Huge thanks to Dakota Lane for the terrific filming and editing. (If you were there, you know the voices and cheers are entirely authentic.)
Have a spontaneous, happy week, everyone!
VIDEO: GOTHIC LOLITA CRASHES FASHION SHOW.
"Tranny-Chan" (ahahaha) crashes the Tokyopop Gothic & Lolita fashion show!
Huge thanks to Dakota Lane for the terrific filming and editing. (If you were there, you know the voices and cheers are entirely authentic.)
Have a spontaneous, happy week, everyone!
Huge thanks to Dakota Lane for the terrific filming and editing. (If you were there, you know the voices and cheers are entirely authentic.)
Have a spontaneous, happy week, everyone!
STEAMPUNK: A NOT-SO-SWEET LOLITA IN STEAMBOY.
My latest fixation (and you know how I get obsessed with things) is Steampunk – especially since it’s a kindred spirit to Miss Gothic Lolita. Both are neo-Victorian aesthetics, although Steampunk has Western origins and is mainly inspired by a genre of science fiction. These novels usually take place in a futuristic 19th century England, in which steam-powered inventions that would have been impossible at the time are found to exist. Think computers and time machines, clumsily built from valves, clockwork, and bulging brass pipes set to explode any second.
The image above shows that Steampunk fashion has much in common with Gothic Lolita, minus the polish and kawaii (cuteness) of the Japanese style. A Steampunk outfit “tends to synthesize punk, goth and rivet styles as filtered through the Victorian era.” A lady might wear a tattered corset and bustle skirt in drab colors, such as black, olive green, or dark pinstripes. Hair tends to be swept up in two knobs or a messy up-do, as if she had just emerged from an explosion.
Men often channel the Gentleman Inventor of Jules Verne’s tales. Like Japan’s Kodonas, they wear vests, waistcoats, slacks, top hats, cravats, and carry a pocketwatch. A Sky Pirate outfit incorporates a sash and leather aviator cap.
For both sexes, big stompy boots with buckles are a must. And we mustn’t forget the Steampunk signature: round brass goggles, usually worn on the forehead.
Steampunk and Lolita fashion come together in Katsuhiro Otomo’s animated film, Steamboy. The story centers on Ray, born to a family of inventors in an alt-19th century England. A package from his grandfather arrives, containing a Steam Ball that he must protect at all costs… and that’s where the fun begins. Poor Ray has to fend off attacks by fabulously cumbersome machines: an automotive, a giant zeppelin with a mechanical claw, “steam troopers” wielding guns, barely-steerable gliders…
Ray befriends a not-so-sweet Lolita named Scarlett O’Hara. The 14-year-old heiress looks like an innocent doll in fluffy pink and white dresses, which resemble Metamorphose and Baby’s. But boy, is she ever a pain! Scarlett whines and complains and abuses her little Chihuahua. Happily, she matures by the stunning end scene, and the credits show that she later becomes an aviator. (If only Paris Hilton would do the same…)
Steamboy is a visual wonder, with a superb electric-tinted soundtrack by Steve Jablonsky. And isn’t the parallel evolution of Steampunk and Gothic Lolita fascinating? Just take the excellent Steampunk blog Brass Goggles… the format and layout is nearly identical to La Carmina's!
GORY AND GOTHIC COSTUMES IN SWEENEY TODD.
Any Gurololi (Gory Lolita) can relate to the complications that costume designer Colleen Atwood faced when working on the movie Sweeney Todd. The two-time Oscar winner (for 2002's Chicago and 2005's Memoirs of a Geisha) has collaborated with director Tim Burton on films from Edward Scissorhands to Sleepy Hollow, so her problem wasn't the gore – it was cleaning it all up.
Throughout the movie, the vengeful Victorian barber (Johnny Depp) literally gets blood on his sleeve – again and again and again. Atwood ended up making 25 shirts, eight pairs of paints and seven waistcoats for Depp. “The big thing was where was [the blood] going and how are we going to get it off,” Atwood says. "On the days - as we got used to saying - we had a kill, we had the people that ran the shirts up to the washers, the people on set taking care of the people, buckets of towels, changing booths, mini showers set up. We got really good at it."
Her Sweeney Todd costumes are beautifully conceived and can inspire Lolitas of all stripes. For the Gothic girls, we have Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who bakes the barber’s victims into meat pies. She wears black shoulder-baring dresses with tiers of ruffles on her backside; her frazzled hair is swept in a Mana-like up-do; her skin is ashen with sooty smudges under the eyes. Atwood explains that the darkness is authentic to the time: "When you went out on the streets, it was really dirty, so I wanted to add that layer of grubbiness."
Sweet Lolitas can relate to Lucy, the barber’s virtuous wife, with her pink and white princess dresses and blonde ringlets. Her daughter, Johanna, wears blue empire-waist dresses in the vein of a Classic Lolita. There’s even something for Sailor Lolis. In the hilarious dream sequence “By the Sea,” Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett unwind in elaborate Victorian beachwear. (Depp doesn’t seem pleased with his cute, full-body, horizontally striped bathing suit.)
Go out and see Sweeney Todd – I think you’ll love the dark Victorian atmosphere and twisted humor of the film. Wishing you a bloody Nightmare before Xmas!
GOTHIC LOLITA VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE.
It's one thing to read about Gothic Lolita and look at fashion photos - and quite another to see it in action. Thank goodness we have YouTube. A search for "Gothic Lolita" turns up several clips from Japanese, Dutch, Austrian, and German news shows (along with the usual mish-mash of fan slideshows set to incongruous soundtracks). Here are my favorite two videos, which originated from Japanese television. You get to see Goth Lolis posing for street photos, rocking out at Visual Kei concerts, and freaking out over pretty dresses. Best part? When Moi-même-Moitié designer/musician Mana appears (first video at 3:00) and hypnotizes the news crew with his languorous come-hither arm movements. Or something.
Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween!
CLAUDIA FROM INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.
If you’re looking for Gothic Lolita inspiration, look no further than the character Claudia from the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire. Claudia, played by twelve-year-old Kirsten Dunst, is an orphan who is made into a vampire child by Louis (Brad Pitt) and Lestat (Tom Cruise). Hot-tempered and spoiled, she takes pleasure in toying with her victims before drinking their blood. (“A little child she was, but also a fierce killer, now capable of the ruthless pursuit of blood, with all a child's demanding.”) Claudia grows distraught because although her mind matures, she remains forever trapped in a child’s body. After failing to kill Lestat, she flees with Louis and is trapped by a coven of vampires, which exposes her to direct sunlight.
In my favorite scene, Claudia is standing in front of a mirror in a half-finished lace dress. The dressmaker pricks her hand; Claudia brings it to her lips to “kiss it better.” Later, Lestat discovers the dressmaker lying dead at her feet. He taps her hand lightly in punishment: “Claudia, Claudia, now who will we get to finish your dress? These impracticalities, cherie! Remember: never in the home.”
Fortunately, Claudia does not kill all of her tailors. In the movie, she models a sumptuous late 18th to late 19th century French wardrobe. Her empire dresses and voluminous coats are made of silk/velvet/satin, and generously trimmed with lace. Unlike the adult vampires, Claudia does not dress in black; her clothes tend to be off-white, sky blue, or light green. She frequently wears capes and wraps her blonde ringlets in ribboned bonnets.
Louis: You see that old woman? That will never happen to you. You will never grow old, and you will never die.
Claudia: And it means something else too, doesn't it? I shall never ever grow up.
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