Lolita fashion has nothing to do with the book Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Nothing
This discourse has been a heavy burden over the western lolita community FOR YEARS
and still somehow manages to come up every so often
I am going to explore all the ways that we can try to get this through peoples' head
in the most simplest terms
People get so caught up in the name "lolita"
because they think that a name is what fully defines something
And as someone who hasn't used their legal name in over 20 years,
I can proudly tell you that that's not true
Let's have an example: football
Do you think if I showed up to a Dallas Cowboys game wearing an Arsenal jersey
that I could tell the Cowboys' fans
"yeah, I wore a FOOTBALL jersey
because it's called FOOTBALL
so it's all the same right?
It has the same name"
How well do you think that would go for me?
Or vice versa
You might make the argument that additional words have been added to "football",
like "American football" versus "English football"
But lolita fashion has done that too
In the west, lolita fashion is almost always referred to as "lolita fashion"
with "fashion" being added onto it so that we can define these two things separately
You could further argue that Americans have adapted the term "soccer" for football
And now I can't speak on behalf of English football clubs, but I feel like if you call
what they do "soccer", they might take a little bit of offense to that
The English speaking community has moved into using the term EGL,
which stands for Elegant Gothic Lolita
In the early days of lolita fashion, this was an umbrella term used for all lolita
even if it didn't resemble what we generally think of when it comes to gothic
I personally think that EGL is a great term to use
It's well established and it will lead you to accurate results
But when it comes down to explaining what EGL stands for,
you still can't escape that word - lolita
There have been many instances where people have brought up alternative names for lolita fashion
And as much as I don't like the name lolita fashion
Because of people's associations with Nabokov I am not going to lead a movement to change it
Because I think that it would be incredibly insensitive to the powerhouse brands
that propelled this movement in the first place and still use it
Lolita fashion is more recognizable by name in Japan
My experiences while visiting, and wearing the fashion, I had lots of people
recognize it and give me compliments People of all different ages, backgrounds, genders
I remember specifically one couple in their 60s that I talked to who were excited to see
me wearing the fashion and I remembered back to all the times in the United States and Canada
that boomers had yelled at me because of the book
When people ask "is lolita fashion like 'the book'?"
they're generally referring to Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita
However there are actual books about lolita fashion
For example, So Pretty Very Rotten is a collection of essays and comics
about actual lolita fashion and community
There's also Misako's book about lolita fashion and both of these can be found
at most book retailers And I really really
suggest them if you want to get more of a sense of what lolita fashion actually is
So is it like the book?
Yeah it's like this book!
Not that book
This is the part of the video where I was going to try to convince you that the book Lolita is bad
And I am so grateful that I happened to speak with a friend
who enjoys the book Lolita and also wears lolita fashion before filming this
Because together we realized that this is an intersection where this discussion often gets lost
Because whether you like the book and adapted films or not really doesn't matter
What matters is that these things are not the same
If you want to have discussions about the book and films I think that it should be held separately
Because it will end up distracting from the real point which is that these things are not the same
I think that if I were to explain my own thoughts and feelings towards the book, there would be
people who wouldn't listen to what I have to say afterwards, which is taking away from my point
That these things are not the same
You don't have to convince me to like the book I don't have to convince you to not like the book
We just both have to agree
[mouths words]
There are a few things about the book I would like to discuss
that I don't think are opinion based
They're just facts about the book
that I think will help explain a little bit more about how they are different
The story in the book Lolita is presented in a foreword by a fictitious John Ray Jr
Who apparently found this memoir of someone who goes by the name of Humbert Humbert
This isn't a 'take it as it is' kind of story
If you read the book Lolita, the perspective comes from an unreliable narrator
In the book's canon, the character Humbert Humbert is the one who has written this story
with the intent for people to read it
Therefore we can't take what he says
as objectively true because he wants people to sympathize and relate to him
As a child, Humbert Humbert fell in love with one of his friends Annabelle, but she passed away
And this experience caused him to have a s****l desire towards 9 to 14 year old girls
Which he refers to as nymphets - not lolitas
After his house burns down, a widow named Charlotte offers to let him stay with her
And she has a 12 year old daughter named Dolores
Also known as: Do, Dolita, Dolly, Lo, Lola, and Lolita
A nickname given to one character not a group of people
From this story the word "lolita" has become an eponym:
a word taken from an imaginary person or name and given meaning
Unfortunately "lolita" has become known in the English language as a
"precociously seductive young girl" without connotations of victimization
But here's the thing the entire story of Lolita - as in the book
and films - is coming from Humbert Humbert's perspective
So who knows what Dolores, AKA Lolita, even actually felt and experienced
This was a literal child who was groomed by an adult man
To reiterate, this is also what Humbert Humbert is saying about Lolita
We don't know if she even behaved this way
And remember, Nabakov did not create the word "lolita"
Lolita has existed as just a name in Spanish for quite a long time
it's a short form of Dolores, similar to how Bill is short for William
So why can't we isolate the book Lolita, which again, I think the definition that people have
taken from that title is more suited to "nymphet" and not the name of a character
We should recognize Lolita as the title of that book and the name of one of the characters
But we should also recognize that it's just a name for actual people
As well as a Japanese sub-style
Why can't all of these things exist separately?
Because people get caught up in the shock of it, they feel an emotional response, and don't listen
I'm going to briefly mention lolicon as it's another common misconception
that's often brought up when people discuss lolita fashion
The Lolita Complex is a book by Russell Trainer
Defines "lolita complex" as an attraction towards young girls or pubescent girls by adult males
I think that this is taking away from the actual victims themselves
and talking about it more as the compulsion
I would have much preferred that he called this "The Nymphet Complex"
because that is more accurate to what Nabokov's original description meant
The Lolita Complex is then what inspired Japanese media to start using the term
"lolicon" which describes essentially the same thing - an attraction to young girls,
an individual with such an attraction, as well as the genre, lolicon, in manga and anime
And honestly I don't know why lolicon exists
I don't know why it's okay for it to exist
That these things are not the same
So what is lolita fashion and how did it get its name?
The exact origins of lolita fashion are unknown although it can be traced as far back as the 1960s
as taking inspirations from another style called natural kei
which glorified a simpler prairie lifestyle and also had Victorian era influences
Another style branched off in the 1970s called otome which means maiden
It is often referred to as a "less elaborate" lolita fashion
although it still exists today, separate from lolita fashion
Simultaneously throughout the 1970s there was a rise in cute and kawaii culture
A large driving force behind this being Sanrio - formally established in 1973
From 1977 to 1998 a large area of Harajuku shopping district
would close to car traffic on Sundays
This is where people would go in order to escape
the rigid office culture in Japan and express themselves
Creating new and unique subcultures and fashion
Lolita fashion being one of them
although I'm not sure what it was referred to at that time
With early brands such as Pink House, Milk and Pretty - later changed to Angelic Pretty
What we now know as lolita fashion was gaining a lot of traction through the 1980s and 90s
largely attributed to visual kei brands starting to wear this style
However the social pressures in Japan for women in the 1980s was to marry a man
The ultimate goal was to be a wife and get married and settle down
So much so that a derogative term arose at this time:
"Christmas cake" which meant that any woman over the age of 25 was no good anymore
Lolita fashion was and still is a rebellion to this
The wearers are dressing for themselves and not with the intention to attract a mate
The modest nature of lolita fashion is very
different from the revealing and s**y styles of the 1980s and 90s
Now I've found that some lolitas have taken this a little too far because they're mostly
tired of being s****lized due to the book and will often reject anything s****l or revealing
And I just want to say it's okay to do both You don't have to choose one or the other
What's really important is that you wear what you want to and that you can make that choice
You aren't trying to fit into someone else's narrative
You aren't trying to get acceptance from someone else or society
You're just wearing what you want to
And this is the heart and soul and the driving force behind lolita fashion
The first known use of the term "lolita" for the fashion
was in the September 1987 issue of Ryoko Tsushin
But I can't say that the magazine came up with the name for it
It's most likely that people were already using this term in Harajuku
in person in order to identify the style that they were wearing
It's possible whoever coined the name "lolita" for lolita fashion just liked
the way it sounded and liked the name
Most sources cite that the name was chosen
because Japanese speakers thought it was cute and enjoyed saying it
Lolita fashion is just about clothes, there's no role-playing aspect
You're not a character,
you don't change who you are, it's not cosplay, it's just people wearing clothes
Which I understand is hard to comprehend because it is so eccentric and different
What Sue Lyon and Dominique Swain wore in both of the films "Lolita" are actually costumes
This is contemporary costume design chosen by costume designers in order to portray a character
If you look at these actual clothing pieces
side by side you can clearly see that they look nothing like one another
The silhouettes are completely different, the fabrics are different,
the prints are different, the way that they're styled is different
Nymphet fashion which was inspired by the costumes of the film's Lolita
Nymphet fashion looks nothing like lolita fashion
I just want to say I don't take credit for this information
These are all things that I have learned throughout the
years from different community members, bloggers, and creators
I encourage you to do more research on your own,
listen to other lolitas, watch other lolita channels, tiktoks, instagram
There's so much information now at your disposal
There are also other people who are even more educated
in this topic and have more information than I do
I was motivated to make this video because of the misinformation that was spread on twitter
and the subsequent backlash from lolitas
The lolita fashion tag on twitter has now been flooded with so much lolita information
so many resources and accounts of lolita
I realized that I haven't made a video about this before because I'm just tired of talking about it
But I realize how important it is to have these sort of things documented
I hope this video has helped you understand lolita fashion a bit more
and give you tools that may help you in the future explain it to people
Whether you share this video or this information by word of mouth
I am incredibly grateful to you, whether you're a lolita or not
The only way that we can grow and create separation between
the Lolita book and lolita fashion is to not give up and continually educate people
Believe it or not I have noticed a significant difference in the last five years
Thanks to media contributions like Vice making documentaries about lolita fashion
I've seen people in Toronto who have recognized it from that and we are making steps forward
We just have to continue it, no matter how grueling and repetitive it becomes
It will help
Thank you so much for supporting me and for supporting this community
And as always, Stay Lovely