Frill Cathedral

As the popularity of visual-kei bands gained momentum-producing a new crop of influential stars—so did the need for a magazine that reflected the culture and fashion that was a world apart from the commercial market prevalent at the time. Gothic & Lolita Bible was launched in 2000 initially as a special issue of KERA, and it was the first magazine dedicated to this intermingling of Gothic and Lolita styles, as well as Lolita fashion itself. Its regular features included photographs of Mana (the performer/musician credited with first combining the Goth and Lolita styles), articles on Goth style history and Goth-Loli hair and makeup tips, and clothes from brands such as Metamorphose temps de fille, Victorian maiden, and Black Peace Now.

KERA Maniax was launched in 2003 with a focus on even darker clothing and international style points and references, such as features on the life and art of Lewis Carroll, Japanese ball-joint dolls, or interviews with icons like Courtney Love (a KERA Maniax reader and fan). But somehow, KERA Maniax's covers still manage to make dark and Gothic look cute.

Page 139

Pages 138-139: 2007 issues of KERA, KERA Maniax, and Gothic & Lolita Bible.

Opposite: "Flower Fairies" make the Goth Loli scene (top); More KERA, including covers playing on Vivienne Westwood's penchant for pirate gear; and the October, 2003 issue of featuring Amy Lee from Evanescence on the cover (bottom right).

This page: KERA Maniax cover models Anna Tsuchiya (top left) and Kyoko Fukuda (bottom right) from the film Kamikaze Girls, Gothic & Lolita Bible covers featuring illustrations from popular manga (top right); and the 1998 debut issue of Kerouac, featuring the sell-copy “For Excentric Boys and Girls" (bottom left).

Page 134-137

Gothic Lolita, Visual-Kei

First Kansai then the World (via Harajuku)

by Mariko Suzuki

As can be seen in America, where the difference between the East and West Coasts is reflected in the fashions of New York and Los Angeles, Japan also has a marked difference between east and west. Osaka, in Japan's west, has traditionally held a predilection for strength and individuality of style, whereas Tokyo, in Japan's east, leans more toward sophistication. Long, long ago, during the Edo period (1603-1867), the expression iki was used to describe stylish and cool things. In Osaka, someone iki wore brashly patterned kimonos that caught the eye. Tokyoites, however, looked down on these showy effects. For them, a palette of plain-colored outer layers, with only glimpses of a more elaborate inner lining, was considered stylish. Of course, that was a time when everyone in Japan wore kimonos.

These days most Japanese don Western clothing. This is only one of the numerous changes to Japanese culture since the Meiji era (1868- 1912), when Japan first opened its doors to Western influences. In the sixty years since the end of World War II, Japanese designers have consistently copied Western-style clothing, leading to what has developed into an original Japanese look. However, historic regional differences of opinion about fashion that predate the Meiji era continue.

Interestingly, the more famous of these Western- style Japanese clothing designers have hailed from the Osaka region. Osaka, with its penchant for a powerful and conspicuous style, nurtures creativity. The now well-known Gothic and Lolita (Goth-Loli) style began in the creative environment around Osaka (i.e., Osaka and Kobe). Hereafter, I shall follow custom in Japan and refer to these Osaka regional designers collectively as Kansai designers. These Kansai creative types made clothes that were definitely unusual and challenged conventional thinking— "Where would I even wear this? Is this for everyday, or for the stage?"

Famous early Kansai designers include Kazuko Ogawa, Marble/ Visible (known for Goth-Loli clothing with a modernized take on Victorian-era princess sleeves), and alice auaa (known for their signature ripped-gauze clothing -probably more Gothic- inspired than Goth-Loli). Later, in 1999, Victorian maiden attracted notoriety for their twenty casket-shaped "beds." Each of these Gothic-style brands was born in Kansai.

Soon, flamboyant Osaka-based bands, though all male, began to wear what were intended as the women's version of the Goth-Loli style. This visual-kei (meaning "Japanese visual music style") placed great importance on the gorgeous spectacle created onstage, a performance with some similarity to traditional Kabuki, where all the roles - both male and female - are played by men. The fans copied, wearing these romantic yet classic designs out and about, on the streets.

One popular band, Malice Mizer, inspired many such young female fans. The original lead musician, Mana (guitar and synthesizer), wore Goth-Loli clothing by Kazuko Ogawa and appeared frequently in magazines and on television. Not only did fans copy his clothes, they mimicked his every word and gesture, adopting his air of gentility. Mana was the Goth-Loli fashion world's leader. In late 1995, the band added the lithe, tall, fine-featured singer Gackt, who became a heartthrob for girls and boys alike and launched the band to national fame-helping to bring Goth-Loli to all of Japan.

By 1997 the first signs of a Gothic trend in America began to infiltrate Japan. Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar became a hit, and Manson toured in Japan for the first time. In 1998, Madonna released her single "Frozen," and in the video (directed by the visionary Chris Cunningham) she donned dark Gothic clothing before transforming into a flock of black crows. Meanwhile, in Europe, Jean Paul Gaultier was announcing his new Gothic line of clothing. But Japan's Gothic fashion was clearly different.

In the West, bondage was a central theme to the Gothic style, and sexy clothes were dominant. Japan's Gothic style tended to the opposite. Abstinence, girlishness, and virginity were prominent themes. Girls covered up so very little skin was left exposed, and wore lace and other frilly material almost to excess. They covered their legs with knee-high socks and wore Odeko shoes, characterized by a prominent rounded toe, rather than high heels. It has been suggested that this style came from copying jumeau, antique French and European dolls.

関西方面のクリエイター達は、 「こんなのどこに着るの?」「これ舞台用の 服なの?」と思うような、 「フツーじゃない服」を作るパワーがあるのです。

Although this Japanese look is now known as Goth-Loli, that term did not become popular until around the end of 1999 or 2000. It's not clear who came up with this moniker. Perhaps it began in a small Western-style clothes shop in Osaka and was taken up by other clothiers to describe this new look as "Gothic and Lolita-like." In Tokyo, the Goth-Loli trend first appeared in Harajuku, popularized by the many young girls who gathered next to Harajuku station on Jingu-bashi each Sunday for Hokoten, a weekly event where "visual-style" bands performed.

These Goth-Loli girls were photographed in the fashion magazine KERA, at which I worked as editor-in- chief. KERA started out in 1998 as a publication that aimed to introduce the richly individualistic fashions seen in Harajuku. Each month we spent ten days gathering images and information on the latest fashion trends. We noticed this movement growing bigger, so in December 2000 we published the "Gothic & Lolita Bible" as a KERA special issue. It became a huge hit, beyond our expectations, and sold out in three days. Eventually the trend made its way overseas, where it gained a following, and the expression "Gothic & Lolita" (or Goth-Loli for short) went on to become a byword not only domestically but internationally, particularly with the anime crowds and the cosplay (costume-play) set.

Around this same time, designers in Tokyo began to produce Goth-Loli clothes. Mana started his own brand, Moi-même-Moitié, in 1999, and in 2000 the brand h.NAOTO launched. h.NAOTO was the first Gothic brand able to expand nationwide. It started out as part of the company S-inc., which already had success with another brand and had outlets established across the country. The designer, Naoto Hirooka, was from Kansai and studied Western clothing design in Tokyo before he joined S-inc. Having worked his way up in the company, learning everything from the basics of making clothes to sales, he was noticed by the president. It was the president's support that gave Hirooka his start. Hirooka, like many other designers, admired and took inspiration from the powerful statements of Comme des Garçons. He was very talented, and produced designs in, but also beyond, the Goth-Loli style. Soon his clothes became internationally famous.

KERA was the first magazine to introduce this label and was inundated with phone calls asking where these clothes could be sourced. Because there were shops all over Japan where one could buy h.NAOTO clothing, and because the flamboyant band members inspired so many followers, Gothic clothes began to fly off the shelves all over the country. (There are currently five h.NAOTO stores in Harajuku alone and fourteen nationwide.) Not only were top Japanese musicians like Gackt and Hyde wearing h.NAOTO clothes, its reputation had even spread overseas, where famous musicians like Marilyn Manson were fans. Whenever Manson came to Japan he always stopped by the store. Amy Lee of the band Evanescence wore h.NAOTO clothing at a party after she won a Grammy, photographs of which were seen worldwide. H.NAOTO was not the only important Goth-Loli label. Around 2000, in Harajuku, the SEX POT ReVeNGe brand started. Then, Hide and Taka, a designer duo, launched a popular line of T-shirts that had been spotted with dye and bleach and featured rebellious messages in Japanese. This heralded the arrival of Gothic & Punk, a sort of dirty and foul-mouthed addition to Gothic style. This punkish fad was fostered and spread by street kids who soon began setting up small shops in the backstreets of Harajuku.

Established Tokyo-based clothing companies jumped on the bandwagon and began to launch their own Gothic brands, such as Black Peace Now and Algonquins, to sell nationwide. With their experienced staff and larger factories, they made solid clothes of good quality, and with stores throughout Japan, it was easy for them to market their clothes. Although not strictly a Goth-Loli brand, Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, which started in 1989, was definitely Lolita: its fairytale-like clothes were a riot of pinks, light blues, whites, and other pastels rather than Gothic black. In the 2004 movie Kamikaze Girls, actress Kyoko Fukada wore the brand's clothes in every scene, raising awareness of the brand and the Lolita style and increasing its fan base.

Today, for the magazine KERA Maniax, I travel throughout the West, to America, the U.K., France, Germany, and Amsterdam, shooting pictures of people who embody the Gothic style. These fashion movements-Gothic, Goth-Lolita, and Lolita are no longer just a Kansai or Harajuku phenomenon. So, the gothic movement that began in Japan in 1997 and spread with the publication of the Gothic & Lolita Bible has influenced style all over the world. I am often told by women who copy the Goth-Loli style, "Although we are imitating Japanese style we aren't as stylish as Japanese girls," even though originally the whole fashion trend was based on a Japanese longing for a European style. For us Japanese, while we might be happy to hear this, it's also slightly embarrassing.

INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS

With technology and the Internet, it is not difficult to diffuse fashion world­ wide. Teens create Web sites promoting, chatting, and exchanging information about their favorite fashions. It is not surprising that some of the Japanese street styles have migrated to the streets of New York City. In addition to manga, anime, sushi, and other cultural objects, Japan is attempting to pro­mote the latest street fashion and is setting new fashion tastes.

Many Lolita followers who were not familiar with Japanese culture are fas­cinated by the Lolita image and fashion. The Internet has undoubtedly been the key tool that helps followers find information about Japanese Lolita la­bels, events, auctions, and chat rooms. Many are initially influenced by manga and anime.

A 22-year-old Italian Lolita who has been wearing Lolita since 2006 said, "The first time I found Lolita was on the Internet. I was looking for an image of a manga that I was reading. Then I started to get more information about this subculture, and I found an Italian forum about Lolita (gothiclolita.forum­ community.net)." An American Lolita told me, "I went to a Japanese bookstore with my friends and found Gothic and Lolita Bible and fell in love with it. Then I started to Google to get more information on the Internet." These young women find sufficient information online about Japanese Lolita brands that they want to wear. They are familiar with the well-known Lolita brands, such as Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, Metamorphose, and Angelic Pretty.

The Italian Lolita girl continued, "My favorite brand is Alice and the Pi­ rates, but I love Innocent World and Mary Magdalene, too. Usually I buy them through international online shops, but sometimes I also buy secondhand through European Lolita girls. I can buy them in Italy, too, but there are few shops that carry them, and their prices are really high, usually three or four times the original price in Japan so I prefer to buy them online." Lolita clothes are rather expensive, and this is probably one of the reasons that many of the followers of this style sew their own clothes.

As indicated in chapter 5, "Harajuku: The Youth in Silent Rebellion," it is not only the look that Lolita adopt but also a lifestyle. Lolita girls like to or­ganize tea parties, so they often find their friends on Internet chat rooms or on social networking sites and get together at the parties. There is a large U.S. Lolita community on Live Journal (www.livejournal.com), a popular social networking site, and it is subdivided into smaller communities with specific Lolita interests, such as Lolita Housewife, Princess Lolita, Loli Graphics, Lolita Indies, and Lolita Pattern Swap. There is a Lolita community in almost every state in the United States. One of the largest Lolita communities on Live Jour­nal writes:

Welcome to The Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL) Community! Please make sure and understand all the rules before posting! Our mission is to help others share, grow, and learn in the Gothic Lolita fashion. The community discussions focus on Japa­nese Gothic Lolita fashion and its manifestations the world over. We hope you will enjoy browsing our community!

The community has monthly themes. For example, the theme for October is "Lolita and Literature." Participants can share their own writings, or they can post an outfit inspired by their favorite novel.

INSTITUTIONAL EFFORTS

The Japanese government systematically and collaboratively attempts to pro­mote a wider range of Japanese popular culture. Consumers in the West take interest in Japanese subcultures and their stylistic expressions initially through anime and manga. Japanese fashion magazines are popular in East and Southeast Asia but not in Europe or the United States. Although there are Chinese versions of Japanese street fashion magazines, such as Popteen, S-Cawaii, mina, Vivi, and Ray, there are no English versions of them, which in­dicates the geographical limitation of Japan's fashion expansion.

There are several institutional efforts to spread Japanese Lolita worldwide since it appears to be one of the most well-known Japanese subcultures over­seas. The Japanese government and both commercial and nonprofit organizations realize that there is significant commercial potential to Lolita style. In March 2009, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed three Kawaii (cute) Ambassa­dors: Shizuka Fujioka, Yu Kimura, and Misako Aoki. They went around the world promoting Japanese Kawaii culture. According to the press release issued by the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2009),

The main mission of the three ambassadors is to transmit the new trends of Japanese pop culture in the field of fashion to the rest of the world and to pro­mote understanding of Japan by their attending cultural projects carried out by the Japanese Embassies and the Japan Foundation. Pop culture, including fashion, is an integral part of today's Japanese culture. It enjoys worldwide popularity and we witness that such people are ever-increasing. Pop culture is expected to help the people of the world have more chances to know about contemporary Japan, hand-in-hand with other traditional and contemporary cultures.

Fujioka gave a lecture on Japanese fashion at the Japan Festa in Bangkok in March 2009. Aoki, who is a Lolita model for two major magazines, Gothic and Lolita Bible and Kera!, went to the Japan Expo in Paris to promote Japan's pop culture diplomacy. She also attended the World Cosplay Summit in Brazil to introduce Lolita fashion and traveled to Italy, Spain, Korea, and Russia.

Many European Lolita visit the Japan Expo in Paris, which is one of the world's largest international events celebrating Japanese pop culture, where over 160,000 people interested in Japanese pop cultural trends gather from all over the world. There are trade fairs, fashion shows, games, and various events related to Japanese popular culture, including Lolita. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) collaborated to participate in the Japan Expo Paris 2010. The number of visitors has increased every year since its inception in 2000. The Lolita come from all over Europe and hold meetings at the convention.

The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York hosted a Lolita tea party in October 2010, in conjunction with its exhibition Japan Fashion Now! The ex­hibition featured contemporary Japanese fashion from world-famous design­ers, such as lssey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto, as well as youth subcultural fashion, including different styles and brands of Lolita fashion. A similar exhi­bition on contemporary Japanese fashion took place at London's Barbican Art Gallery in 2010. A new store called Tokyo Rebel opened in New York in 2009, which exclusively sells imported Japanese Lolita fashion.