façade lurks the dark, sinister knowledge that this ploy will inevitably end, the real world unchanged.

"The process of cultural globalisation does not always imply cultural homogenisation.
Rather, it can be seen as a process of cultural ‘glocalisation’ and hybridisation where
cultures continuously interact with and interpret each other to engender a hybrid
cultural form. As Arjun Appadurai (1993) contends, neither centrality nor peripherality
of culture exists in the context of cultural globalisation. Rather, transnational cultural
forms are likely to circulate in multiple directions.

This is particularly evident when examining Gothic & Lolita – a Japanese fashion trend
which has emerged since the late 1990s. Applying Jan Nederveen Pieterse’s theory of
‘globalisation as hybridisation’ (2004), and Roland Robertson’s concept of ‘glocalisation’
(1995), this article attempts to explore how this fashion trend manifests the process of
cultural ‘glocalisation’, hybridisation, and interaction through the localisation of Western
Goth subculture and especially, historical European dress styles in Japan. In addition,
it explores how the fashion signifies the idea of ‘reverse’ flow of culture through an
ethnographic observation of an English-speaking online community devoted to the
trend. The analysis of the online community also seeks to establish the idea that this
transnational cultural flow serves as an alternative to the local culture."

My thesis investigates complex issues implied by and connected with the Japanese movement known generally as Gothic & Lolita (G&L), focussing specifically on the Lolita fashion-based subculture and psychological motivations behind it. It discusses the transmigration of the movement’s ideas from Eastern to Western to Eastern societies, including differing cultural interpretations of 'Lolita' and their implications in terms of the Lolita phenomenon, while examining ideologies in context with conflicting connotations and paradoxes that arise from a label that combines perceptions about 'Lolita' with the 'Gothic'. It also addresses the 'Lolita Complex', a term that stems from the narrative of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and is applied to a syndrome affecting older men and their attraction to young girls, and explores its associations with the Lolita subculture. The Lolita Complex, as the title of this thesis, also refers to the problematic complexities connected with and inferred by the movement. This thesis is multi-disciplinary. Although the emphasis is related to Fashion (or Design) History and Theory, my research also spans the fields of Subcultural Theory, Gothic Studies, Gender Studies, Asian Studies and Anthropology. It leans, though, more to the “theoretical” side, while my methodological approach relates closely to Analytic or Psychoanalytic Art History, based on my education and training as an Art and Design theorist. As such, this study is an analysis of the Japanese Lolita subculture. It is my theory or my reading of this cultural phenomenon, supported by evidence to state the overriding argument that the Lolita movement is symbolic of and represents a generation of young women who refuse to enter adulthood and 'grow up'.

Derived from Vladimir Nabokov’s eponymous 1955 novel and its pre-adolescent heroine, seen by the older male narrator as a ‘nymphet’, the ‘Lolita’ look typical in the United States, for example—generally characterized by highly eroticized adolescent or preadolescent girls—has stirred controversy in many Western societies. Japanese Lolita fashion, on the other hand, is characterized by images of women adorned in elaborate dresses with delicate fabrics inspired by stylistic interpretations of early-modern European clothing such as Rococo and Victorian dresses. The style thus exudes the look of European bisque dolls, yet one senses there is something odd about these Japanese ‘European’ dresses.

Lolita style also references various forms of contemporary popular culture, including Western Goth subculture, manga, anime and Visual-kei (Visual-Rock) music—a Japanese music genre popular in the 1990s, typified by musicians wearing elaborate make-up and hairstyles, with flamboyant, rather androgynous costumes. Although it is practised by a small group of people, Lolita fashion has received substantial media and academic attention, perhaps due to its visually spectacular and eye-catching nature. Moreover, the presence of Lolita fashion has increasingly been noted in locations worldwide. But why do people wish to dress in Lolita fashion?

When discussing cultural flows within a transnational context, often the focus of debate is the issue of whether cultures tend towards unification or. In this chapter however, I am interested in whether flows of culture override or dissolve cultural differences in the places they reach, via an examination of Lolita fashion. The first section focuses on Lolita fashion in the Japanese context. Paying particular attention to its stylistic aspects, I examine one of the ways in which historical European clothing has been appropriated in Japan. The second section looks at the Lolita trend outside Japan by way of a textual analysis of an Anglophone on-line community for Lolita fashion lovers, ‘EGL (Elegant Gothic Lolita) The Gothic & Lolita Fashion Community’. In so doing, I will explore how concepts such as ‘local’ and ‘global’ have been relativized or renegotiated in Lolita fashion.

Kamikaze Girls and Loli-Goths
Kathryn Hardy Bernal
Abstract
(2006)

Kamikaze Girls (dir. Tetsuya Nakashima, 2004) is a film that both extracts and informs the Japanese fashion subculture of the Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL, gosuloli or Loli-Goth). Based on a light novel by Novala Takemoto (2002) and spawning Yukio Kanesada’s manga version in 2005, it is an example of shojo (teenage girls’) fiction. Released in Japan as Shimotsuma Monogatari, or Shimotsuma Story, Kamikaze Girls tells of the two unlikely companions, Momoko Ryugasaki (Kyoko Fukada), a 'Sweet' Lolita obsessed with the designer label Baby the Stars Shine Bright, and Ichigo ('Ichiko') Shirayuri (Anna Tsuchiya), a yanki, or biker-punk, member of a rough all-girl bōsōzoku (motorcycle gang). The narrative operates on a somewhat allegorical level and is certainly of a comical nature, weaving the girls’ histories throughout a fantastic multi-media world of anime, music video, and live-action sequences. On the surface, this colourful foray appeals as light entertainment yet on another level represents more topical cultural issues.

Kamikaze Girls interfaces with the realm of the EGL (Elegant Gothic Lolita) and the notion of 'cute gothic'. It has been said that Japan’s obsession with all things cute, or the kawaii phenomenon, represents an 'infantile mentality (Kageyama 2006) and a reluctance to 'grow up' (Shoin 2006). It has also been related in general to post-war Japan’s perpetuating uncertainties about the future (Kayama 2004). In terms of the Lolita, says Kayama, the dressing as frilly babies symbolises still a deeper anxiety, instigated in the 1990s by economic instability and the wish to hang onto childhood security. This is perhaps one reason why the cult translates, for a minority of male followers, to that of the Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA). For Japanese girls, though, this fear of adulthood is more pertinent in the face of the harsher realities of womanhood. This is interesting in terms of the sexual connotations of the Lolita in the West and the sexual ambiguities of the EGL. The focus of this paper, therefore, will be how Kamikaze Girls reflects more complex attitudes related to sexuality, gender and Japanese society via competing images of the 'cute' and the gothic.

'Lolita is back.' In 1996, Hannah J. L. Feldman made this statement in regard to an emerging phenomenon, represented, in art and popular culture, by a 'triumphant emblem of a newly configured' feminist model for the young woman, who, unlike Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 heroine, 'no longer represent[ed] a young girl’s vulnerability to an older man’s lascivious desires'. 'To be Lolita', she declared, now 'means to take control… and to reverse the pejorative connotations' of male dominance and sexual aggression. Under this banner of 'Lolita', a fashion-based subculture has also grown, which, having originated in Japan, continues to gain worldwide appeal.

The face of the Lolita movement is the Gothloli (gosurori), or Gothic Lolita, a young woman whose style, based on little girls’ fashions of the Rococo, Romantic and Victorian periods, is signified by her doll-like or 'childish' appearance. As the Gothloli also collects and plays with dolls, her preoccupation is seen as superficial and infantile, and often disregarded as merely another aspect of the Japanese obsession with all things 'cute' (kawaii). However, this dismissive attitude overlooks more complex psychological and sociological issues behind this motivation. It also fails to recognise the subculture as a tribal empowerment against the so-called 'Lolita Complex', the attraction to young girls by older men.

How, though, does one battle against a paradigm of male dominance and female victimisation from a position that appears to adopt the very construct that is being challenged? Herein lays the paradox. What is shocking about the Lolita subculture is that, although Gothloli choose to deny any sexual connotations, the adoption of a seemingly submissive yet sexually provocative identity (even in the acceptance of the Lolita tag) is controversial and contentious, and thus rebellious.
This paper discusses the Japanese Lolita subculture as a form of new feminist resistance.

Reference:

Feldman, Hannah J. L. (1996), 'The Lolita Complex', World Art (Australia) 2, pp. 52 – 57.

This paper explores the concept of Gothic in relation to the contemporary Japanese Gothic & Lolita movement (G&L). Although it discusses G&L as a whole, it places a specific focus on the Gosurori (Gosu-loli, Gothloli, or Gothic Lolita) by tracing the evolution of the fashion-based Lolita subculture, from its historical, transcultural origins, and the development of its meanings.

The Japanese Lolita subculture, now becoming an increasingly worldwide preoccupation, is represented by women who dress as doll-like children. The image of this “Lolita,” which may either be categorized as “Gothic” or “Sweet,” or both, is inspired by traditional European clothing from the French Rococo and Victorian periods. Whilst it emerged from “little-girl” Japanese street styles of the 1970s, it transitioned through the New Romantic 1980s, picking up more frills, lace and ribbons on the way. For the Gothic Lolita, these influences were also fused with Neo-Victorian characteristics of gothic subcultural fashions, including elements of mourning dress, and accessories such as cameos, crosses, crucifixes, and rosary beads.

The transmigration and translation of ideas that have contributed to the G&L phenomenon are examined in context with the formulation of the gothic aspects of the Gosurori identity. In doing so, the following question will be raised and investigated, “What is gothic about Lolita?”

Originating in Japan, the Lolita fashion subculture is identifiable by its frilly dresses reminiscent of Victorian, Rococo and fantasy themes. The resulting child-like appearance of the wearer, along with the fact that its ‘Lolita’ moniker is in reference to Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel of the same name, has fuelled suggestions that Lolita fashion celebrates under-age sexuality. This paper investigates these concerns, exploring the fashion’s primary origins, motivators and principles, as it seeks to determine whether or not it represents a malevolent influence that aims to eroticise our youth or a harmless, cute aesthetic.

Whilst the Gothic and Lolita subcultural movement arose in Japan, it represents a transmigration and collaboration of ideas between Japanese and Euro-American cultures, especially pertaining to the Gothic. It, therefore, initially shifted towards sites that shared similar interests regarding these gothic roots, such as the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada. In more recent years, however, growing “hotspots” have included Latin-American nations, with none more conspicuous than Mexico.
The transition of the Japanese Gothic and Lolita movement into Mexico poses new and pertinent questions associated with differing socio-politics and cultural understandings and meanings, particularly regarding gender, sexuality, and even religion. Why is this movement becoming prevalent in Mexico? Why does it resonate with participants there? How does it operate? What relationships does it have with local and historical traditions, rituals, practices, and superstitions? And, what does it say about the concept of Subculture, itself? Is the notion of a resistant subculture really dead? How is it transformed?
As both an “insider” (participant) and “outsider” (critical observer) researcher of the increasingly globalising Gothic and Lolita subculture, my most recent ethnographic studies, comprised of surveys, interviews and personal communications, have been concentrated on answering these questions in regard to Latin-American Lolita communities, with a focus on, or major case study being, Mexico. This paper reveals some of these findings, which will go towards my PhD: Doctor of Philosophy in Visual and Material Culture thesis, and subsequent publications.

Kathryn A. Hardy Bernal
Kathryn A. Hardy Bernal is an art and design historian and subcultural fashion theorist. She is currently a PhD candidate at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand. Her latest research explores the translation and transmigration of complex socio-political ideas associated with the Lolita subcultural movement across Japanese, Euro-American, and into Hispanic cultures.

'Identity is a performance of fantasy and desire – a pursuit of being and becoming the image of this desire' (Butler 1999: 5). This notion of performance is often elevated via the media of cyberspace, as one’s identity becomes segregated from the corporeal self.
This paper investigates the concept of constructing, or manufacturing, a 'Lolita' identity in the virtual world. It explores how Gothloli (members of the fashion-based Lolita movement) formulate online images of their desired selves in order to perform, and thereby establish, an 'authentic' presence within the subculture and an acceptance by leaders, and peer participants, of worldwide Lolita communities.
The existence of digital technologies, particularly social networking sites and blogs, has created a globalising effect for many subcultural movements, which may have remained insular and underground, otherwise. It has also encouraged a sense of belonging: Whilst members may be geographically separated, they are also united in virtual space. The affinity gained through online forms of interchange is notably pertinent for Gothloli who live outside Japan, the movement’s place of origin, especially if real-life interactions are made impossible by lack of local congregation. However, a downside of internet visibility, and a major consequence of the ability to hide behind an 'avatar', is the prevalence of cyberbullying, due to the immense pressure to 'fit in', and thus competition and jealousy. This paper focusses on these paradoxes; the positive and negative influences of the Lolita subculture in cyberspace.
Reference
Butler, J. (1999), Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York: Routledge.

Elegant Gothic Lolita, or simply Lolita, is a fashion subculture that began as a street fashion among the youth in Harajuku Japan. Lolita fashion is characterized by the modest and Victorian era inspired clothing that often features knee length skirts and dresses that are supported by petticoats, blouses with ruffles and pintucks, and legs covered by either stockings or socks. The Lolita fashion subculture has spread to outside of Japan and communities are now found in almost every US State. The purpose of this project is to explore the rituals, practices, and conflicts, in Lolita Communities of the United States, especially in the realms of behavior, dress, and sexuality. As with many cultures, there are a set of punishments and rewards for following or failing to follow the protocols that are set in place. I explore what these rules, behavioral protocols, rites of passage, and dress codes are, while also examining the punishment and reward systems that are in place. Participant observation, interviews, and auto-ethnography have been used. The Lolita fashion subculture is complex and hierarchical. An emphasis is not just placed on the clothing involved in the subculture, but also on the personalities and merits of each individual member and how they interact with the community as a whole.

It begins with an awakening. Something is encountered-a person, an image, a song, an outfit-that throws into relief the protagonist's unique sensibility. is apparent uniqueness is felt as a dislocation in era, the consequence of an existence carried out crosswise to history and society. e object of fascination shimmers in the protagonist's imagination, catalyzing a reorganization of priorities, compelling acts commensurate with the intensity of the emotions it evokes. is is a desire that communicates solely through the language of extremity, the center of a sensibility that disdains the ordinary for being ordinary, that values only the extraordinary. e protagonist becomes extraordinary through criminal acts, acts that prove the protagonist to be worthy of the fascinating object, worthy of the nearly religious ecstasy of fascination itself. is is less about possession than proximity, a pilgrimage toward an indifferent idol, an escalating series of demonstrations of the intensity of the protagonist's fascination that inevitably explodes, shattering the narrative at its climax: murder is committed, or infidelity, or incest, or simply thoroughgoing refusal. But however it ends, the narrative always runs along a line of flight, describing an ecstatic escape that doubles as a kind of self-immolating revenge against society as norm, history as progress.

'Lolita is back.’ As early as 1996, Hannah J. L. Feldman made this statement in regard to a newly emerging phenomenon, represented at the time in art and popular culture, by a ‘triumphant emblem of a newly configured’ feminist model for the young woman, who, unlike Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 heroine, ‘no longer represents a young girl’s vulnerability to an older man’s lascivious desires’ (52). ‘To be Lolita’, she declared, now ‘means to take control… and to reverse the pejorative connotations of [male dominance] and aggressive sexual behavior’ (Feldman 1996: 52). Under this particular banner of ‘Lolita’ has grown a fashion-based youth movement known as Gothic & Lolita, a youth street subculture that originated in Japan and is rapidly gaining worldwide appeal.
The most prominent face of the Gothic & Lolita subculture is the Lolita herself (gothloli, gosurori), the young woman whose style, based on little girls’ fashions of the Rococo, Romantic and Victorian periods, is signified by her doll-like or childish appearance. As the Lolita also commonly collects and plays with dolls, and sometimes parades with them on the street, this preoccupation is, therefore, often seen as superficial and meaningless, and disregarded as merely another development of a perceived Japanese obsession with all things ‘cute’ (kawaii), which has been represented in terms of an ‘infantile mentality’ (Kageyama 2006). However, this dismissive attitude overlooks more complex psychological and sociological issues behind the motivation towards participation in the Japanese Lolita movement. It also fails to recognise the subculture as a ‘transgressive model for representing female sexuality’ (Feldman 1996: 52).
As it is essentially a ‘feminine’ movement, the Lolita subculture is unique. What sets this phenomenon apart from the subcultural ‘model’ is that the face of the Lolita is paradigmatically female. Whilst, according to Dick Hebdige’s observation ‘girls have [in the past] been relegated to a position of secondary interest within both sociological and photographic studies of urban youth, and [that] masculine bias [has existed]… in the subcultures themselves’, the Japanese Lolita movement, as noted by Yuniya Kawamura (2007), is essentially a girls’ subculture (344), which may be understood in terms of a tribal empowerment against the so-called ‘Lolita Complex’, a term applied by sociologists in Japan to a ‘male desire for girlish women’ (Feldman 1996: 55).
How, though, does one battle against a paradigm of male dominance, female vulnerability and victimisation, from a position that appears to adopt the very construct that is being challenged? The Lolita, after all, in her embracement of frills and childish frippery, may lead one to suggest that her behavior is, in fact, frivolous and morally irresponsible. Herein lays the paradox. What is shocking about the Lolita subculture is exactly this: although many members (Japanese or otherwise) choose to deny any sexual connotations in regard to either their appearance or infantile habits, the Lolita’s adoption of a seemingly submissive, yet sexually provocative identity (even in the acceptance of the Lolita tag) is controversial and contentious, and therefore rebellious. Furthermore, the new Lolita reclaims her right to be feminine. She hijacks the male fantasy, turns it on its head, takes possession of and power over it, and escapes with it to her own realm, one that is instead controlled by a force of ‘girlish’ women. 
This chapter discusses the impetus for this Lolita phenomenon in Japan and its increasing relevance and importance for young women worldwide.
References:
Feldman, H. J. L. (1996), The Lolita Complex, World Art (Australia) 2, pp. 52 – 57
Kageyama, Y. (2006), Cute is King for the Youth of Japan but It's Only Skin Deep, The New Zealand Herald, Friday 16 June, p. B3
Kawamura, Y. (2007), Japanese Street Fashion: The Urge to be Seen and to be Heard, in Welters, L., and Lillethun, A. (eds), The Fashion Reader, Oxford and New York: Berg.

From its inception, the subcultural movement known as Gothic and Lolita has displayed an exchange of ideas between Japan and Euro-American cultures. More recently, however, the subculture has shifted, not only in regard to traditional meanings, and the way that it operates, but also geographically, into communities on the periphery of its original sites of major interest. In the past few years, Latin-American nations, particularly Mexico, have become conspicuous “hotspots” for participation in the movement. This transition raises questions about differing socio-politics and cultural understandings, particularly regarding gender.
As a girls’ subculture, Gothic and Lolita broke with historical, stereotypical frameworks that positioned subcultural movements from a male-dominated perspective. In Japan, it also demonstrated a resistance to established roles for, and expectations of, women. As such, it has been argued that the original Japanese Gothic and Lolita movement represented a new type of feminism. Over time, as the subculture transmigrated into other sites, especially the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and North-Western Europe, this context became less pertinent. However, the relatively recent growth of Gothic and Lolita communities in Mexico exhibits a new phase of the movement, which shakes up past meanings and understandings, yet again, especially in terms of gender politics.
How is gender understood within the Gothic and Lolita movement in a Mexican environment? What does this context mean to, and for, Mexican participants? How is the movement observed by friends, family, and outsiders? Why is this movement becoming prevalent in Mexico? How does it operate? Why does it resonate with participants? How is it relevant? And how is it transformed from its Japanese origins? As both an “insider” and “outsider” researcher of the Gothic and Lolita subcultural movement, this paper reveals some of the outcomes to these questions via a critical analysis of ethnographic studies undertaken with members of the movement in Mexico.

This thesis, completed for the award of Doctor of Philosophy in Visual and Material Culture, Ph.D., examines the development of the fashion-based Mexican Gothic and Lolita movement, and its evolution from its subcultural Japanese roots. It asks, “What are the cultural conditions that encourage this movement to flourish in the Mexican environment?” In turn, “What does Mexican culture contribute to Mexican Gothic and Lolita style?” And, “What does Mexican Gothic and Lolita style say about Mexican culture, society, and beliefs?”
The Gothic and Lolita movement is currently thriving in Mexico as an authentic, independent, creative, handmade fashion industry, yet to be co-opted into mainstream culture. With the do-it-yourself aspect of the movement comes its own, unique, cultural flavour. As such, it transforms and rearranges meanings of the original subcultural style in order to make new statements, which subvert the meanings, and understandings, of the Japanese Lolita identity. Analyses of Mexican Gothic and Lolita styles, in context with the Mexican environment, culture, and belief systems, as well as the operation of the do-it-yourself Mexican Gothic and Lolita industry, are major focal points of this study. Also investigated are the ways the movement reflects, fits into, and departs from, the philosophies of the original subculture, especially regarding sociocultural and gender politics. These latter aspects are critiqued in context with “normative” gender positions, roles and hierarchies, within mainstream Japanese and Mexican societies.

Note: This text is the final draft approved for publication. Link to the published version: https://www.bloomsburyfashioncentral.com/products/fashion-photography-archive/article/lolita DOI: 10.5040/9781474260428-FPA158.

"Launching in 2016, the Fashion Photography Archive is a fully searchable and meticulously indexed resource, containing over 600,000 high quality runway, backstage, and street style images that have never before been published online. The images are complemented by hundreds of articles, audio and video resources that provide context and analysis from expert scholars and commentators.

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This paper discusses how museums and galleries might positively engage with Asian audiences and bring Asian communities into the museum environment. Museums are cultural institutions that should reflect, preserve, interpret and promote cultural heritage and communities. In the local Acts of the four major metropolitan museums in New Zealand, there are specific requirements for these institutions to represent their communities’ ethnic diversities. New Zealand has become increasingly multicultural. According to New Zealand’s 2006 census, 17.8 percent of New Zealanders are of non-Pakeha, non-Maori ethnicity, and 22.9 percent were born outside New Zealand. With the growing number of Asians living in New Zealand, and in particular Auckland, a question may be raised as to whether local museums truly reflect and engage with these communities. Using the example of the exhibition Loli-Pop: A downtown Auckland view on Japanese street fashion as a case study (Auckland War Memorial Museum, 14 September – 26 November 2007), the authors explore how New Zealand museums and galleries can effectively reflect and communicate with Asian audiences through exhibition.

This exhibition, a collaboration between AUT University and Auckland Museum, explores street style in Japan, from the perspective of a New Zealand response to the Japanese phenomenon generally known as the Gothic & Lolita movement. The Gothic Lolita, or Loli-Goth, style is designated by fashions inspired by the Rococo, Romantic and Victorian periods. It is based on a particular notion of the Gothic, represented by historical mourning garb, maidservants’ wear, children’s dresses, and dolls’ clothes. The Loli-Goth thus demonstrates a predilection for bloomers, petticoats, pinafores, ribbons, ruffles, bonnets, lace headdresses, parasols, and Mary Jane shoes. The appearance, therefore, often evokes that of a Victorian doll.

Loli-Pop brings together the relationships between the Loli-Goth and popular culture, and the strong association of the Loli-Goth with the Doll, with a selection from curator Kathryn Hardy Bernal’s personal collection of Japanese Lolita dolls. This display is supported by the highlight of the show, five full-sized garments, designed and constructed by AUT University Fashion staff members, Angie Finn, Yvonne Stewart, Lize Niemczyk, Gabriella Trussardi, Kathryn Hardy Bernal and Carmel Donnelly, which demonstrate the designers’ own interpretations of Gothic & Lolita (specifically, Gothic Lolita, Sweet Lolita, Punk Lolita, Gothic Aristocrat and Country Lolita, respectively), inspired by Japanese street style. The exhibit is complimented by a backdrop of photographs that illustrate the impact of the outfits when worn, modelled by AUT University Bachelor of Fashion Design students, Emily Huang, Shangshang Cookie Wang, Emily Wang, Shiahug-Wen Sean Kuo and Yanling Wang. A visual framework is incorporated by two further photographic series, comprising shots taken on the street by Auckland Museum’s Bevan Chuang during a recent research trip to Tokyo with Kathryn Hardy Bernal, documenting current incarnations of Gothic & Lolita in Japan, which is supported by images of local Loli-Goths, contributing to the New Zealand context of the Exhibition.

The fashion style of the ‘Gothloli’ (Gosurori, Gosu-loli, or Gothic Lolita), a member of the contemporary ‘Lolita’ subculture, is inexorably bound to the archetypal ‘Alice’. Members of this movement dress in garments inspired by the Victorian age, whilst the silhouette is reminiscent, particularly, of Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s heroine, and defined by Walt Disney’s, Alice. Most often, the design is referential and, other times, the translation is more literal, whereby outfits may be decorated with Alice figures and motifs.
The Alice-Lolita image is prolific, especially in Japan. Here, the relationship between Alice and Lolita also appears in other areas of popular culture, such as shōjo graphic novels and anime, and in the art of Nori Tomizaki. In Tomizaki’s digital paintings and manipulated photographs of doll-like figures, or lifelike dolls, there is an emphasis on the Gothic, whereby Alice and the Gothloli are juxtaposed to represent the epitome of a sweet-but-scary little girl.
However, there may be more than a superficial connection between Alice and Lolita, in that, it may be argued, there is perhaps no coincidence that the author, Lewis Carroll, or Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (his true identity), is believed to have suffered from a syndrome known as the ‘Lolita Complex’, the condition that takes its name from the female protagonist of Vladimir Nabokov’s notorious novel, and is designated as an obsession with young girls. Though – whilst Carroll’s Alice stories, Nabokov’s Lolita, and Gothloli are similar, in the fact that they all serve to immortalise the Little Girl – the Lolita fashion style, formed in Alice’s image and bearing the title of the Nabokovian child, is determined to be neither directly, nor circumstantially, related to its namesake.
This chapter explores these intertextual relationships between Alice, Lolita and the Lolita fashion-based movement, and investigates the validity of the subculture’s identification with the Lolita Complex.

This paper investigates the concept of Gothic in regard to the contemporary Japanese Gothic & Lolita movement (G&L), specifically focussing on the cult of the Gothic Lolita, whilst querying the existence of an apparent distillation through the transmigration of Gothic sensibilities. The discussion revolves around the perceived watering-down effect of the Gothic via cross-cultural dissemination, its transformations through globalisation, and subsequent issues connected with 'authenticity'.
Comparisons are drawn between notions of the Gothic across Japan and the West, looking at the translation of ideas from Western to Eastern to Western expression, raising questions, in relation to this subculture, as to what can be defined as Gothic: 'What is the Gothic Lolita?'; 'What is Gothic about Lolita?'; and 'What is Lolita not?'.

The Japanese Gothic & Lolita movement (G&L), and particularly the fashion-based Lolita subculture, has become a worldwide phenomenon. Outside Japan, one of the greatest fan bases, perhaps its largest, is located in Mexico. This keynote presentation discusses the origins of this movement, how it has developed, its relationships with other elements of popular culture, such as music and anime, and its continual globalisation, whilst analysing motivations behind its ever-growing popularity.
Whilst G&L has become conspicuous internationally only in recent years, its ideas have been formulating in Japan from as far back as the 1970s, evolving from early Glam rock through to post-Punk, New Wave, New Romanticism and Goth. Stemming from these sensibilities, Lolita fashion emerged as an offshoot in the 1980s. Its members, so-called Lolita (Jap. Gosurori, Gosuloli, or Gothloli, Gothic Lolita), are the face of this Neo-Gothic subculture, whereby women are signified by their doll/child-like appearances. Though reasons for adopting this style vary, participants are vehemently dismissive of an assumed reference to Nabokov’s sexualised-child protagonist. The adoption of the name provokes further ramifications in connection with the 'Lolita Complex', a syndrome identified as an older man’s fascination with little girls. This paper will address these problematic issues, arguing that the Japanese Lolita not only rejects but defies these associations. In fact, this Lolita is a model for new feminism. This ideology is examined in context with other conflicting connotations and paradoxes, such as those that arise from terminology combining 'Lolita' with the 'Gothic'.

The fashion style of the Mexican Gothic Lolita represents a bricolage of hyperromantic elements often akin to the subcultural goth identity. It also resonates with its own, historical landscape, reflecting an eclectic fusion, stemming from local indigenous, colonial, and contemporary iconographies. The Mexican Lolita image is thus Gothic in the wider sense of the concept: While it shares twentieth-century Neo-Romantic aesthetics, derived from nineteenth-century Neo-Gothicism and Victorian mourning attire, it also harks back to the essence of Medieval Catholicism, in each case, transferred to Mexico via European colonization, and transformed through multi-cultural inter-textualization. Furthermore, Mexican society is framed by a native “cult of death,” celebrated during the Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a phenomenon that has arisen from Mexico’s unique form of religiosity, a syncretism of Aztec and Spanish Catholic beliefs, and another aspect that serves as a backdrop to the Mexican Gothic and Lolita subculture.
Connected with Mexico’s fervent spirituality, is the powerful symbol of the Divine Feminine. Representations of the Goddess figure – the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Lady of Sorrows – her Aztec equation, Tonantzin, and the Queen of the Underworld, Mictlancíhuatl – the skeletal Santa Muerte, Holy Death, and La Catrina Calavera – and Woman as Icon, Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Frida Kahlo – serve to venerate the feminine ideal as omnipresent in Mexican society. In everyday life, while it is said that the position of Mexican women is subordinate to men, paradoxically, it is also according to their female attributes that women gain power. Marianismo is a term for the worship of Woman as the ultimate mother, Our Mother, Mary, a powerful symbol in Mexico, as well as a motif for the Mexican Gothic Lolita identity.

Link: https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE35346381
From its inception, the subcultural movement known as Gothic and Lolita has displayed an exchange of ideas between Japan and Euro-American cultures. More recently, however, the subculture has shifted, not only regarding traditional meanings, and the way that it operates, but also geographically, into communities on the periphery of its original sites of major interest. In the past few years, Latin-American nations, particularly Mexico, have become conspicuous hotspots for participation in the movement. This transition raises questions about differing socio-politics and cultural understandings, particularly associated with gender.

As a girls’ subculture, Gothic and Lolita broke with historical, stereotypical frameworks that positioned subcultural movements from a male-dominated perspective. In Japan, it also demonstrated a resistance to established roles for, and expectations of, women. As such, it can be argued that the original Japanese Gothic and Lolita movement represented a new type of feminism. Over time, as the subculture transmigrated into other sites, especially the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and North-Western Europe, this context became less pertinent. However, the relatively recent growth of Gothic and Lolita communities in Mexico exhibits a new phase of the movement, which shakes up past meanings and understandings, yet again, especially in terms of gender politics.

How is gender understood within the Gothic and Lolita movement in a Mexican environment? Why is this movement becoming prevalent in Mexico? How does it operate? And how is it transformed from its Japanese origins? As both an “insider” and “outsider” researcher of the Gothic and Lolita subcultural movement, this paper reveals some of the outcomes to these questions via a critical analysis of ethnographic studies undertaken with members of the movement in Mexico.

'Identity is a performance of fantasy and desire – a pursuit of being and becoming the image of this desire' (Butler 1999: 5). In the world of the internet, this performance may be elevated, or exaggerated, often becoming pretence, as one’s identity is segregated from the physical body through imagery, text and intertextual relationships, allowing for the invention of a virtual self.
This paper examines the notion of constructed identity, using the example of the Japanese Gothic & Lolita subculture. In particular, it addresses the ways in which Gothloli, or members of the fashion-based Lolita movement, formulate images of their desired selves – whilst, in turn, establishing 'authentic' rules and regulations about behaviour and appearance – through online communities. Further, it explores how the dissemination of this information, via digital technologies such as the worldwide web, creates a globalising effect, contriving a typical, if not entirely homogenised, Lolita persona.
As an active participant in the wider global Lolita community, I receive knowledge through personal communications with members, in the real world and online. Whilst international Gothloli may be geographically separated from the Japanese phenomenon, they are united in virtual space. Affinity is created through social networking sites and blogs, whereby discussion also enables the growth of authoritative discourse. This form of interchange is particularly pertinent for Gothloli who live outside Japan, or other locations of congregation, whence real-life interactions are made impossible. 
As Gothloli often choose avatars, and or pseudonyms, and fake their ages, they may construct, and perform, fanciful identities based on desire. This also provides them with security, allowing them the freedom to dress up, and post images of themselves, in their often-fetishised, frilly fashions, whilst lessening the fear of those who may misinterpret their intentions, tracking them down in real life. As the Lolita phenomenon, not least because of its name, is commonly misunderstood – especially in relation to the 'Lolita Complex' and the sexualisation of the Gothloli image – a sense of solidarity, in protecting the 'virtue' of its members, becomes paramount amongst communities. The focus of this paper is to investigate the extent that online groups play in supporting the Japanese Lolita subculture as a women’s resistant youth movement.   
Reference
Butler, J. (1999), Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York: Routledge.

Classical ballet, which was first introduced to Japan in the early 1900s and popularized by Russian émigre ballerinas, has been an icon of romantic imagination in Japanese culture especially since the end of Second World War. This is particularly owing to the popularity of shōjo manga (girls’ comics). Its unofficial (sub)genre “ballet manga,” both shaped and reflected social and historical reality – from sparkling as a symbol of glamour and romantic dream in the precarious times of the after-war period to mediating the challenges of addressing feminine independence and psychological complexity in the 1970s onwards. This notably “feminine” emphasis of the art form, which corresponds with the female dominance in ballet learning in the country, poses a number of questions relating to ballet, fashion, and gender. What aspects of ballet have made it so admired in Japanese girls’ and women’s cultures? Does the art form infiltrate Japanese men’s and boys’ culture, too? If so, how? This chapter will attempt to answer these questions. I argue that not only fairy tale-like romantic narratives of ballet, but also conventional ballet costumes for females, which can be described as “the long white, bell-shaped dress made of layers of muslin, or a variety of muslin called tarlatan,” appeal to girls and women in contemporary Japan. The increasing attention paid to male learning of ballet, which coincides with emerging young ballet boys who achieve international fame, both corresponds with and problematizes a recent tendency in Anglophone culture to “masculinize” ballet in order to lure boys into learning the art form. Japanese stars of competitive figure skating, a close and sporty cousin of ballet with its combination of decorative outfits, artistry, and high level of athleticism, in turn, challenges the accusation that elegance “feminizes” and by implication devalues the seriousness and athleticism of the sport.

Play in kawaii (cute) fashion communities in Harajuku, Tokyo, enable women in Japan to seek new ways to live well together. Through whimsical imaginings and the creation of spectacular clothing, this community of women provides an instance of how we can pursue happiness in uncertain times. While kawaii fashion has captured the imagination of scholars worldwide, little is known about how participants experience their fashion making and creative life inside the community.  This paper explores how participants use their imagination and fashion making as a form of play. Winnicott’s (1971) concepts of play and the “not-me” can be used to explore the value of play to these participants and how it has the capacity to bring joy. Informed by close readings of interviews conducted with participants in 2014-2016, this study argues that play brings participants emotionally closer to their dreams of a fantastic other, or “not-me”, which represents a new potential for self.  This paper finds that social movements like kawaii fashion communities use play as a tool to help individuals negotiate their sense of self- who they are and who they wish to be.

What is the significance of place for Harajuku kawaii fashion communities?

Through media-based representations of the “Harajuku Girl,” our perceptions of kawaii fashion are now intertwined with our understanding of Harajuku as a space. However, Lolitas and other kawaii fashionistas are slowly leaving Harajuku. Why is this the case? And, where are they now? Using interviews with key style icons in the kawaii fashion community, this talk by Megan Catherine Rose will explore the significance of Harajuku to community members. It also offers new ways in which we can understand and appreciate the practices of the “Harajuku girl.”

This talk is part of the Tokyo FRUiTS event series, featuring talks, a film and an exhibition featuring an immersive installation of a Harajuku room, produced by Megan Rose.

... Cuteness in Japan Lolita Fashion has a surprisingly long history. Despite the change that has occurred since Lo-lita's first appearance in the late 1970s, certain elements remain intact: the clothes must draw Page 3. 99 J a p a n ...

To date kawaii (cute) culture, as it is performed by women in Japan, has been understood to be both a submissive and a subversive practice. This debate tends to frame kawaii texts as inherently infantile, and their use by women as either a form of submission to patriarchal forces, or as a mode of resistance to adult responsibilities.

Using an interpretivist lens, this paper seeks to complicate this understanding of kawaii texts through the use of emerging research into cuteness, affect, and play; and Takahara Eiri and Honda Masuko's conceptualisation of "the girl". Using Takahara and Honda's theory, this paper proposes that girlishness in the Japanese context: Places emphasis on affect; Is characterised by a longing to become like that which the individual adores and; Involves "radical self interest".

Drawing upon 20 qualitative interviews with female-identifying kawaii fashion practitioners in Tokyo, this paper examines how kawaii culture is understood by alternative communities in Japan. For the purpose of this paper, kawaii fashion is defined as clothing that is typically associated with the Harajuku scene, consisting of styles such as Lolita fashion, Decora fashion, Fairy kei and Hime fashion. Practitioners assemble outfits that draw upon both conventional and unconventional feminine texts to create looks that are bold, girly, and creative. Practitioners experience kawaii to be joyful, creative and exciting and that kawaii objects were used to contemplate new potentials for the self. These new potentials were guided by an underpinning wish to be seen as adorable and loveable by others, and thus the usage of fantastic feminine texts, such as princesses or dolls, complicates readings of this community as a subversion of gender norms.  This instance presents a complex instance of the shifting relationships between femininity and feminist practice.

From colourful decora to neo-goths and cyber-punks, influential street fashion publication FRUiTS Magazine told stories from Harajuku, the creative centre of Tokyo fashion, for over twenty years.

The Tokyo FRUiTS exhibition will map the myriad of trends and multiple identities of Tokyo fashion, through a selection of photographs from the publication. The exhibition will also feature an immersive installation of a Harajuku room, produced by researcher Megan Rose.

Developed in 1997 in response to Harajuku’s bourgeoning experimental street fashion boom, FRUiTs magazine (led by photographer Shoichi Aoki) documented the colourful characters that defined the creative and fun identity of Tokyo’s youth culture.

Twenty years on, the palette of street fashion has evolved to a simpler aesthetic, with a stronger Western influence, and the FRUiTs publication drew to a close. This exhibition traces the movement from Decora girl gangs, Lolita, and Urahara kei, through to the more recent trends of Neo Gyaru, Nu Goth, and the Simple Boom.

Kawaii (cute) fashion communities in Harajuku, Tokyo, offer a unique opportunity to explore the role affect and emotion plays in the interactions inside Japanese women's subcultures. By constructing and dreaming their own play spaces, which are inspired by occidental fantasies, these participants offer an interesting perspective on how different modes of belonging are characterized by global flows. In current post-subcultural studies (for example, see) subcultures are examined as systems and experiences of resistance in a structuralist sense. This tends to miss the subjective experiences of participants and has led to the marginalization of women's groups that operate outside of these themes This paper seeks to address this oversight by offering an approach to studying communities that values alternative ways of being, with a particular emphasis on emotion and affect. Inspired by Frank's (2010) notion of the dialogical and Winnicott's (1971) work on creativity, this study utilizes close readings of interviews with Japanese participants and participant observation in Harajuku to explore affectual experiences inside the fashion community. This paper explores how feelings of love and dreams of the occident, not resistance, operate as a primary force that contributes to the formation of this grouping as a community.