Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 12-12-2012 12:00 AM Maiden’s Fashion As Eternal Becomings: Victorian Maidens and Sugar Sweet Cuties Donning Japanese Street Fashion in Japan and North America An Nguyen The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Regna Darnell The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Anthropology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © An Nguyen 2012 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Nguyen, An, "Maiden’s Fashion As Eternal Becomings: Victorian Maidens and Sugar Sweet Cuties Donning Japanese Street Fashion in Japan and North America" (2012). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1042. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1042 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. 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MAIDEN’S FASHION AS ETERNAL BECOMINGS: VICTORIAN MAIDENS AND SUGAR SWEET CUTIES DONNING JAPANESE STREET FASHION IN JAPAN AND NORTH AMERICA (Spine title: Maiden’s Fashion As Eternal Becomings) (Monograph) by An Nguyen Graduate Program in Anthropology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © An Nguyen 2012 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners ______________________________ ______________________________ Dr. Regna Darnell Dr. Douglass St. Christian Supervisory Committee ______________________________ Dr. Andrew Walsh ______________________________ ______________________________ Dr. Shelley McKellar ______________________________ ______________________________ Dr. Harriet Lyons The thesis by An Thuy Nguyen entitled: Maiden’s Fashion As Eternal Becomings: Victorian Maidens and Sugar Sweet Cuties Donning Japanese Street Fashion in Japan and North America is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ______________________ _______________________________ Date Chair of the Thesis Examination Board ii Abstract Lolita fashion is a youth street style originating from Japan that draws on Victorian-era children’s clothing, Rococo aesthetics, and Western Punk and Gothic subculture. It is worn by teenage girls and women of a wide range of ages, and through the flow of related media and clothing aided by the Internet, Lolita style has become a global phenomenon. Wearers of the style are known as Lolitas, and local, national, and global communities can be found around the world outside Japan from North American to Europe. This study is a cross- cultural comparison of Lolita fashion wearers in Japan and North America, examining how differences in constructions of place and space; conceptualizations about girlhood and womanhood; perceptions of beauty and aesthetics; and formation of social groups and actor-networks have bearing on how an individual experiences the fashion. This work deconstructs Lolita style by using Japanese cultural concepts like shōjo (‘girl’ as a genderless being), otome (maiden), kawaii (cuteness) to explore the underlying framework that informs Japanese Lolita’s use of the fashion as a form of subversive rebellion, creating personal spaces to celebrate their individuality and revive the affects and memories of girlhood that are distanced from gendered social expectations. English-speakers, not having the same social and cultural knowledge, attempt to recontexualize Lolita fashion along the lines of feminism, sisterhood, personal style, and escape from the ‘modern’ to give meaning and purpose to their involvement with the fashion. Lolita fashion allows wearers to travel in between the lines of becoming-girl and becoming-women by offering a way to access girl- feeling and its associated happiness objects. Keywords Japanese street fashion, Japanese popular culture, material culture, Internet, subculture, clothing and dress, women’s studies. iii Acknowledgments It would have not been possible to write this dissertation without the help and support of the kind people around me, to only some of whom it is possible to give particular mention here. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Regna Darnell for her support, patience, and guidance throughout the research and the writing of the thesis. I would also like to give thanks to Dr. Douglass St. Christian, Dr. Andrew Walsh, Dr. Shelley McKellar, and Dr. Harriet Lyons for their helpful feedback and for serving on my examination committee. A big thank you to Dr. Carole Farber for her feedback and for the reading course I did with her that aided me greatly when working on this research project. Again, thank you all – I have learned so much from you all over the years. I am thankful and grateful to everyone who participated in this study, for giving me their time and letting me hear their thoughts. I want to thank each and every one of you for your help along the way. Special thanks also goes to the staff at PMX, the designers of Angelic Pretty, Katō Kuniko, Chantilly, Shortcake Poodle, and Moon Afternoon for their help and as well as to Sumire no Tenmado and its patrons. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and friends for their unwavering encouragement and support especially during the writing stage of the thesis. Thank you for believing in me. iv Table of Contents CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION ............................................................................. ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. v Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. v List of Figures and Diagrams ..................................................................................... viii List of Appendices ............................................................................................................ x Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 How I Came to Study Lolita Fashion ................................................................ 5 Methodology and Fieldwork ............................................................................ 10 About Words and Names ................................................................................. 22 Layout of the Dissertation ................................................................................. 23 Chapter 1 An Introduction to Lolita Fashion ............................................................. 26 Lolita Fashion and Magazines .......................................................................... 27 1980s: Pink House, Olive Magazine, and Nagomu Gals ............................... 32 1990s: CUTiE Magazine and Early Lolita Fashion ......................................... 34 Late-1990s: FRUiTS and Harajuku Fashion Travels Overseas..................... 37 Mid-1990s and 2000s: KERA , the Gothic & Lolita Bible , Gothic Lolita, and Visual Rock ...................................................................................... 41 Mid-2000s to Now: Shimotsuma Monogatari , Sweet Lolita, and Current Trends ...................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 2 Places and Spaces in the Actual and Virtual ........................................... 51 I. Japan ............................................................................................................................. 56 The Harajuku Myth ........................................................................................... 56 v Lolita Places in Tokyo and Harajuku’s Changing Landscape ..................... 67 A Place Called Harajuku ................................................................................... 73 Lolita’s Fluid Spaces and Places ....................................................................... 80 II. Overseas and On the Internet .................................................................................. 94 The EGL Community on Livejournal and Other Internet Spaces ............... 98 The Underground of EGL and Internet Drama ........................................... 104 Conflicts and Distance ..................................................................................... 111 Outside the Internet ......................................................................................... 119 Connectedness and Perception of Group and Community ....................... 125 Girlhoods and Sisterhoods: Creation of Places ........................................................ 133 Chapter 3 Girl-Feelings, Aesthetics, and Becomings .............................................. 137 I. The Shōjo and Her Culture .....................................................................................