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A New Generation of Lolitas ...
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/nyregion/thecity/28trib.html?ref=thecity
The City Visible
A New Generation of Lolitas Makes a Fashion Statement
By DABRALI JIMENEZ
Published: September 26, 2008
THE Lolitas are here and in full bloom. Theirs is a world in which the childhood fantasy of Alice in Wonderland seems to collide full force with the Addams Family. Its myriad influences include Victorian children’s wear, the French Rococo period, goth-inspired darkness and Japanese anime. Many Lolitas make their own clothes or have them specially commissioned.
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Ellie Frye, Lolita of Bushwick, Brooklyn. More Photos »
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Nancy Ramos, a 22-year-old photographer’s assistant who lives in Co-op City in the Bronx, was first drawn to Lolitas at Genericon, an anime convention in Troy, N.Y.
“I saw a girl dressed as a Lolita and thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen,” Ms. Ramos said. “She was wearing a pair of rocking-horse ballerina shoes, and I had never seen anything like them before. I was fascinated that you could walk with your heel missing.”
While the term Lolita is usually associated with Vladimir Nabokov’s ground-breaking novel “Lolita,” about a 12-year-old temptress, these Lolitas insist there is no connection between them and their namesake.
“We share the same name,” said Amber Rutland, 18, of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Ms. Rutland, a student of City-as-School, an alternative high school, is an active member of the city’s Lolita community, whose numbers are elusive. She added: “Our Lolita is an elegant young girl inspired by Victorian or Rococo times. They aspire to create a sense of nobility.”
The style, which emerged from the Japanese street fashion scene in the 1990s, has many incarnations and subsects, among them Elegant Gothic Lolitas, Erotic Lolitas, Gory Lolitas, Sweet Lolitas and White Lolitas. While some practitioners veer toward the goth influence with inky black garb, others emphasize what they describe as “cuteness” expressed through pastel colors and pretty bows.
In New York, Sweet Lolitas are especially popular. “It is the most childlike of the looks,” Ms. Rutland said. “A lot of the prints are fruits and sweets or cute animals.”
Frilly skirts with petticoats, baby-doll dresses, bloomers, corsets and high-necked, ruffled shirts are all part of the style, and no look is complete without a parasol, a headdress, a handbag or the perfect pair of Mary Janes. Fine lace and demure cuts emphasize the overarching preference for modesty.
For many young women, being a Lolita is more than a way of dress. It is a state of mind, a way to live even when not dressed as a Lolita. As Ms. Ramos summed it up, “For me, Lolita is rebellion."
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