RE: "Lolita 101: This Japanese fashion craze is now for everyone"

This blog post is a response to the aforementioned article found on The Daily Dot here. All quotes will be from this article.

So.....we're doing this again. It's like Darcy all over again! Let's go!

Of course we have the ever popular mention of Nabokov's book (again), but luckily, this whole mess stays in one paragraph. Well, for the most part. Unfortunately, we have this: "[lolita] slang for a sexually precocious pre-teen in Japan". Well...that's just false. "Lolita" as a slang term is used in English-speaking countries (like America) to describe (sexually) attractive pre-pubescent girls. As far as my research has led me to believe, "lolita" was not a word in the Japanese vernacular until it surfaced with lolita fashion. As a matter of fact, no one is quite sure where the term "lolita" came from in regards to lolita fashion. So, nice conjecture, but also, no.

The article then goes on to (correctly) state that lolita events are quite commonplace at many anime conventions. I suppose it's a good thing they got something right in their article. They also include a couple pictures of lolitas, which I must say aren't the best quality, and one definitely shows two lace monsters front and center.

They go on to chat about the origins of lolita fashion, oversimplifying its history and completely ignoring the fashion's ties to both gothic and visual kei (despite mentioning the latter). They also falsely state that a nickname for the fashion is "loli". In my five years of being into lolita fashion, I've never heard it called this. Except in this article. Am I missing something here?

The classic lolita substyle is summed up as follows: Classic Lolita. The “purest” version of the look, Classic Loli has fewer embellishments than Sweet Lolita and a little more color than its Gothic or Punk counterparts. It’s characterized by simple print dresses without a lot of adornments.

Let's break this down. First of all, classic lolita is the "purest"? What does that even mean? The only substyle of lolita I can think of that isn't "pure" is ero-lolita, unless they mean "pure" as in "more influenced by historical fashions than other substyles and less tainted by modern sensibilities". If so, they really need to elaborate. I'm scratching my head here. Also, classic lolita can have have plenty of embellishments (hello OTT classic), and has plenty of strong colors and busy prints. Have they seen any classic dresses? My money is on no. They also included this coordinate (below). Let's break this down.

No blouse (or even a bolero), poorly matching shoes, make-up that is also poorly matching, one accessory I can see (the bracelet on the left), and what I assume is a black leather bag. This coordinate is NOT classic. It's not even lolita! (My apologies to whomever it pictures, it is not your fault your picture was used for this article-or so I assume).

And here we have another picture, captioned "A Finnish Lolita meetup featuring the Classic loli look".

Ah, yes. Because "hello look at all of this pink" definitely screams classic lolita, and most certainly isn't sweet lolita. Did this person find pictures for their article or just search Google for "lolita desu fashion" and put the results on spin cycle before uploading them to their article? (Again, no animosity to the gals in the pic.)

I know what you're thinking. They can't make this worse, right? Just stop reading here and you can pretend that all you like, dearie. Because next is: Gothic Lolita. Heavily influenced by visual kei, Gothic Lolita most notably contains lots of black—but not always. Heavy boots paired with lots of lace, and dress lines modeled after Rococo period fashions, are common features.

Before I include the (really awful) picture they've used for gothic lolita, I'd like to talk about how they summed it up. I wonder, first of all, why "kei" has to be italicized. Gothic lolita does not always have "heavy boots", and doesn't always feature lots of lace. And, this may be news, but ALL lolita substyles are (at least somewhat) modeled after Rococo period fashions. That's the basis for the whole damn fashion! But I digress. Let's look at some quality bright pettis.

Okay. There's a lot to talk about here, but let's stick to the basics. First of all, this is hands-down an ita dress. I mean, look at that headbow! And the petticoat (which is fire-engine red even after what looks like copious instagram filters) shouldn't be visible, but as far as I can tell it looks a couple inches longer than the dress. And those boots. Not to mention the sheer socks that don't appear to be the same shade of black as the dress. If I were to call this a lolita coordinate (which I will not because it isn't), I would call it old-school, not gothic. But it's not even lolita, so. You know.

THIS is much better. Not quite there, but a little more poof and a couple tweaks, maybe a better fitting....dress (is that a skirt)? And you'd have an okay coordinate. Maybe not goth though. Depends on how it would be changed.

And now, this: Sweet Lolita. Like Gothic Lolita, Sweet Lolita has more frills and lace than Classic Lolita, but it’s the total opposite in terms of aesthetic. Sweet Lolita uses lots of pink, parasols, and over-the-top embellishments to capture a true baby doll look. A hybrid version of Sweet and Gothic lolita is known as “Bittersweet Lolita.”

Firstly:

And now we can move on. Okay. "More frills and lace" than classic. Okay but not really? It super duper depends on the dress. I mean, Melty Ribbon Chocolate can be a sweet dress and it has no frills and no lace. Maybe ixnay on the sweeping generalizations? And what do they mean by "lots of....parasols?" What, do only sweet lolitas use them with any frequency? 

"Punk Lolita. Much like Gothic Lolita, this look contains rock-influenced elements." <---This. This I will accept. That's a passable description. Although I'm sick of "passable" when it comes to articles trying to introduce people to lolita fashion. This is how we end up with endless itas, people. Write better!

"Mori.  Not a subset of Lolita but a separate street fashion, Mori dresses tend to be longer, with a dedication to earth tones and a downplayed style." Not lolita but hey we're gonna put it in this article about lolita because we have a word count minimum to hit and we didn't do a second of research.

"Gyaru". Okay can you guys stop now? You're going to confuse people.

"Hime." 

Oh no, I guess we're still going.

They also include this little gem: Like steampunk, Lolita is heavily influenced by European and Victorian aesthetics, and it can be very difficult to tell the two apart. 

I have done a lot of study and research into women's garments over the centuries, and I can tell you right here and now it takes no effort to tell the two apart if you remember these two things: steampunk is about the poof in the back, lolita is about poof in either a cupcake, bell, or a-line shape. Super simple. You can do steampunk lolita but the two are (again) quite easy to tell apart, since lolita draws more from the Rococo era, and steampunk more from the Victorian era.

They then wrap up with the whole "lolita is for everyone and the people who do it do so because it makes them feel pretty", which I would appreciate more if they researched it more thoroughly. I do appreciate the bit at the end addressing the rebellious nature of the fashion, but I'll talk more about that another day.

"You might think that men dressing as Lolitas wouldn’t be a popular trend, but you’d be wrong. They’re called “brolitas,” and Lolita fashion has made a space for them too." I'd check CGL and Behind the Bows before saying lolitas have made a space for brolitas. They exist, certainly, but there's actually a lot of hate that goes on, not even behind the scenes. I would say "lolitas accept male-identifying persons interested in/wearing the fashion." We haven't even fully accepted lolitas of color yet, don't expect us to have accepted brolitas. It takes time. There's some hate in the frills.

"'There are people who have strict standards about what the community should be,' she says. 'But most people are like, ‘if you like it, wear it.’ It’s a very international community.'" Well I mean. As long as they make us look nice, I guess. Just don't tell them about BtB and we'll be cool.

Look. It's great that lolita enters the mainstream. I mean, it does mean an influx of people poorly informed (by articles like these) that have to ask a million questions, but I love seeing this fashion I adore becoming more popular (as long as I still get my dream dresses, dammit). But I find it damaging for people to come across lolita via poorly written and researched articles like this. Using poor quality photos, only talking to maybe two or three lolitas and gathering minimal info on the fashion, etc. I'm so nitpicky about it because I'm tired of seeing articles going "here's a frilly Japanese fashion that gets its name from Nabokov's book." It's bad for the community to be presented in such a manner-again with the newbies who are misinformed about the fashion, and misconceptions (especially when it regards sex and lolita-looking at you, ageplayers) that can affect those of us who are already into lolita.

What I'm trying to say is this: do better when you write about us. Please. 

If I have to read one more god damned lolita article that mentions Nabokov, I swear....