Queen of the Lesbians

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.