Sweet Lolita

Sweet Lolita, also known as ama-loli in Japanese, is heavily influenced by Rococo styles as well as Victorian and Edwardian clothing. Focusing on the child and fantasy aspects of Lolita, the Sweet Lolita style adopts the basic Lolita format and uses lighter colors and childlike motifs in its design.

Makeup used in sweet Lolita is common throughout most Lolita styles. Pink, Peach, or Pearl make up styles are highly 'sweet' and used by many Sweet Lolitas. This look, paired with a shade of bright pink, red or sometimes nude-pink lipstick, is commonly used as well.

Outfits consist of pastels, fruit themes (cherries or strawberries, or any type of sugary fruit), flowers (roses, jasmines, lily, cherry blossoms) lace, bows, animal themes (cats, bunnies, puppies) and ribbons to emphasize the cuteness of the design. Popular themes in the sweet Lolita are references to Alice in Wonderland, sweets, and classic fairy tales. Jewelry often reflects this fantasy theme. Headdresses, bonnets and bows are a popular hair accessory to the sweet Lolita look. Bags and purses usually have a princess-like design and often take the shape of strawberries, crowns, hearts, and stuffed animals.

Examples for Sweet Lolita brands are Angelic Pretty, Baby, The Stars Shine Bright and Metamorphose temps de fille. Emily Temple cute (sister brand of Shirley Temple, a Japanese boutique), Jane Marple, and MILK are brands that carry more clothing that would be considered more casual, and are available to purchase at department stores in Japan.

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Gothic Lotlita

Gothic lolita, sometimes shortened to GothLoli, is a combination of the Gothic and Lolita fashion.The fashion originated in the late 1990s in Harajuku and was promoted by Visual Kei bands such as Malice Mizer, which brought it to greater popularity amongst fans of alternative street fashion and followers of the musical style.

Gothic Lolita fashion is characterized by a darker make-up and clothing.Red lipstick and smokey or neatly defined eyes, created using black eyeliner, are typical styles, although as with all Lolita substyles the look remains fairly natural.Though Gothic make-up is associated with a white powdered face, this is usually considered bad taste within the Lolita fashion. Gothic Lolita usually uses dark color schemes including black, dark blues and purples, although black and white remains popular. As with some Western Gothic styles, cross jewelry,religious symbols, bags and purses in shapes like bats, coffins, and crucifixes are also used to accessorize the Gothic Lolita look.

Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL) and Elegant Gothic Aristocrat (EGA) are substyles of gothic lolita (and of aristocrat fashion coined by the Visual Kei artist Mana, in connection with his own fashion label Moi-même-Moitié.

Japanese brands which exemplify the gothic lolita style include Atelier-Pierrot, Atelier Boz, Black Peace Now, h. NAOTO Blood and Moi-même-Moitié.

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The term "Lolita"

In Lolita fashion, it is generally accepted that "Lolita" does not refer to Vladimir Nabokov's famous novel. In the context of fashion, the term 'Lolita' does not relate to sex. The usage of the word may also be considered wasei-eigo. The fashion was thought to have been partly created to react against the growing exposure of the body and skin in today's society, specifically in regard to young women. Adherents fight the current fashion with modesty presenting themselves as "cute" or "elegant" rather than "sexy". One follower of the Gothic Lolita fashion explained. We certainly do not do this for the attention of men. Frequently, female sexuality is portrayed in a way that is palatable and accessible to men, and anything outside of that is intimidating. Something so unabashedly female is ultimately kind of scary—in fact, I consider it to be pretty confrontational. Dressing this way takes a certain kind of ownership of one’s own sexuality that wearing expected or regular things just does not. It doesn’t take a lot of moxie to put on a pencil skirt and flats. It’s not, as some commentators have suggested, some sort of appeal to men’s expectation that women should be childlike, or an attempt to pander to pedophiles. Pedophiles like little girls. They don’t like grown women who happen to like dresses with cakes on them. I’ve never been hit on by a pedophile while in Lolita. We don’t get into it because it is some sort of misplaced pedo complex or anything, and the objective isn’t simply to emulate little girls, despite the name Lolita.Influence and popularity Lolita was influenced and popularized by the imagery of more feminine Visual Kei (or "visual art") bands. Visual Kei is a Japanese form of rock music defined by bands featuring performers in elaborate costumes but whose musical style varies. Mana, the cross-dressing former leader and guitarist of the Visual Kei band Malice Mizer is widely credited for having helped popularize Gothic Lolita. He coined the terms "Elegant Gothic Lolita" (EGL) and "Elegant Gothic Aristocrat" (EGA) to describe the style of his own fashion label Moi-même-Moitié, which was founded in 1999 and quickly established itself as one of the most coveted brands of the Lolita scene.

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