Gothic Lolita

Lolita fashion is a fashion subculture originating in Japan that is based on Victorian clothing as well as costumes from the Rococo period. The Lolita look is one of modesty with a focus on quality in both material and manufacture of garments. The silhouette is of a knee length skirt or dress with a 'cupcake' shape assisted by petticoats. Blouses, knee high socks or stockings and headdresses are also worn. Lolita fashion has evolved into several different sub styles and has a subculture that is present in many parts of the world.

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 Pretty (later known as Angelic Pretty) began selling clothes that would be considered "Lolita" by today's standards.


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.

In Lolita fashion, it is generally accepted that "Lolita" does not refer to Vladimir Nabokov's novel. In the context of fashion, the term 'Lolita' does not relate to sex.

The fashion was thought to have been partly created to react against the growing exposure of the body and skin in today's society, specifically in regard to young women. Adherants fight the current fashion with modesty presenting themselves as "cute" or "elegant" rather than "sexy".



One follower of the Gothic Lolita fashion explained:

We certainly do not do this for the attention of men. Frequently, female sexuality is portrayed in a way that is palatable and accessible to men, and anything outside of that is intimidating. Something so unabashedly female is ultimately kind of scary—in fact, I consider it to be pretty confrontational. Dressing this way takes a certain kind of ownership of one’s own sexuality that wearing expected or regular things just does not. It doesn’t take a lot of moxie to put on a pencil skirt and flats. It’s not, as some commentators have suggested, some sort of appeal to men’s expectation that women should be childlike, or an attempt to pander to pedophiles. Pedophiles like little girls. They don’t like grown women who happen to like dresses with cakes on them. I’ve never been hit on by a pedophile while in Lolita. We don’t get into it because it is some sort of misplaced pedo complex or anything, and the objective isn’t simply to emulate little girls, despite the name Lolita.