memories of lolita past

    Nostalgia has been sweeping through the worldwide fashion scene these past few years, and lolita is no different. Slowly but steadily, we've seen members of the community drifting towards the oldschool substyle, drawing inspiration from Kera magazines, Gothic & Lolita Bibles, Kamikaze Girls and brand advertisements, trying to capture the "good old days" of lolita fashion. Brands have started to follow suit, revamping or rereleasing classic styles - just last year Baby the Stars Shine Bright released a JSK version of the iconic Elizabeth OP, and 2021 promises the return of some of the most beloved designs from 2008-2012 era Angelic Pretty. (In case anyone was wondering, this author has already started saving her pennies in anticipation of the rerelease of Nakoyoshi Bunny. I am nothing if not thematically consistent.)

Nakoyoshi Bunny JSK by Angelic Pretty, released 2008. Set to be re-released some time in 2021.
Stock image from Angelic Pretty, courtesy of Lolibrary
(https://lolibrary.org/items/ap-nakayoshi-bunny-jsk)

    Natrually, every lolita who's interested in the history of the fashion or the aesthetic of oldschool as a substyle has their own reasons. However, I've noticed that a few ideas in particular have come to dominate the discourse. One is a preference for the more simplistic designs of some older releases, which had far less of the elaborate border prints we see today. Another is the perception that older dresses had better quality and construction, or were more likely to use cotton as opposed to polyester. Yet to me, the most interesting factor that plays into people's interest in oldschool or early lolita is the not-uncommon refrain that it was somehow better, and especially more "pure" or "authentic", than modern lolita. 

    Early lolita was less commercial, everyone handmade everything and didn't care about brands. Early lolita was simpler and more accepting, there were fewer rules in the community and people didn't judge each other for their dress. Early lolita was higher quality, brands cared more about their customers and weren't as focused on making money. Early lolita was more radical and alternative, people were encouraged to experiment and try different things. These are all claims that have been made about "early lolita", and they each have degrees of truth. However, when we talk about the early days of lolita fashion, especially the beginnings of the movement in the 80s and 90s (sometimes called "proto-lolita"), we sometimes forget something very important - memories of lolita past, are not memories of lolita as it was. No matter how hard we try, the "early lolita" we keep talking about will never truly be known.

    This is because the person that oldschool lolita so often idolises and seeks to emulate does not actually exist. She is a figure in street snap, nothing but a name, age, and outfit rundown - and sometimes not even that. She is the model in a magazine, perfectly posed, with the name of a brand emblazoned somewhere on the page. She is a character in a book or a film, reading off a script that someone else has written. She is our idol, our template, our inspiration, and a figment of our imaginations. 

Advertisement for Moi-Meme-Moitie, taken from Gothic & Lolita Bible 08.
Image Courtesy of LolitaHistory (http://www.lolitahistory.com/gallery/picture.php?/9442/category/35)

    Of course, there are lolitas in the community now who have been part of the fashion since its earliest days, and you can find reputable resources on the history and development of the subculture if you know where to look. But these are not the people or the past that modern "oldschool" lolita revolves around. What we call "oldschool" is the imagined past of lolita fashion, built from collective memories, old photos, forum posts, and pictures in magazines. It is nostalgia, a version of history that may still hold a strong place in our thoughts, but has nonetheless been changed by the passage of time. It is a fantasy world, ready to be imbued with all the wants and desires of the people imagining it. 

    This is not a slight to the oldschool substyle or those that wear it. After all, lolita fashion is, in itself, the embodiment of nostalgia: through its elaborate layers, Rococo influences, and sometimes child-like aesthetic, it seeks to impose an romanticised version of the past onto the modern world. It does not reflect an actual reality, but rather the wearer's interpretation of what reality should be. And, as I wrote in a previous post, authenticity and strict adherence to source material has never been the point of lolita, not so long as the outfit is able to satisfy the wearer's personal sense of aesthetic ideals. Thus, in many ways, oldschool exemplifies to me a lot of the most romantic and imaginative aspects of lolita fashion - it is the nostalgia for an even greater nostalgia, the desire to capture that spark that first ignited the love for the fashion in our hearts. Whether it really represents that "early lolita" is irrelevant.

Whipping Cake collection from Korean indie brand, Baroque, released 2020.
Image courtesy of Baroque's official website. 
(https://baroquelolita.net/)

    However, with that in mind, we should be mindful about how we compare "oldschool" lolita to its more modern iterations, especially when making moral judgements about the way that the fashion has evolved, and the people who are participating in it. There is so much we don't know about the history of lolita fashion, and so much that we probably will never know. Who is to say what "early lolitas" really thought about the clothes that they wore? Interviews, street snaps, and event reports can only tell us so much, and no source can reflect every individual's experience of the fashion and the community. 

    Our memories of lolita's past can never capture lolita as it was. They don't have to. But as much as we enjoy the aesthetics and romance of nostalgia, we should also enjoy the beauty of that we see in the present.