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The Lolita Fashion Identity
Since the dawning of the Japanese Lolita phenomenon, the classic fashion
style has evolved, categories and subcategories have arisen, rules have been
adapted and altered and branches multiplied. These offshoots are now too
numerous to highlight and tedious to read about. This is partly due to the
movement’s shift from an insular, somewhat elitist, underground Japanese
subculture whereby participants often created their own garments, towards
an increasingly worldwide, more mainstream, designer trend. This is the
natural progression for any “typical” subculture made visible via fashion *
and it is an issue I examine in the concluding chapter of this thesis, titled
“The Death of a Subculture?”. However for the purpose of this thesis,
which is essentially an analysis of the Japanese Lolita phenomenon in its
“authentic” subcultural state, I first describe herein the three major
categories of the original fashion movement.
* Take, for example, the journey of Punk.
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