[Cakes]

Originally Posted by TalnSG

First, kudos to all of you who acknowledged the fact that fashion is first and foremost an issue of approriate tailoring to one’s own body, not someone’s perception of who should wear it and who should not. Even better were the concrete examples.
But I find questioning of appropriate body types for counter-culture fashion fads rather ironic. At the core of such trends is an insistence on doing something counter to acceptable mainstream norms. The original goal of Lolita was to be outrageous, before the emphasis shifted to cute. What is more outrageous than a fashion style on a body that is clearly not suited to the foundation of the image?

I think that's a very thoughtful and interesting point of view. I can see where you're coming from, definitely.

I wasn't around at the start, so there's no way I can talk with any certainty about it. But the very first foundings of the look, even before the visual kei wave that influenced it for a while, indeed seemed both about looking strange, and yet also looking beautiful. The emphasis appears to always have been on an old-world image in a place out of its time, and history is generally so romanticised. It's not a true image, only an ideal - we focus a lot on ideals.
Was it Miss Caro-chan who once said that to do the exact opposite of a rule was not to escape its influence; only to be entirely as influenced by it in a different manner? Lolita, while certainly not a mainstream-appearing fashion, has never given at least myself a vibe of actively rebelling against the mainstream. It seems almost more of a rebellion against rebellion itself; escapism.

I deeply respect you for that opinion, but still - I think that in such a sumptuous, gorgeous, hedonistic fashion that to look beautiful is more important than making an effort of doing it to shock. We shock by default. We don't need to try any harder. Sweet Lolita's frilly dresses in little-girl pastels with big historical skirts with cakes on, enormous bows on our heads, huge jewellery, the intrigue of gothic Lolita's juxtaposition of darkness and childhood, classic Lolita's fashions inspired by the clothing of hundreds of years ago; the overall feel of a certain mock innocence to the fashion - it's not going to be blending into the jeans and T-shirts!

Everyone is beautiful; but everyone should know how to show off their beauty, too. We do it for ourselves and it makes us feel good. If we look good in our own eyes, then that is what matters, not the opinions of others. I think that more of us dress this way because we love the aesthetic, and not just because we want to be different. It's a part of the fashion, to be true, but there is an overwhelming magic in the fashion's beauty. To be beautiful in our own eyes is to share in that magic.

Gosh, I hope that made sense.