lolita

over the weekend i discovered & proceeded to research a world of fashion unbeknownst to me until some (i'll be frank) random facebook stalking provoked my curiosity. intrigued by the weird combination of victorian & childish costumes prevalent in these pictures, i went to google &, using clues from the captions, discovered lolita, a fashion subculture that originated in japan in the 80's. @ first i was under the impression that it had developed as a materialized form of fan-fiction for a manga character. i appear to have been wrong. while many a manga does depict japanese super-girls in the lolita image, the fashion culture is more than fan-fiction. the style has become its own movement & has managed to permeate the western hemisphere, almost detached from manga.
even though the most common definition of the word "lolita" is a seductive adolescent girl (think reverse pedophilia), the fashion movement is almost entirely antonymous. from what i have gathered, lolita is most simply described as a fashion subculture influenced by the victorian/edwardian & french rococo movements of art/clothing in history. part of the harajuku social scene in the 1980's, lolita has developed a vast following for teenage girls & women in their early twenties. lolita has recognizable sub-genres, the most popular of which include gothic, sweet, classic, & punk, not to mention more specific styles like waloli (incorporating japanese traditional styles), oji (boystyle & more gender-neutral), & guro lolita (incorporating fake blood/injuries).
sweet:
followers & analysts explain that lolitas dress like aristocratic children from the early 1800's to rebel against the modern societal tenet that women's clothing should be sexy & flatter/reveal the body to make the woman more attractive. regardless of the sub-genre, a typical lolita outfit from top to bottom consists of a large bow or headpiece, a ruffley blouse worn under a jumper-type dress or with a full skirt, an apron, bloomers or a petticoat, knee-high socks, & platform mary-jane shoes.

needless to say, the ensemble is 100% chaste, save for the skirt/dress, which rarely falls below the knee. many a pervy mind might think this is supposed to appeal to pervy middle-aged men who love little girls. lolitas' reply: WRONG WRONG WRONG. refusing to conform to the societal norm that is revealing clothing & escaping to a "fantasy world" where things like princesses, garden tea parties, & parasols are staples, not tomfoolery, are two major principles that characterize the lolita culture.
supposedly it also makes a statement against the gender roles prescribed by japanese culture, but i think that might not apply to every frill-loving lolita out there. there are some lolitas that completely immerse themselves in the movement, but others that just use the movement - which consists of the clothing (never referred to as costume) and social gatherings (usually tea parties) - as an escape from their daily lives. this is where the appeal to the western world lies.
part of me loves the idea of entire stores devoted to the re-creation and marketing of victorian clothing, because i am a history nerd. but part of me really can't quite decide what to make of the whole thing. i checked out the website for baby, the stars shine bright, a lolita pillar from the 80's that has recently adapted its website into english & opened stores in america & paris. the clothing is weird & adorable, but extraordinarily pricey. the life of a lolita is one of extreme expense. because every element must be historically accurate & match perfectly - coordination is inextricably bound to lolita fashion - outfits cannot mix & match. a cheap lolita ensemble might go for $300.
in conclusion, i may secretly want to order myself a few blouses & bows from places like angelic pretty or innocent world, but for now i think i'll continue to keep my historical dressing frequent but subdued. except on days i must present something in euro. then this is totally appropriate.

21 babies

i have always known that forever 21 manufactures many a designer copy-cat.selling the sweat-shop cheap version of a highly coveted designer's top or headband so that a wide audience can embrace a high-fashion trend is all well & good until imitation becomes cloning. sometimes the copy-cats are beyond comparison - save a detail or two, the imitation is a mirror image. how is it that this happens without a protest from the fashion-world?
well, i researched it. i figured the problem was the lack of copyright & therefore lack of actual copyright infringement on the part of forever 21. apparently quite a few lawsuits have been filed, but because of the aforementioned loophole the cases are hard to settle. according to New York Fashion Magazine, trovata filed suit against the store for its extremely deliberate copying about a year ago, following many a case filed based on copyright infringement (for the use of copyrighted graphics etc.).
high-end designers like diane von furstenburg & more accessible stores like urban outfitters have tried to end the copying, but all of their actions are practically futile. forever 21 continues to blatantly copy, & seems to just move from naive designer to naive designer until they are sued.

exhibit a

two weeks ago i purchased the BCBG belt seen above (also seen in justice post) from lord & taylor for about $56. i had chosen it over a black studded belt, also BCBG, that was going for $42. a week later i was in forever 21 only to find a dolly the sheep version of the latter belt. the only difference between it & BCBG's is the closure- BCBG fastens its belt with snaps, forever 21 with metal loops. part of me wanted to buy it - $40 cheaper, it was highly appealing - but part of me resented the store far too much. it turns out my mother decided to buy forever 21's belt for me, but i can't help feeling guilty when i wear it.
it will be interesting to see where forever 21 finds itself in a few years. undeniably successful because of its cheap prices, i'm not sure its profits will always match its lawsuit settlements.

in other news, last night i babysat. dressing to babysit always stresses me out. i settled on an ultra-chaste ensemble because i couldn't show up wearing that pictured outfit. the skirt is from the little girls' section of target. chances of the baby & the babysitter wearing it at the same time were too high to take the risk!
XL children's skirt too big for me = a topic for another day. see yuh!

short men lololol

as hard as elle woods tried to convince me that the endorphins from aerobics will someday help to prove me innocent when my rich, old husband turns up dead, i am adamantaly unathletic. i hold ap sports on a pedestal alongside ap missing eyebrows, but no higher.

& yet, despite this, i find myself spending two weeks glued to channel four every two years, unwilling to miss even a moment of the action that is the olympic games. i do watching snowboarders put on display that each of them has a death wish & watching skiiers' thighs fall off as they hike uphill, but the ice skating is where my heart lies (as admittedly unsurprising as this may be). this year, though, the costumes have been more than i even i can handle (in some cases). to honour their creators for ap sparkle usage, i am dedicating this post to the men's short program. perhaps similar posts will follow.

i can only find adequate free-standing photos of the american skaters, for now. i can only provide the link to a slideshow of freezeframes courtesy of NBC, most of which take away from the costumes because of the ABSURD faces the skaters were caught making & positions in which they were caught. view said slideshow here. i have listed my comments in an order that corresponds with the slideshow.

stephane lambiel: my Renaissance hero
samuel contesti: the most lovable italian hillbilly if i've ever seen one, wearing flannel (why is allison the most mentioned person on this blog)& fitted overalls with extraordinarily underscored talent, too
johnny weir: takes the cake with his tassle & his sass


evan lysacek: feathers didn't make sense until dick button said he was dancing to firebird.. despite the fact he was amazing, his hair looked disgusting. a bad version of ulysses' hair in "o brother where art thou"


thomas verner: if the rope around his waist had been brown instead of white, this sailor boy could've stolen my heart even more ♥♥♥

justice

through an inexplicable turn of events i found myself in possession of ticket to the sold-out justice concert @ terminal 5 just hours before it began last night. i dressed up as hipster as humanly possible & headed to the city with reilly & josh where we'd be meeting up with a bunch of other friends. the night turned into a case of "everything is going my way", or, to quote allison, "i wanted it & so i got it". in the same way new years eve did. using our girlish wiles, reilly & i convinced our comrades we should breech the pit floor instead of waiting until later in the night to do so. this, for better or for worse, got us stuck on the floor raving for five and a half straight hours. every dj who performed was good - but even more amazing than justice was uffie. her surprise appearance almost caused me to faint, which really confused the stranger with which i was dancing. in summation, it was the craziest, most extraordinary concert/rave experience ever, from the shower of balloons to the showers of mysterious liquids, from dancing with no skirt to sweating my skirt off, from coincidentally finding friends in the crowd to losing our friends completely & finding ourselves so close we could touch the stage.... & uffie was there.


"+5 hipster points for just standing near me"
how to win the hipster award: cut up white t-shirt, american apparel skirt, completely pointless disco glasses, $1 second-hand black purse, & an attitude to match lawlzZZzz



the world

simultaneously forming a 3-person unbreakable barrier to protect our feet & our souls

chilly cuz cat was lyin on coat

... fur on faux fur = ethical dilemma of the month

so anyway


i haven't quite decided if i want to list brands & if so to what extent, so for now i will tack this on. (cardigan) kimichi & blue (belt) vintage (skirt) bb dakota (boots) franco sarto

sweater & skirt detail
  


in other news: you should watch this.
much like the cuteoverload poster, i have no idea what this ad is saying - nor do i know what it's advertising - but it's soo exxxxxxcellent. thx 2 allys0n for the cute overload insight some weeks ago.