Previously in this series: Introduction
The University of Florida conducted a study indicating that humans have only been wearing clothes for 170,000 years. That may seem like a long time until one considers that humans evolved out of having thick full-body hair a million years ago, which leaves hundreds of thousands of years for naked people to stroll the Earth. Humans only began wearing clothing during the ice age when warmth was vital to stay alive (Torrent).
Disclaimer: This argument paper was written for my English class in May, and I've been arguing with myself over whether or not to put this out in public since then. I did my best to educate myself in these topics within a short time span. All content is truthful as best as I could research. The origins of lolita fashion, addressed in this post, is certainly going to be an arguable point, but it was the clearest answer I could provide from a source which has yet to be disproved. If any of the information in this series is wrong, please respectfully inform me specifically what is wrong so that I may look into it and correct it.
Anthropology loosely fills in the gaps of unearthed frozen clothing and renaissance paintings to indicate that hoarding has always been a symbol of status, and the better off one was the more they were likely to have. This makes the first fashion a collection of furs from animals that one killed themselves, with leaders displaying the most fur for both warmth and to display competency. It is interesting that to think in a modern, and much more modest, society we depict cavewomen as more thoroughly clad than their loinclothed male counterparts, even when sexualized. Leaders from tribal chiefs to kings to aristocracy have always set the standard for what is most appropriate or valuable to wear, and it is really only within the last hundred years that fashion has changed “powers.” Fashion, as an artform more than a necessity in contemporary society, is in the hands of fashion designers: artists whose work is the aesthetic nature of modern dress (Hansen). Not all of these fashion designers are big named brands, however. Many modern fashions from goth to glam are born in sync with subcultures.
Most of these subcultures (and their correlating substyles) were born directly out of a particular group’s desire to make a change in—or at least make a place for themselves within—society, from flapper to punks. Japanese lolita fashion combines historical styles and progressive feminism in a way which both completely defies subculture with its street fashion roots and creates community by drawing together people with similar interests in fashion. Rather than focus on a specific set of rights, music, or designers, lolita fashion was born in the late 1970s (though the style wouldn't become firmly distinguishable until the very late 80s) in Japan through teenagers who were drawn together through nothing more than the look itself. Specifically, it was created by teenage girls struggling financially and ideologically in Japan’s economic downswing following World War II (Hinton). It began as a fashion sister bridging goth and prairie styles, with elements of punk and dramatizations of western historical fashions such as victorian and rococo. Initially, each outfit was hand-sewn or coordinated in such a way that no two wearers would look alike. Despite later mass production's influences, the lolita community remains resistant to becoming a subculture because its origins consist of fashions that were carefully created by and for the individual.
Certain founders of the fashion created brands for themselves, and their combined popularity, alongside increased capacity for production, has unified the lolita look into something much more cohesive and easily recognized. Some of these brands include Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Innocent World, Angelic Pretty, and Victorian Maiden. Meetups often focus on events that fit the aesthetic of the style, but members of the lolita community remain intensely diverse with no political, musical, or other symbolic subculture tied to the style. Observers and participants of lolita fashion struggle against being stereotyped and categorized according to their appearances while continuing to categorize themselves and others as a side effect of the brain’s methods of classifying, a trait leftover from our caveman fur fashion days. This makes it an ideal candidate for wearable social progress by highlighting both human individuality and our natural tendency to assimilate with and generalize one another.
Sources can be found here.
Sources can be found here.
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