“It’s not a costume”: lolita and the politics of “fashion”

    It's one of the first things we learn upon entering the community: that lolita is a fashion, not a costume.

    The sentiment transcends language as one of the core tenants of the subculture, and is something that gets hammered into the minds of every young lolita — even those who don’t have their first coordinate yet. The meaning of the phrase seems obvious, and, in a lot of ways, it is. It means that lolita is not meant to be a performance that’s done for others. It isn’t like cosplay or historical re-enactment, where the goal is to entertain or emulate someone from a different time or place. When we say that lolita is a fashion, what we mean is that it is a form of self-expression, a part of who we are and how we view ourselves. You don’t dress as a lolita, you are a lolita. 

"Jane Marple" from Kidaore Hojoki / Happy Victims by Kyoichi Tsuzuki. 
https://happy-victims.tumblr.com/post/76421416911/jane-marple

    This dichotomy brings with it a few assumptions about clothing, identity, performativity, and “fashion” itself. Mainly, it assumes that “costume” and “fashion” are inherently separate, and that what separates them is the idea of performing a character — or, more generally, performing for other people. This speaks to the individualistic nature of lolita as a subculture, and its philosophy of prioritising personal happiness over societal expectations. However, it also ties into the complexities of fashion and how it has traditionally been defined. In this blog post, I will be exploring some of these ideas and how they relate to lolita fashion, as well as the difference in how “costume” and “fashion” are treated within the community. 

Fashion plates were commonly used from the late 18th to early 20th centuries to illustrate the latest fashions and demonstrate the kinds of clothing that a tailor or department store could make for their clients.
Illustration from "The Young Ladies Journal Triple Paris Fashion Plate", February 1887, V&A Museum, London. 

    Though fashion is commonly associated with clothing, not all clothing is considered fashion. In the world of fashion studies, fashion is often characterised by its ability to change according to prevailing trends, and its use as part of the wearer’s expression and identity. Valerie Steele, editor-in-chief of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body, and Culture, defines fashion as "the cultural construction of the embodied identity", which “encompasses all forms of self-fashioning, including street styles, as well as so-called high fashion created by designers and couturiers”. In other words, fashion is what happens when clothing and other adornments are given cultural meaning, and used in the practice of individual self-expression to determine a personal narrative.

    This definition is a relatively open one, especially when compared to how fashion has traditionally been defined. Up until quite recently, scholars and practitioners of fashion in the West have tended to treat all non-Western clothing as “costumes” on account of their connection with “unchanging” traditions — playing into racist stereotypes about the supposedly backwards and static nature of non-Western cultures. Many prominent fashion theorists, from J. C. Flugel in the 1930s to Elizabeth Wilson in the early 2000s, posited that up until the early 20th century, fashion only existed in the Western world, as only Western industrial capitalism could create a system of fashion defined by trends and individualism; or “change for change’s sake”.
    

Yohji Yamamoto F/W 2020 Paris Collection, photographed by Matthew Reeves. 
https://www.sz-mag.com/news/2020/03/yohji-yamamoto-f-w20-womens-paris/ 

    

    Such arguments are problematic for multiple reasons, not least of which is the dismissiveness and Eurocentrism embedded within the assumption that change and self-expression did not exist outside of Western Europe. This not only dehumanises non-Western people, but also ignores the vast body of evidence that shows the prevalence of trends and taste-making across different cultures and throughout history; from the many different iterations of the Chinese hanfu to the different styles and techniques used in tattooing among indigenous peoples in Australia and New Zealand. But while the rise of postcolonialism, decolonial fashion theories, and even prominent Japanese ateliers such as Yohji Yamamoto or Commes des Garcon have challenged more conservative views on fashion in recent years, the tendency to treat fashion as a solely Western phenomenon has remained. Garments such as saris and kimono are usually still referred to as “traditional costumes” rather than forms of fashion, and the development of trends outside of Europe or North America are often treated as imitations of Western fashions rather than original creations in their own right. 

   We see similar prejudices often in lolita fashion, mainly in the tendency of many non-lolitas (even those who are part of alternative subcultures themselves) to dismiss it as nothing but a cutesy imitation of Western clothing. There seems to be a disconnect between the way some people in the West view alternative fashions that originated there, such as punk, goth, or grunge, and the way they view fashions that originated elsewhere. While they accept that former have histories, communities, and distinct subcultures, fashions such as lolita are viewed merely as a kind of game of dress-up played by wannabe princesses. There is an obvious component of sexism to this as well, given that the majority of lolitas either identify or present as female, and many assume that we only dress the way we do in order to attract a certain kind of man. Lolita, therefore, quite frequently, is mistaken for a costume — something that people wear for other people, rather than an expression of their personal individuality. 

Advertisement for Metamorphose temps de Fille from GLB 54, published Winter 2014. Image Courtesy of Lolita History. 
http://www.lolitahistory.com/gallery/picture.php?/62154/category/132

    Of course, lolitas themselves know that while the fashion has definitely taken a great deal of inspiration from Western clothing, it isn't an imitation of it. Furthermore, though lolita does not have the same musical or ideological roots as other alternative fashions, itdoes have a distinct history, which comes with its own forms of media, cultural touchstones, and even codes of language and conduct. Yet although most would agree that one must listen to a certain type of music to be considered a goth, or adhere to certain political ideologies to be called a punk, I have seen many argue that the only prerequisite for being considered a lolita — wearing lolita fashion — is not a requirement for calling yourself a lolita. This, in my opinion, reflects the fact that compared to alternative subcultures that originated in the West, lolita is not taken very seriously, and partially because it did not originate in the West. Because historically, only Western clothing has been recognised as "fashion", everything else can only be relegated to the world of "costume".

    

    So when outsiders treat lolita as a "costume", that comes with certain implications. The term itself implies performativity (as in, performing the fashion for others rather than one’s self), and brings with it implications of staticness, rigidity, and shallow imitation — all things that lolita as a subculture actively strives against. And this, I believe, lies at the heart of lolitas' sensitivity towards the distinction between lolita fashion and forms of costume or cosplay. For if one could pinpoint any philosophy or state of mind that is central to lolita fashion, it is that what we do is for ourselves, not anyone else. 

Advertisement for Innocent World from GLB 32, published Spring 2009. Image Courtesy of Lolita History.
http://www.lolitahistory.com/gallery/index.php?/category/64

    What makes this entire situation even more interesting to me is that while we remain adamant about lolita's status as a distinct fashion, great deal of lolita media is also centered around rejecting trends — which, to follow some more traditional definitions, is central to what makes fashion, fashion. This is not to say that there are no trends in lolita fashion; there obviously are. Lolita is influenced by the trends in mainstream fashion, and even has trends unique to itself. Yet rather than encouraging trends, the lolita community and lolita media generally encourages the development of an individual sense of style instead, one that is unique to one’s personal taste and is, at least to a certain extent, immune to trendiness. In Takemoto Novala’s poem on the “Rules on the Lolita”, the author specifically chides those who wears lolita fashion simply for the sake of following trends, with the words,

“Why do you want to do lolita?

Because it's trendy, because my friends do it...

If that's the case, you have no right to wear lolita.”

    To me, this attitude is part of what makes lolita, and other fashions like it, a truly alternative subculture. For while lolitas have adopted the language of “fashion” to assert their individuality and distance themselves from “costume”, they do so while rejecting one of the core characteristics of mainstream fashion: “change for change’s sake”. “Trends” in lolita certainly exist, and the fashion is by no means static, but change, ideally, should come from the individual, not the pressures of outside forces. Lolita therefore defines fashion on its own terms, prizing individuality, self-expression, and personal happiness above all else, because that is what lolita is all about.

Takemoto Novala, "Rules on the Lolita" from GLB23, translated by theosakakoneko 
https://egl.livejournal.com/7084958.html 

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a personal note: 

thank you all very much for following my blog thus far. i originally planned to publish at least once per month, however, since starting work on my MA dissertation, i have found it increasingly difficult to find the time or energy for other writing. therefore, posts will likely come at a much slower between now and the end of the year. i truly appreciate everyone's support and understanding. 

with love, 

your bunny valentine.