Sexy 'Gothic Lolita' fashion

ゴスロリ

If fashion and ideas of style rule anywhere, they rule in Japan. The group mentality, the sense of high drama (or, if you like, hamminess!) that infuses life here, and, most of all, the dedication to looking good, or in Japanese kakko, means spending on clothes and accessories is very high on the list of most people's priorities.

The highest compliment you can ever pay a Japanese is to say they are 'kakko-ii' ('stylish', 'smart', 'trendy', 'sharp', etc), and unless you have something close to a death wish, never let its opposite 'kakko-warui' ever escape your lips.

Like everything, however, style has its tribes, and, again, perhaps nowhere more than in Japan. One you can see almost any day of the week, in any part of Japan - not in great numbers, but here and there if you stay on the lookout - are the gaudy, frilly Victorian 'Little Bo Peep' maids, or, in the Japanese vernacular 'gosuloli', short for goshikku loliita - a transliteration of Gothic Lolita.

Everyone knows Vladimir Nabokov's 'Lolita', the story of a middle-aged man with an overwhelming passion for an underage girl. Add to this hint of forbidden sex a dash of full-on gothic underground, and there you have it - the Gothic Lolita!

The lacy bonnet, or even skimpier headdress, the ribbons, the curls, the bodices pulled extra tight at the waist, the pink and white floweriness, the ballooning skirts, the knee socks with gaiters, the pure white little pumps, and the handbags that look like one of granny's cushions - they're the basics.

I was in Ryogoku a weekend or two ago, home to one of Tokyo's biggest stadiums, the Kokugikan. Not only is it where the sumo championships are held, but it is also a popular concert venue.

Something gothy must have been playing, because girls like the ones pictured here were assembled in their thousands. As you can see from the top photo, the Lolita cutsiness was balanced by the harder, darker gothic look, too.

Perhaps, strangely, a look that in the West that conjures up sex and is considered inherently kinky, with distinct bondage and discipline overtones, does not really seem intended by these girls for the boys so much as for each other.

Whatever the motivation, and whoever the spectator, the sight of a Japanese girl dolled out so makes for titillating eye-candy, adding a spectacular splash of color and a burst of undeniable 'style' in Japan's human landscape.


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