In modern culture, the name “Lolita” summons the image of a sexually precocious young girl straight from the pages of Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel. But the fashion movement that goes by the same name is far from an attempt to imitate a promiscuous pubescent.
Since the 90’s, the subculture from the streets of Japan has slowly spread to the Western half of the globe. Some believe the style based on Victorian and Rococo clothing is a reaction to an over-sexualized society and a regression back to modesty.
For Morgan Smith, a junior art major at the University of Memphis, wearing Gothic Lolita Dresses is just another way to express her personality. She has been a Lolita — the term for followers of the fashion — for five years. Nearly every morning of her first two years of college she would wake up as early as possible and dress in beautifully patterned skirts with lacy hems, fluffy petticoats and ruffled blouses.
Now, however, she has had to stop wearing it daily to protect her delicate outfits from being ruined. And considering how much she has paid for her collection, it’s shocking she doesn’t keep them in a vault.
In total, she has spent $3,000 on skirts, dresses, stockings, blouses, petticoats, headpieces, wigs and jewelry.
“I’ve worked every day since I was 14,” Smith said. “And I make some of my own dessert-motif rings and necklaces out of clay and silicone to save money.”
With dresses costing between $150 and $300, it is easy to see how the costs can rack up, but another Lolita has Smith beat.
When Leah Barnes, 22, was asked how much she had spent on Lolita in the year and a half she has worn it, she needed a piece of paper, a pen and a half hour to tabulate the figure.
By her count, she has spent over $5,500 — more than semester’s worth of tuition.
She first discovered Lolita through a Japanese rock band called Malice Mizer; one of the leading members has a line of Lolita clothing.
“It was too expensive then, but now I can afford it,” Barnes, a medical laboratory technician, said.
The cost of Lolita is measured in more than dollars, though. Because of its obscurity and association with fetishism, some people respond to Lolitas with rudeness and sometimes outright sexual aggression.
“The fetishist aspect has caused problems for me,” Smith said, emphasizing the word ‘problem’ but declining to elaborate. “When I wore it every day, I was harassed every day.”
Barnes has suffered similarly.
“My worst experience was when three middle school kids in a Walmart parking lot shouted ‘whore’ at me,” Barnes said. “They don’t realize we’re just normal people in different clothes.”
To fend off some of the unwanted attention and to connect with like-minded people, some Lolitas form communities in their cities and towns.
“There are some girls who are too afraid to wear Lolita in public by themselves,” Smith said. “So we meet up, decked out in our frillies and hang out together.”
Although some time is spent talking about Lolita, the majority of the time is spent enjoying each other’s company.
“I love it so much when we’re sitting together in Lolita,” Barnes said. “We might gossip about the latest dress for a little bit but then we’ll get lunch and go see a movie or watch horror movies at someone’s house.”
But, as in any group, there are arguments. One continuing debate is the question of whether it is better to wear brand-name clothing or to wear replicas.
Smith chooses to wear replicas because there are more options for sizing.
“Even if I was thin, Western women tend to have broader shoulders than Japanese women, so it makes it more difficult to find my size if I only bought brand,” Smith said. “Once you know your measurements and know them by heart, it’s easier.”
Victoria Law, sophomore Japanese major, has been wearing Lolita for less than a year, but she’s already determined which side of the fence she’s on.
“Some people can’t afford or even find those pieces directly from the brand to begin with, so it’s not so much a loss of a sale as it is the replicator profiting off a design they didn’t create,” Law said. “I prefer to buy off-brand things myself, but I won’t deny some of the things I’ve purchased were probably influenced by a brand. As long as people are having fun and feel beautiful, I don’t see a reason to have a problem.”
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