Gothic and Lolita

GOTHIC AND LOLITA, edited by Katsuhiko Ishikawa with photographs by Masayuki Yoshinaga, is a new photographic collection that celebrates the eclectic and bizarre street fashion of Japanese popular youth culture. A mixture of high fashion and home-made ensembles, the Gothic and Lolita scene is a bizarre hybrid, boasting thousands of devotees who dedicate their lives to creating ever more flamboyant and original variations of this fused style. The origin of this eccentric fashion movement traces back to Osaka in the mid-1990s when young teenagers adopted Gothic fashion in response to the clothes worn and promoted by Japanese Gothic rock bands. Influenced by Western fashion trends from the mid-1980s, young teenagers, predominately adolescent girls, began to dress in juxtapositions: corsets, spikes, lacy Victorian dresses, dark eye makeup, black spandex, frilly tutus, patterned knee-highs, ruffled bows, and wigs of all lengths and styles.Specially commissioned by Phaidon Press and based on the creative design of the bestselling Fruits and Fresh Fruits, Gothic And Lolita features portraits and group shots of Japanese Goths and Lolitas both at home and in the urban centers of Tokyo and Osaka. Presented in a simple format with a funky design, hundreds of teenagers posed for the camera in their imaginative and often surreal outfits and offered personal insights into the idea behind their personal fashion choices. The responses are sometimes surprising, sometimes shocking, often hilarious, and always compelling.