Product Description

Never Before Published Photographs Celebrating the Eclecticand Bizarre Street Fashion of Japan's Teens Follows the Popularity of Phaidon's Fruits and Fresh Fruits A fashion phenomenon born in the underground clubs of Tokyo and Osaka hasmade its way aboveground.The streets of Japan are filled with teenagersclad in corsets, spikes, lacy Victorian dresses, dark eye makeup, blackspandex, frilly tutus, patterned knee-highs, ruffled bows, and wigs of alllengths and styles.A mixture of high fashion and home-made ensembles, theGothic and Lolita scene is one of the more bizarre hybrids of Japanesestreet fashion, boasting thousands of devotees who dedicate their lives tocreating ever more flamboyant and original variations of this fusedstyle. GOTHIC LOLITA, edited by Katsuhiko Ishikawa with photographs by MasayukiYoshinaga, is a new and exclusive photography collection that celebratesthe eclectic and bizarre Gothic street fashion of Japan's teens.Speciallycommissioned by Phaidon Press and based on the creative design of the bestselling Fruits and Fresh Fruits, GOTHIC LOLITA features portraits andgroup shots of Japanese Goths and Lolitas both at home and in the urbancenters of Tokyo and Osaka. Presented in a simple format with a funky design, hundreds of teenagersposed for the camera in their imaginative and often surreal outfits andoffered personal insights into the idea behind their personal fashionchoices.The responses are sometimes surprising, sometimes shocking, oftenhilarious, and always compelling.The images combined with the text, whichis presented in question and answer format, present a unique "look book" ofone of the more surreal aspects of Japanese popular youth culture.GOTHIC LOLITA allows us to trespass on the streets of Japan and witness in aninformative yet entertaining way this fashion phenomenon. The origin of this eccentric fashion movement traces back to Osaka in themid 1990s when young teenagers adopted Gothic fashion in response to theclothes worn and promoted by Japanese Gothic rock bands.Influenced byWestern fashion trends from the mid 1980s, young teenagers, predominatelyadolescent girls, dress head-to-toe in gothic costumes and late-Victoriandress.GOTHIC LOLITA charts the current trend from the clubs of Tokyo tothe streets of Harajuku and Akihabara. These street fashions provide inspiration to professional and would-befashion designers, as well as teenagers and Gothic' fans from coast tocoast.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #211121 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-01
• Released on: 2007-05-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author
Masayuki Yoshinaga is one of the leading fashion and reportage photographers of his generation, his images have appeared in such magazines as Dazed & Confused and The Face. His work was recently shown in the Barbican Art Centre's Jam exhibition and at the Dazed & Confused Gallery in London. He lives in, and continues to investigate, the subcultures of Tokyo.

Customer Reviews

A favourite photobook
The book is and isn't "gothic and lolita," as in the doll-style and related clothing originating from Japan. You will only find a handful of well-attired lolitas.
You will also find a number of photos of people sporting the very expensive Takuya Angel brand; however dramatic the cartoonish samurai outfits, these will have you puzzling your head as the look has nothing to do with either goth or lolita --at least the latter two styles bear some relation to each other.
However, this is one of my favourite visual books. Not only is the paper lustrous (and for that matter, a book with a nice smell), the book's content bristling with sartorial creativity continues to impress me since its release in 2007, or two years ago.

Somewhat tepid
Many of us in the West were introduced to Harajuku street fashion through a) Gwen Stefani and b) Fruits and Fresh Fruits by Shoichi Aoki. These photo collections, published by Phaidon Press, document the over-the-rainbow style of Japanese teens. Last May, Phaidon released a new lookbook, titled Gothic & Lolita. Each page has a full-color portrait of one or more youths on the streets of Osaka and Tokyo. Included are their names, ages, and replies to questions about their outfits.

Gothic & Lolita is a prime example of never judging a book by its cover. The term "Gothic Lolita" refers to a distinct category of fashion, along with its subgenres and social culture. The title and cover image (of two Sweet Lolitas) imply that the book focuses on Gothic Lolita and its complementary styles. But the "&" proves to be crucial: the introduction differentiates Lolita from Goth, and the portraits include a number of Punk, Cyber, and Club Goth looks with no Lolita elements whatsoever.

At least half of the photos have little to do with Gothic Lolita; in other words, we're got a lot of pancake-powdered extras from Dawn of the Dead. All this is fine - but if someone picks up the book looking for an overview of Gothic Lolita fashion, then she will be disappointed, or even worse, utterly misled.

Phaidon's lookbook DOES contain unequivocally Goth Loli outfits, such as dresses and coats from Baby, Metamorphose, and Black Peace Now. But the wide and exhilarating spectrum of Lolita subgenres is under-represented (see next post). And the outfits portrayed are rather bland.

When I read Fruits, my eyes were popping out as I turned each page. I didn't have nearly the same experience with Gothic & Lolita; the inclusion of strictly Goth looks is confusing, and the originality and whimsy of Lolita fashion is not conveyed. The book is worth a flip-through, but I would turn to the Gothic and Lolita Bibles, Japanese style magazines such as Kera, and websites to get a more coherent understanding of the style. Definitely check out the Gothic Lolita fashion website, http://www.lacarmina.com