I did a search for this and was surprised that there was no topic about Gothic Lolita. I saw a topic about the Japanese goth scene, but from what I've read about Japanese subcultures, Gothic Lolita is considered a separate subculture.

Anyway, I want know what your opinion of the Gothic Lolita style is. I find the style to be so cute , but I wouldn't wear any of it because I feel I'm too old to pull it off. Still, I enjoy seeing other women who can pull it off. I have a two year old cousin who I would love to buy Gothic Lolita clothing for on her Birthday and for Christmas, but I know my aunt would kill me if I did(she's very old fashioned).

P.S. If I ever decide to have a kid one day and it ended up being a girl, I would so dress her up in Gothic Lolita fashion.

It's all right. Just another street fashion. There's nothing really that gothic about it at all.

I've had many a discussion about Gothic+Lolita with the all goodly Centurion. In the long run, I like the subculture because it shares the same wardrobe aesthetic with Romantigoths (like moi), and many western goths do use Gothic Lolita as their main gimmick (not in a pejorative sense). I do collect Gothic and Lolita Bible for sewing inspirations (I'm more into Elegant Gothic Aristocrat and Wa/Qi-Lolita). Other than that, I view it as a completely different subculture, despite a lot of people misunderstanding the difference between Gothic Subculture and Lolita Subculture.

From what I've learned, a lot of Japanese Goths don't really like Gothic Lolita.

That reminds me of this time, at another so-called 'goth' forum when someone posted a link and wanted knowledge about a certain dress they liked because they loooooved EGL. I explained to them that despite how much they liked EGL, the dress they linked to was EGA. And described the difference between the two and got a *meh* in response. Even though they had requested knowledge.

Damn kids...

BlueRose, why does that name seem familiar? I always tell people that there is NO AGE LIMIT to what you want to wear within this subculture. It is ALL in how you carry yourself!

People seem to take for granted that just because Lolita is a rather mainstream and heavily commercialized fashion subculture (at least in Japan), it's still a subculture with its own aesthetics. Just as there are many types of goths, there are several categories of lolitas. gothic and sweet are the most popular, but with that there is punk, casual, sailor, guro, classic, country, and "cosplay" (yes; even THEY have their own brand of inexperienced posers). Among others...

It's interesting to read G+LB. There's an article on how one should dress and act at a party (that's obviously lolita-themed), so I'm guess that there are some people who don't just do this as a weekend thing.

I think lolita is really cute too; but I don't exactly consider it to be goth. I guess it depends on how you pull it off. Hope that makes sense

I think there's a group on livejournal all about the Lolita lifestyle that explained the differences between them all. Was that a link you posted here or did I see it elsewhere?

It was very interesting.

Hmm, I think it might have been someone else. But I know of a different website that explains it pretty well:

Lolita Fashion

Here's another one:
Lolita Live Journal

Thanks a bunch!

Squeeee! I've always wanted to see a han(hanbok) lolita! ^o^

That's amaizing! I never knew lolita was so versatile, or thst it was it's own subculture! Call me living under a rock, but being obsessed with the Japanese, I'm very suprised I hadn't heard more about this! I will definitily be incorporateing some aristocrat, punk and shiro into my wardrobe!

There are a lot of different lolita subtypes but the curent trend of the subculture is ruled by the main lolita clothing brands (Baby The Stars Shine Bright, Angelic Pretty, Metamorphose, Moi Meme Moite, etc.). When last I checked, sweet lolita was in, but country lolita was big the previous year and gothic lolita the year before that. It depends on what the main designers put out and its gotten really far away from its DIY roots, its all about who you're wearing in certain circles.

Hm. I didn't even know that the original gothic and lolita scene had any DIY roots. From what I read Gothic Lolita, at least, was started by the Visual Kei music genre, which was primarily done by Malice Mizer, whose main man was Mana, who started Moi Meme Moite, the big fahsion line.

I know DIY and Lolita is bigger outside of Japan, though.

Before Mana put out his line, people started copying the outfits he wore on stage with Malice Mizer.

I don't really like the whole world of Gothic Lolita, nor visual kei, if to relate the two.

But that of course is a matter of taste :)