Lolita is a Japanese fashion based subculture that came into life after Year 24 Group revolutionized shōjo-manga in the 1970s. Year 24 Group actually consists of ten female manga artists who were born around Shōwa 24, which is the year 1949 on the Gregorian calendar. They didn't call themselves Year 24 Group, but the name was used by academics, critics and journalists in the 70s. These women told stories about psychology, gender, politics and sexuality, and drew inspiration from European literature, Western cinema and American rock and roll culture. They also used writing conventions that can be found in bildungsromans. Besides that, these mangaka also played around with the panels. Instead of having them just be rectangles lined up from right to left they changed the shapes and sizes to convey emotion on each page.
 |
| Gothic & Lolita Bible Vol. 13 with a cover by Riyoko Ikeda (courtesy of Internet Archive) |
With these artists introducing this romanticized idea of Europe from centuries ago they also inspired Japanese fashion designers in the 1980s by popularizing Neo-romanticistic fashion from Gunne Sax and Laura Ashley in Japan. These designers include the DC-brands (Designer & Characters brands fully express the individuality of its designers which boomed as Japan's economy grew) Pink House (1973) and Milk (1970), which had a different start than what they are known for today. Before the 1980s the designer of Milk, Hitomi Ōkawa, was mostly know for her edgy yet cute designs that were inspired by the punk scene in London. Even David Bowie and Vivienne Westwood visited her small shop in Tokyo. Her cute designs call back to French public schools or lycées, the European countryside and fairytales. This is what also inspired the designer of Pink House, Isao Kaneko, but he added more lace and frills to his garments. Their looks were mostly featured in a "magazine for romantic girls" called Olive (female focused counterpart of Popeye), their readers referred to themselves as "Olive girls," and "a magazine for independent girls" called CUTiE, who called their readers "cuties."
 |
| Pink House in the 80s (courtesy of WALL on Fashionsnap) |
Vivienne Westwood actually did play a big role in defining the Lolita silhouette we know today. With her 1985 Mini Crini collection for spring/summer 1985 she declared her love for feminine power combining it with elements of historical dress. The designer took the idea of emphasizing broad shoulders, which was very popular then with the power suit, and flipped it upside down by drawing attention to small waists with a small cheekily sexual crinoline: the Mini Crini. The masculine big shoulders were killed by bringing them back to normal proportions by utilizing English tailoring techniques, including princess panel lines. Vivienne Westwood wanted the playfully swinging movement of the Mini Crini to really stand out so she designed the Rocking Horse Shoes. These shoes are a combination of ballerina shoes (poise) and okobo (elevation), and those are traditional Japanese wooden thong platform shoes worn by geishas. And with their rounded soles they nicely rock along as you walk. This enhanced the Mini Crini's swaying and swinging. These two pieces are still iconic in Lolita fashion nowadays. The Mini Crini laid the basis for the silhouette we nowadays refer to as ultimately Lolita. And Japanese fashionista's fell in love with the Rocking Horse Shoes because they combined tradition and modernity perfectly with elegance and a punk spirit.
 |
| Vivienne Westwood's design for Sindy's 30th birthday, London 1991 (courtesy of Sindy) |
 |
| Cara Delevingne photographed by Adam Fletcher for i-D, 2013 (courtesy of i-D) |
Vivienne Westwood's collections influenced Japanese designers which would come out with some similar pieces at the time. Japanese fashionista's would usually get these pieces second hand or would try and make them by hand following the punk spirit of D.I.Y. One of these people was the designer of Physical Drop, Kuniko Kato, who actually founded Manefest Ange Métamorphose Temps de Fille in 1993 (she changed it to Métamorphose Temps de Fille in 2000 and to Métamorphose in 2002). During her studies she'd make Lolita pieces and sell them to other girls around her age. That same year CUTiE did a spread on the fashion: "Born to be Lolita! - Let's go with Lolita" Here they described this new look as cute, lovely and sexy. The spread shares what three "neo-Lolitas" would wear: Molly Ringwald from Pretty in Pink (included an outfit with a pink Vivienne Westwood corset in sateen from her 1991 collaboration with Sindy as worn by Sarah Stockbridge), Jane March from The Lover (1992) and Susan George from Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. After this there's another spread on what pieces can be defined as perfect Lolita fashion in "blue tone", "pink tone" and "monotone." This included a lot of garments with lots of lace detailing since that was another topic in the issue.
 |
| CUTiE Vol. 41 (courtesy of Fashion Fan on Yahoo! Auctions) |
 |
| CUTiE Vol. 41 (courtesy of Fashion Fan on Yahoo! Auctions) |
So since the early 1990s the style was branded as Lolita. Nowadays most people in the Lolita subculture will call it "EGL" or "Elegant Gothic Lolita" after Mana-sama's slogan for his brand Moi-Même-Moitié: Elegant Gothic Lolita Aristocrat Vampire Romance. Even though I understand, I personally do not agree in doing so. Of course, one of the main reasons is that the style is not limited to gothic. And not only is using this vernacular linked to a specific brand, but is it also simply insulting to the fashion itself. This means that people who do so haven't bothered to properly understand it. And that wouldn't be a big deal if these people weren't trying to change it unnecessarily. First and foremost it is very important to understand that this subculture comes from a country with a different language and, of course, a completely different culture. So when the book Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov was translated to Japanese in 1959 it was heavily censored causing people to misunderstand what the story was about. Even with the film adaption by Stanley Kubrick in 1962 many innuendo's and the sardonic sense of humor went over the Japanese public's heads.
With Year 24 Group's revitalization of shōjo-manga, stories about young women became very popular with almost every age group. The female protagonists in these stories were referred to as Lolita's or bishōjo (English: beautiful girls) because they thought they were similar: beautiful, young, innocent girls going through hardships whilst coming of age but still staying true to themselves by being childish and cute. Nowadays these characters are only referred to as bishōjo. This change happened after Adrian Lyne's film adaptation of Nabokov's book Lolita, which released in 1999 in Japan, and the new translation of the novel in 2005. That's when the entire Japanese nation started putting two and two together. The mainstream use of Lolita for these characters started to die out, because it was obvious how inappropriate it was.
However, the subculture did keep its name. This is because it's the main word for it and not used as a synonym for another word. Besides that, by the late 1990s Lolita had properly grown into a subculture. It got its own magazine focused on what people in the subculture like to do and featured sewing patterns so readers could make their own clothes, with Gothic & Lolita Bible being the most iconic one. It even gained a masculine counterpart with what is commonly referred to as Ōuji (English: prince). I like to compare it to the Bills, which is a Congolese subculture from the late 1950s that drew inspiration from Buffalo Bill as portrayed in Western movies. They only knew Buffalo Bill as a character from these films, and I like to think they didn't really care about other people with the same name as Bill that might give these Bills a bad name, like Bill Cosby or Bill Clinton. To quote another Bill: "What's in a name?" We give meaning to words, so to someone who partakes in Lolita it means beautiful garments inspired by historical dress with a punk spirit.
.jpg)
loved this post. as someone who got into lolita around 2008 during the days of egl livejournal, north american lolita’s especially were hell bent on distancing themselves from the novel in a really extreme way. and the irony is, yes it has to do with the book when it comes down to it. as you have outlined in your research, it’s just in a kind of culturally vague way.
ReplyDeleteDear Ash, thank you for your comment. I'm so happy you loved this article. It really means a lot to me!
Delete