Lolita Fashion History: Summarized

If you wander around Japan’s “Harajuku district” (an area in Tokyo around the Harajuku station), you’ll find the scenery overtaken by school age Japanese girls (and boys!) in very strange, expressive fashions. Ranging from gothic, to cyber, to Lolita, to nazi uniforms, this bizarre unofficial display is the birthplace for many fashions and where Lolita first took it’s first foothold.

No one can tell you exactly where it began--more than likely in the 70s with the designer Pink House selling super-frilly clothes that fit today's standards for lolita. It took off when Visual Kei (literally visual style) rockers began dressing in elaborate (and sometimes crazy!) costumes, popularizing the lolita fashion.

Since then, it's almost mainstream in Japan. Sadly, America's fan base is a little thin, but growing! ;D

Expanded History Of Lolita

Lolita history isn't an easy thing to pinpoint, since no one really knows where it came from. It's commonly accepted that it started as Japanese street fashion; though for all the world knows, the inventor was Al Gore! (but highly unlikely.)

Whenever it first appeared, it's been around since as early as the late 70's (in other words, it's old news but still popular in Japan) rather than the common misconception that lolita is a recent invention. Pink House is credited as the first lolita shop, releasing a line of loli in 1979. Unfortunately, Pink House no longer sells clothing that is truly lolita (they still have some pretty cute stuff though...)

Kids in super fashion hot spots like the Harajuku began to dress up as lolitas here and there, just like their punk and goth alternative fashion sisters enjoyed their outlandish costumes--but in small numbers. Lolita-chan didn't really become a commonality until at least the 90s.

Mana

In 1982, Mana joined a band called Malice Mizer (mah-ree-su mee-zeh-ru in Japanese, but just say it in English if it’s easier—really) as a guitarist. He and his group of gender-bending homosexuals were part of a visual kei (literally ‘visual style’) movement in the Japanese rock scene (Jrock). Malice Mizer was disbanded in 2001, but not before a fair amount of success struck the band and consequently Mana, an interesting character all in himself.

Initially Mana dressed as any goth queen would, but eventually took on straight gothic lolita. In 1999 he started his own line of clothing, Moi-même-Moitié (French “myself – half”) based solely in Japan. He added ‘elegant’ to his new favorite fashion, thereby coining the term “Elegant Gothic Lolita.”

Today, Moi-même-Moitié (often shorted 'Moitie') still exists and is considered elitist as it’s difficult to attain.

While Mana himself did not create the lolita fashion, his participation was crucial in the promotion there of. I have no doubt lolita would have never achieved it’s popularity without his example.

Gothic & Lolita Bible

The Gothic & Lolita Bible (GLB) is another essential piece in lolita’s growing popularity. Index Communications, the publisher responsible for Kera—a magazine covering all Japanese street fashions—created the GLB as a subset covering only two styles: gothic and lolita. Keep in mind that it is gothic AND lolita, not gothic lolita. A small portion of the magazine is dedicated to Victorian goth (similar to but certainly not identical to the American goth scene) however, most of the magazine is lolita.

First published in Japan in February of 2001, (and in America in February of 2008) the Gothic & Lolita Bible became a must-have for any real lolita and perpetuated the fashion. As this publication continues to increase awareness while simultaneously keeping established lolis interested, it seems unlikely the fashion will ever die out.

Not only does this mook (magazine and book hybrid) help spread knowledge of the lolita fashion, it influences it with it's coverage.