The Little-Girl Look Is Big in Japan Now -- Among the Brave 'Lolitas' Dress as Baby Dolls, And Take a Lot of Guff; 'This Is the Real Me'
By GINNY PARKER Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
TOKYO -- When Hayaka Otani goes out, she likes to wear one of her many baby-doll outfits: puffy pink dress, frilly bloomers, knee socks and a big white bonnet.
But Ms. Otani is hardly a child. She's a 20-year-old store clerk and student at a technical college. She's also a loyal fan of what's known here as the "Lolita" look: elaborate, doll-like costumes festooned with ruffles and lace. In recent years in Japan, the look has grown from a tiny subculture to a burgeoning fashion craze.
"I think I look cute," says Ms. Otani, unapologetic about her outfit. "It's just like any other fashion."
The young women insist they aren't out to appeal to men. Rather, devotees say the goal is to be as adorable as possible. Using props like lacy parasols, teddy bears and jeweled scepters, they try to approximate the look of a storybook princess.
"I'd like to go back in time, like to the era of Marie Antoinette," says Yoko Oguchi, a 24-year-old nurse who attended a pop concert in Tokyo wearing a red pinafore, a gigantic white bow in her hair and white high-heeled Mary Janes. "I wish the whole world were like this."
A proliferation of boutiques, books and even a movie now caters to Japan's Lolita crowd. A chain called Baby, the Stars Shine Bright sells the clothing in stores all over the country. Magazines like Gothic & Lolita Bible detail the frilly fashions.
Some Japanese students of youth culture see the Lolita look as a sign of anxieties resulting from growing up in a nation beset by economic insecurities since the early 1990s. "They live in a society that doesn't feel very hopeful about its future," says Rika Kayama, a psychiatrist. By dressing up like babies, the Lolitas are attempting to hang on to the carefree days of childhood, she says.
The conspicuous clothing also satisfies a craving to stand out. Japanese youth are generally less conformist than their parents and often believe it's crucial to be different. "Dressing up like this and having people stare at them makes them feel their existence is worth something," says Yo Yahata, a clinical psychologist who has done case studies and written articles about aspects of Lolita culture.
Ms. Oguchi says dressing up is a way to recapture a sense of childlike playfulness missing in her harried adult life. "It's stress release," she says.
Lolitas regularly gather in places like Tokyo's Harajuku, a neighborhood that for decades has served as a magnet for Japanese counterculture. On a recent warm weekend in Harajuku, dozens of women -- including many who had traveled great distances to be here -- stood around completely covered in frills, holding hands or sucking on lollipops while passersby snapped photos and gawked. Some sat on the ground with legs stretched out in front of them like toddlers.
The look originated in Japan over 30 years ago and has flowered several times since then. The current boom is particularly intense. Many specialty shops sell expensive, elaborately embroidered Lolita clothes. Baby, the Stars Shine Bright stocks dresses priced at more than $200.
A major influence in the current boom is Novala Takemoto, a writer and champion of Lolitas who describes them as women embarking on a soul-searching journey in the face of social scorn. The writer is also one of the biggest rarities in Lolita culture -- a man.
The spiky-haired Mr. Takemoto, whose first name is a pseudonym, has achieved cult status for writing several novels featuring Lolitas, including a big seller about a lonely Lolita in rural Japan who meets a bad girl biker and discovers true friendship. The novel has become the basis for a popular movie, whose English title is "Kamikaze Girls." The producers are seeking a distributor in the U.S.
Mr. Takemoto, whose books and essays encourage Lolita-types to be themselves, practices what he preaches. In a recent interview, the 36-year-old author wore a long black dress decorated with hooks and straps and talked about his childhood interest in dolls and fairy tales. Lolitas, he said, may be reduced to tears when their parents and friends turn against them, but they persevere. "That's the kind of resolve you need to be a Lolita," Mr. Takemoto said.
Despite the nation's reputation as a culture with a love of all things cute, many in mainstream Japan are contemptuous of the Lolita look. Fans of the style talk about being called stupid by strangers, getting mean looks and having chewing gum stuck to the backs of their dresses. Ms. Otani, the store clerk, says her clothes get so many stares that her boyfriend, who dresses in punk fashion, won't go out with her unless she wears something else.
Many Lolitas lead a double life, wearing normal clothes when they work or go to school, and "doing Lolita" in their free time. Twenty-year-old Eriko Hirano says she normally wears jeans and a T-shirt for her job at a convenience store. But on her days off, she gets gussied up in billowy dresses, some of which she makes herself. Ms. Hirano's recent creation: A Nurse Lolita costume. She converted her mother's white nurse coat into a lace-trimmed dress, and added on a Florence Nightingale cap and red stethoscope to complete the look. "I want a complete transformation," Ms. Hirano says.
The term for the look comes from Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel "Lolita," about a middle-age man's obsession with a young girl. The frumpy, frilly fashion, however, is not considered particularly sexy by Japanese men. To be sure, the little-girl look has a place in Japan's sex industry -- the school uniform, especially, is considered an erotic symbol by some -- but this particular trend has remained outside the realm of men's magazines and pornography.
Within the group of Lolitas, there are subtle differences. One faction prefers the "sweet Lolita" style -- characterized by soft hues of pink, blue and cream. A growing number of fans are also exploring the "Gothic Lolita" style -- a macabre take on the trend in which women dress themselves in ruffles and lace of all black.
Atsuko Takagi, 23, who recently visited Tokyo from northern Japan, walked around in a ruffle-covered, black-and-white dress and says that the Lolita style gives her a sense of power.
"I normally look down at my feet, but when I'm wearing my Lolita outfit, I'm more confident," she says. "This is the real me."