Japan is a weird place. From its movies to its festivals to its dining habits, the country has a long history of giving birth to some truly bizarre sh*t, then sending it overseas to our eagerly awaiting, comparatively bland Western hands.

The most recent weirdo Eastern trend to show up on American shores is the fashion movement known as Lolita. Despite the fact that is sounds like some filthy daddy-daughter fetish scene, Lolita, according to most enthusiasts, has nothing at all to do with sexuality and everything to do with embracing your inner well-behaved Victorian-era prepubescent girl.

Ladies who practice Lolita do so by dressing themselves like the porcelain doll that your got for your eighth birthday, then going online to connect with other girls who dress like the porcelain doll that you got for your eighth birthday, then getting together to do things like sing karaoke, drink tea, and attend animae conventions.

Huh.

According to one Lolita site, the movement originated in the 1980s when Japanese teens would kick it every weekend in downtown Tokyo jamming to rock bands and getting all gussied up for each other. A small faction of girls on this scene, for one reason or another, started sporting Little-Bo-Peep-esque ensembles; a few key trendmakers picked up on the look and started companies like Baby, The Stars Shine Bright and Manifesteange Metamorphose temps de fille that specialized in producing the frilly, old-fashioned clothing, some Japanese rock bands embraced the trend, and thus the Lolita subculture was born. Read More »