The Anime Blog Covers ACEN 2006: Gothic Lolita Panel

Anime Central 2006 logo' class="alignright" />Two weeks before Anime Central I scanned the forums for programming and came across something I was very excited about; a Gothic Lolita fashion show. Now, I’m a bit of a closet Lolita and I remember very well the Victorian and romantic look of the late eighties and early nineties since I fell in love with the style. I did a happy jig and immediately marked down that this was an absolute must to see.

When I e-mailed about the time for the show, the response was that it had been canceled and a panel for Lolitas had replaced it. Fashion show or panel; regardless of what it was called I was still going since either way it involved Lolitas. I thought I was being slick when I arrived twenty minutes before the panel to get a good seat. In reality I underestimated the draw of the Lolitas and I ended up waiting in an ever growing line that looped down the hallway twice.

I was lucky as hell to get into that panel and get a front row seat to the fun. A line of various Lolitas sat quietly in the dark as the room inexorably filled to capacity and people had to be turned away at the door. After everyone was seated the moderator introduced herself and a few of the Lolitas on the panel, and that was when the education began.

Novala Takemoto is the person accredited to creating the term Lolita as it ascribes to the fashion in Japan. He wrote books and advice columns about and for Lolitas and was called the “The Lolita’s Bard” in 2004. He describes Lolitas as “maidens” that are cold and innocent at the same time (at least my take on his words) and that the nature of a true Lolita is an arrogant childlike one.

Getting even deeper into the nature of the Lolita is the applied Japanese concept of wabi sabi as it pertains to Lolitas. Wabi sabi is an almost untranslatable concept of aesthetics in Japanese arts which roughly encompasses ideas of imbalance and impermanence as beauty. Whew, getting a bit too deep for me, but that’s what Lolitas in Japan are like; childlike yet mature, innocent but marred, and impermanent.

The Lolita style harkens back to the Victorian era and especially the Victorian era as it was for children. The fashion is a craving for both the innocence and indulgence of a child but not for the naiveté. The mascot for Lolitas everywhere is probably Alice from Lewis Carroll’s novels “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass”.

Lolitas in Japan don’t do the Lolita style 24/7. They have school and jobs that prohibit them from dressing that way during the day. So many Lolis strut their stuff on the weekends down in Harajuku, other fashionable parts of Tokyo and other major cities.

The main reason Lolitas in Japan give for being a Lolita is that they feel they’ve been deprived of a proper childhood. I can believe that since the Japanese have vastly different child rearing structures than we do. Americans worship their children and make tons of concessions for them daily. I doubt the Japanese with their strict schooling and restricted week day activities have as much freedom as children as we do.

Many Japanese girls will not be Lolitas for life. Most Lolitas give themselves a time frame for how long they’ll be Lolitas. For example: an 18 year girl will only be a Lolita until she’s 22, or til’ she’s married, has a career, etc.

Lolitas in Japan do, for the most part, live with a Lolita outlook and attitude. They don’t smoke, curse, or drink crude beverages, such as beer or whiskey. They don’t belch in public and they certainly don’t scratch their ass. They comport themselves as proper 19th century girls.

Not all Lolitas in America and Japan are full time Lolis (Lolitas that dress up whenever it’s not a work issue is a full time Loli in my book) nor do they all act as proper Lolitas. Many smoke, throw back the beers, and curse like sailors in and out of their dresses. The attitudes in America and in Japan are as varied as the styles.

The Lolita style is an expression of individuality, whether it’s to say “I like being a little girl”, “I like being cute or sombre” or even “I like being pedophile bait” it still expresses a sense of fashion and a desire to be unique. It’s not for everyone but I applaud all Lolitas out there who take this fashion and make it uniquely theirs.