The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

and formalised the Gothic and Lolita-like image, as well as the Gothic Lolita
title with his EGL range in 1999, it could be deduced that he was the
originator of both the term and the style. In any case, even if not the
inventor of Lolita fashion, Mana, as the first celebrity to embody the
Gothloli image, can be identified as the motivator of the Lolita movement
as a subculture.
Considering that “Gothic Lolita fashion has been one of the most
popular looks in the Harajuku area since 1999”, 14 the same year that Mana
created his fashion label, he may be implicated in the momentum of its
popularity but certainly he is responsible for the actual following which goes
back further to the early-nineties Mizer years. While Mana took advantage of
his popularity by commercialising, marketing and capitalising on his own
image through his company Moitié, the inception of Lolita as a craze was the
adoption of his style by fanatical young women supporters.
Says Suzuki, “not only did fans copy his clothes, they mimicked his
every word and gesture, adopting his gentility. Mana was the Gothloli
fashion world’s leader”. 15 By the culmination of Malice Mizer’s success and
eventual disbanding in 2001, the Gothloli identity was fully formulated and
Mana had largely if not absolutely created the impetus for a fully-fledged
subcultural movement.
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