Takeshita Dori in Harajuku Shopping District Here I Come!

With my fascination with all things Japanese, I decided to try and do an interpretation of the Elegant Goth Lolita Fashion. I wanted to do this for this year's Halloween. I'm not sure where that will be at, but I thought I would at least get myself ready.

The Elegant Goth Lolita fashion has been credited to a Japanese guitarist who calls himself Mana. He played for a group called Malice Mizer (pronounced Marisu Miseru). A number of the J-rock bands have an androgynous visual theme. Mana's group and Dir En Grey are two of the early bands along with X Japan who is credited with the the Visual Kei movement. The young girls that follow these bands dress in these EGL dresses and gather in the Harajuku Shopping District around Takeshita Dori(Street) in Tokyo on Sunday. It has become quite an attraction to tourist who gather and take photos of all the people that dress in these beautiful costumes. You may find more pictures of the Harajuku Shopping District here.

The look is sometimes dark like the American Gothic or it's light, like Alice in Wonderland. The common theme is Victorian and young girl. Whether it is dark or light the dresses come with lace and a certain amount of poofiness. They are pretty, feminine, and doll like. There is a always some sort of head gear, a small hat mounted on one side, flowers, or bonnet.

This fashion ties seamlessly into the whole cosplay/crossplay, manga, and anime that the Japanese love so much.

Lost in Translation

This was my first stab at the makeup. I used false eyelashes on both top and bottom. The eyeshadow is M.A.C. "Cranberry Frost" and the eyeliner is M.A.C. "Raven". The lips I used both black and red lipstick. The lipstick from is a dark "Go Currant" from Maybeline. I blended the black into the red.

This really isn't an example of EGL by the way. What I'm showing you here is a style sometimes politely called "Cosplay Lolita", or not so politely called "Clueless Lolita"! For an accurate description of all the different sub-categories of Lolita check out the website LolitaFashion.org. But I loved doing it anyways!