File this under awwwww. Three little girls - or are they living Gothic Lolita dolls? - hanging out with elder Goth Aristocrats on Jingubashi (Meiji Jingu Shrine) Bridge in Harajuku! Heart the oversized hair bows and black rose eyepatch.
Wednesday Addams and Emily the Strange may be loners, but our Tokyo Goth Loli children are surrounded by equally stylish playmates. The little girl (in the middle) could win anyone over with her smile. Her Wa Lolita dress reminds me of the Lacrima ones I wrote about.
Well aren't you a cute widdle snotface? I'm amazed by the level of detail in the little punk's outfit; note the locket choker and Union Jack on his scuffed boots. (Coming up: I'll do a feature on Japanese punk boys.)
A Japanese Gothic Lolita version of the Addams Family. What do you think - would you dress up your kids to match your aesthetic? You know I've already put Basil in a bonnet...
Anything a parent does will traumatize their spawn anyway. If I ever have a (human) son, that will be my justification for styling his hair like Daigoro's (above). He's the son of samurai Ogami Itto from the manga/film series Lone Wolf and Cub. I re-watched my favorite of the films (Baby Cart at the River Styx) just yesterday... it's 1970s camp and yet so very Goth... but I'd better stop rambling before this post reaches the floor!
I'm currently sleeping in the bedroom where I spent my childhood, and it feels like living in a time capsule. I wake up surrounded by pink furniture and stuffed toys (you guessed it - Hello Kitty). Funny enough, the closets still contain big hair bows and ruffly dresses like in the image above. They're the exact same clothes I wore in kindergarten - only three times larger.
I'd post photos of my girly-girl Lebensraum, but they're schwach compared to Angelic Pretty's store interiors. The Sweet Lolita brand has seven retail locations in Japan. Each shop has an original display, but all customers are guaranteed a blitzkrieg of pink and kawaii.
Above are several shots of the main store in Harajuku, Tokyo. What does your bedroom look like? Would you want Angelic Pretty to give it a makeover?
I love how the second girl styles her bangs asymmetrically, while the third one adds a hot pink streak. I never wear pink, but I'd steal her white ruffled boots and pair them with a Gothic dress.
From left to right, the dresses are by Metamorphose Temps de Fille, Angelic Pretty, and Putumayo. The first girl describes her kawaii-accessorized look as "Decora Lolita." Her quote? "Living is hard, but let's all keep going ♥." As my Facebook group would say, "Right On." Cheers to cherry knee socks and giant pink bows!
As promised, here are two more destinations for Gothic Lolita nightcrawlers. Tokyo Dark Castle lets down the drawbridge every Saturday in Shinjuku. It’s been the top Goth night for years and deserves the award for spookiest posters (see above). Resident DJ Chihiro spins EBM, industrial, and darkwave for his fellow Nosferati. On most nights, he shares the bill with Japan’s Goth-est rock bands.
I wish more North American nightclubs had sideshows with artistic whipping! (You can watch more performances on YouTube.) In 2005, Tokyo Dark Castle exported its morose crew to San Francisco. Hopefully, the dark lords will hear my plea and ship them out again.
The salon I want to crash most of all is Narziß, “a fantastic space where the sophisticated dandiacals can do their best: display their fashions and get hedonistic together.” Unlike at the other parties, the volume is low enough to allow for conversations; playlists run from jazz and French pop to psychedelia and disco. The hosts are Tokyo’s most luscious Yarimanchin – a word that translates to Horny Hermaphrodite, Trisexual, or Playcuntcock. Love it!
Narziß is run by The Fashion Ramone (TFR), a collective of “exquisite and arrogant dandiacals” that make Tokyo’s nightlife their playground. TFR’s blog is exploding with photos of debauched club kids – a visual depiction of its manifesto to uphold “freedom, freshness, and escapism.” I’m inexplicably drawn to Nakao, the gaunt grey-eyed stripper who rarely wears more than shorty shorts and pasties. (She’s splattered in blood above.) Something about her grey eyes and attitude that grabs at me… she seems to live as if she’s pole dancing on the edge of a cliff!
Here’s another promise – I’m going to make it to Tokyo; to all four club nights. Maybe I’ll nab The Fashion Ramone’s award for Best Foxie.
When the sun sets, Tokyo’s creatures of the night come out to rage… and the bloody tracks always converge at one of the Goth & Loli Heaven events organized by D’s Valentine.Alamode Night is especially favored by Gothic Lolitas. Every week, there are stage shows (such as The Dark Marchen’s twisted operetta), visual kei rockers (BLOOD, The Candy Spooky Theater, GPKISM), and electronic sets by DJs Sisen and Chihiro. It’s enough to turn any dance floor into a danse macabre.
The night has expanded into day with the occasional Alamode Markets, where indie Goth Loli designers display and sell their wares. As you can see from the party photos, the guests really know how to rock the undead look. (I want those white devil horns.) At nightclubs, Lolitas like to layer on the plaster, and their attire tends to the extreme and eclectic.
Tokyo Decadance is another popular destination for Lolitas, along with cyberpunks, drag queens, jet-setters, yamanbas… even “salarymen and normal people”!
Led by Adrien, a towering ex-drag queen from Paris, the extravaganza is slowly taking over the world. Tokyo Decadance has never been staged twice in the same location since 2005 – and its neon dreads are now stretching into Europe and North America.
The night may include a striptease, bondage show, fire dancers, circus... or all of the above. It makes me want to wear a pink birthday cake on my head (like the girl at 1:24).
Tomorrow, I’ll post about two more Tokyo club nights that Gothic Lolitas can’t live without.
A new runway report from MaruiOne's LiveJ: "On Sunday November 18th, the third Individual Fashion EXPO was held in the Endo Memorial Hall of the Bunka Fashion College, the hall of fame for Tokyo fashion.
As Japan’s largest Gothic, Lolita and Punk fashion event, it included a fashion show featuring 18 top brands of recent years (such as Algonquins, Black Peace Now, Sexy Dynamite London) and talks by special guests. With many fashionably dressed attendees, the event was a sensational success."
Here's a game for advanced gosurori devotees. Can you match the runway outfits (numbered 1-8 in the photos) with the following designers?
a) Atelier Boz
b) Baby, the Stars Shine Bright
c) Bla Bla Hospital
d) h.NAOTO's Hangry and Angry
e) Black Peace Now
f) Victorian Maiden
g) Algonquins
h) Angelic Pretty
ANSWERS:
1-e, 2-a, 3-d, 4-c, 5-g, 6-b, 7-h, 8-f
When I was first introduced to Lolita fashion, I couldn't tell the brands apart. Now, I can pick up cues that point out who's who. 3 and 4 are easy: the stuffed cat is obviously Hangry, and nobody rocks a medical cap and arm cast like BlaBlaHospital. 1 and 2 are Gothic Aristocrat, but the upturned chunky shoes on the first are a Black Peace Now signature, while the long, sweeping cloak and dandy cane announce Atelier Boz. The casual horizontal stripes and red accents of 5 are typical of Algonquins, and the elegant plaid and cape in 8 are Victorian Maiden at its best. 6 and 7 are hardest to differentiate, but the tiers of white lace and shoulder capelets are more typical of Baby (7 is Angelic Pretty).
This video is one of the best Gothic Lolita runway compilations I've seen to date. Kera and Shinjuku One sponsored the event, which took place at Bunka Fashion College. Sexy Dynamite London, Qutie Flash, Hiderockk design, and Ozz Crroce also showed off their latest. Best part? The Clutch kids who give punk rock attitude around 5:30 - especially the little boy in the green mohawk who raises his middle finger (at 5:54)!
Vivienne Westwood and Sexy Dynamite London are two peas in a Punk Lolita pod. The two-floor "Queen" emporium in Harajuku is a classy neighbor to the casual street/punk looks of Sexy Dynamite London. Plus, there's an educational component - rotating retrospectives of Westwood's iconic punk couture, which continue to awe Japanese Lolitas.
SEXY DYNAMITE QUEEN with VIVIENNE WESTWOOD MUSEUM
† Harajuku Address: 4-25-1 Jingumae Shibuya-ku Tokyo
† Phone: 03-3423-5737
† URL: http://www.sexydynamitelondon.com/web00/shopinfo.html
