Category: Everyday Life

When we walk downtown…

When we go downtown, we often see people wearing ‘Gothic–Lolita’ and ‘Lolita’ fashions. There are usually two or three people walking together. We sometimes see a couple wearing nicely matching outfits, and we feel they are kind of cute.
So, I vaguely guessed that such fashions came about because they are fans of certain kinds of music (like ‘visual-type’ bands), and researched it. But I learned that’s not the only reason.

Gothic punk, grotesque Lolita, kimono Gothic…
They made me confused, and finally I learned that manga and the maid uniforms at ‘maid cafés’ also relate to it. I don’t understand what it is more and more!

(You probably wouldn’t know it to see me today, but…) When I was younger, and I listened to music every day, I was influenced by rock manga for girls, and wanted to wear Goth music fashions descended from the music. It may be close to the Nana style? Which means, it was close to the current Gothic punk? Ah, yes… there was a style of wearing all-lace outfits, too. Anyway, I wanted to wear Gothic rock style outfits!
Actually, in reality, what with money anxiety, keen self-consciousness, shyness, thinking about harmony with other people, appearance anxiety, laziness, and so on, it never came true, but even now I can wear all-black outfits very easily! (Right, Chris?)
But, I guess, to avoid giving myself a headache, I’d better not think the current Gothic–Lolita subculture in Japan relates to music.

Last night, we watched the Shimotsuma monogatari DVD (a little behind the times!) while seeing the almost-full moon.
Momoko (peach girl) wears the exact Lolita fashion, doesn’t she?
Ichigo (strawberry) was the very image of yankî style. Even though I dislike her outfits, it was a simple, happy movie, and we enjoyed it!
The other day, I read an article saying that Japanese Gothic–Lolita fashions recently made it into Paris. (There was a picture of two girls in Paris wearing their own Gothic–Lolita clothing: it looked different from Japanese girls’ style though.) And Japanese yankî style is very unique, isn’t it?
The English title is Kamikaze Girls. Hmm…

I must say so: even though I wrote about it, I don’t mean I want to wear Gothic–Lolita outfits!

– YS, 27 September 2007

27 September 2007