Lolita: A Street Fashion and Lifestyle

Lolita fashion comes in various forms. Just as every other street fashion and lifestyle, there a countless subcategories to address before throwing out a blanket term such as "Lolita." In general, a good working definition of what Lolita is and stands for is: A fashion subculture that is primarily influenced by Victorian clothing. The Lolita lifestyle is one that surrounds itself with etiquette, beauty and doll-like cuteness. After the initial birth of the Lolita style fashion, DIY artists would add their own artistic flare to their Lolita inspired dresses, stockings and bows. These innovations lead to a more diverse fashion subculture.

Some Popular Subcategories
In Brief

• Ama-loli/ Sweet Lolita - This Lolita style emphasizes soft, pastel colors and is often garnished in sweets such as cupcakes and candy. There are many child-like motifs incorporated in its design.

• Shiro Lolita - In contrast to her counterpart Kuro Lolita ("Kuro" meaning "Black"), Shiro Lolita revolves around the beauty and simplicity of the color white. Being a rather neutral Lolita style, it often crosses over with Sweet Lolita and often Gothic Lolita.

• Gothic Lolita - This style combines Lolita with Gothic trends. Black is often the favored color of choice. While some will settle for something that resembles Kuro Lolita, many a loli with accent their dresses with bats, Medieval crosses, wilted flowers and other common Gothic fashion trends.

• Gore Lolita - Gore Lolita caters to the look of a broken and injured doll. this style is fairly neutral in that it can be a type of Gothic Lolita trends and even Sweet Lolita although that is not as common. These Lolitas will wrap themselves in bandages and even stain parts of their outfit with fake blood to make them appear injured and vulnerable.

• Wa Lolita - These Waloli's combine Lolita aesthetics with traditional Japanese garments. Many of their patterns derive from silk kimonos and often incorporate the traditional Obi.

• Rococo Lolita - Rococo Lolita's embrace the patterns and traditional designs from the Rococo period. this style is heavily influenced by the Rococo color palette and love of ruffles and antiqued lace.

• Kodona - This Lolita style caters to the males who want to participate in the popular street fashion. this style utilizes Victorian hats, vests and often times Visual Kei inspired footwear.

 Lolita Lifestyle

The lifestyle choices of a Lolita often don't stop at the clothing style itself. Many people choose to enjoy dressing in this fashion all days of the week for several years if not their full lifetime. This act of defiance against the mainstream, casual and more acceptable fashions is considered very admirable. Choosing to look, act and dress how you feel best despite public ridicule and disruption of harmony is a very hard thing to do.

With the Lolita style comes an often shy and vulnerable demeanor that is polite, courteous and sometimes very playful. This of course isn't the only type of Lolita personality however the quiet onlooker personality is more or less the most common. Many people confuse their politeness with dullness.

A more in depth description of the Lolita Lifestyle is in this video I found on a blog I've recently started actively watching called Lolita Charm. The author of the blog posted this the other day and I was quite inspired by these girls that I had to share it.