BY: STEFANIE PHILLIPS
A group of women out for tea at a restaurant catch your eye. It’s not because they were talking loudly or because you’re creeping. It’s because they’re all dressed in modest-length, tulle-stuffed skirts with lace corsets. Their hair is long and thick, and their cheeks are rosy from excessive blush. Some of them are wearing bonnets, others giant bows, and all of them are carrying Kawaii accessories. It’s all very Victorian feminine meets Harajuku Girl circa Gwen Stefani 2004.
The Reddit page characterizes the style as “full, knee-length skirts and an overall feeling of elegance.”
Photo By: Tony Tsai
They’re Lolitas, and they’re probably meeting for the first time. The recent spread of the Reddit forum r/Lolita is allowing them to connect, giving them a chance to meet and go out with people who share the same passion for their choice in fashion.
The style is further divided into three main sub styles: Gothic, Classic and Sweet, each with their its take on the original Lolita look.
Photo By: kawaiibuk.blogspot.ca
In both stages, the Lolita look drags cute and child-like into a person’s adult years.
Photo By: Tokyo Street Snaps
Photo By: asianbeat.com
Lolita is a Japanese street style with its origin in Harajuku. It’s influenced by the cute silhouette of the 1950s, the elegance of the Victorian era and the decadence of the Rococo era. The Reddit page characterizes the style as “full, knee-length skirts and an overall feeling of elegance.” The style is further divided into three main sub styles: Gothic, Classic and Sweet, each with its own take on the original Lolita look.
According to the Lolita blog F Yeah Lolita, the earliest sightings of the style can be found in the late-’90s issues of Fruits Magazine, but it hasn’t always been as “complicated and colourful” as it is now.
Photo by: Fruits Magazine
According to the Lolita blog F Yeah Lolita, the earliest sightings of the style can be found in the late-’90s issues of Fruits Magazine, but it hasn’t always been as “complicated and colourful” as it is now. The ’90s Lolita used clunky shoes, poofy skirts and collard blouses to create their look, but today’s Lolita has a more defined appearance and waist-cinching silhouette. In both stages, the Lolita look drags cute and child-like into a person’s adult years.
That’s where things get weird. See, there’s this early 20th-century novel by Vladimir Nabokov about a 37 or 38-year-old professor who is obsessed, and later becomes sexually involved, with a 12-year-old girl. And that book is called Lolita. Lolita is also the name of the little girl in the novel being thought about by this pervy protagonist. Even though the street style swears up and down not to be connected to the novel—or its controversial subject matter—in any way, people still draw the connection. Efforts have been made to change the name but nothing else has stuck.
That doesn’t seem to be stopping the 3,185 r/Lolita page subscribers, and the hundreds more on YouTube, from finding each other and growing the group in popularity.
Photo By: Gravelvet
The most recent r/Lolita meet-up took place in Scotland at an old Victorian school turned museum. You can watch the video here. Meet-ups like this happen all the time and all over the world. Last year there was one in Vancouver, and another in East Hampton, NY. In both locations, the ladies went out for tea.
Image source: connect.ecuad.ca, blogspot.ca, asianbeat.com, tokyofashion.com
