The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

So-called Lolita *
The Lolita Subculture
(Jap. Gosurori, Gosuloli = Gothic Lolita, or Gothloli) are
members of a Neo-Gothic subculture, originating in Japan, whereby
adolescent girls and young women are signified by their doll-like
appearances, and childlike manners and dress. This fashion-based
phenomenon, an offshoot of the Japanese Gothic & Lolita (G&L)
movement, arose in its recognised form around the end of the twentieth
century.
Although only gaining ground in Japan over the last decade and
becoming noted elsewhere in very recent years, the Cult of the Lolita is not
that new to the Japanese. Ideas that have contributed to the Lolita craze
have developed since the early 1970s and demonstrate an evolution from
early Glam Rock through to post-Punk, the New Wave, New Romanticism
and the Goth subculture. Stemming from these sensibilities, Lolita fashion
itself emerged in Japan in the 1980s but it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the
movement really began to take hold.
* “Lolita” is used in this context as the singular and plural term, as is “Gothloli”.
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