Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0714847852, Paperback)

Never Before Published Photographs Celebrating the Eclecticand Bizarre Street Fashion of Japan's Teens Follows the Popularity of Phaidon's Fruits and Fresh Fruits A fashion phenomenon born in the underground clubs of Tokyo and Osaka hasmade its way aboveground.The streets of Japan are filled with teenagersclad in corsets, spikes, lacy Victorian dresses, dark eye makeup, blackspandex, frilly tutus, patterned knee-highs, ruffled bows, and wigs of alllengths and styles.A mixture of high fashion and home-made ensembles, theGothic and Lolita scene is one of the more bizarre hybrids of Japanesestreet fashion, boasting thousands of devotees who dedicate their lives tocreating ever more flamboyant and original variations of this fusedstyle. GOTHIC LOLITA, edited by Katsuhiko Ishikawa with photographs by MasayukiYoshinaga, is a new and exclusive photography collection that celebratesthe eclectic and bizarre Gothic street fashion of Japan's teens.Speciallycommissioned by Phaidon Press and based on the creative design of the bestselling Fruits and Fresh Fruits, GOTHIC LOLITA features portraits andgroup shots of Japanese Goths and Lolitas both at home and in the urbancenters of Tokyo and Osaka. Presented in a simple format with a funky design, hundreds of teenagersposed for the camera in their imaginative and often surreal outfits andoffered personal insights into the idea behind their personal fashionchoices.The responses are sometimes surprising, sometimes shocking, oftenhilarious, and always compelling.The images combined with the text, whichis presented in question and answer format, present a unique "look book" ofone of the more surreal aspects of Japanese popular youth culture.GOTHIC LOLITA allows us to trespass on the streets of Japan and witness in aninformative yet entertaining way this fashion phenomenon. The origin of this eccentric fashion movement traces back to Osaka in themid 1990s when young teenagers adopted Gothic fashion in response to theclothes worn and promoted by Japanese Gothic rock bands.Influenced byWestern fashion trends from the mid 1980s, young teenagers, predominatelyadolescent girls, dress head-to-toe in gothic costumes and late-Victoriandress.GOTHIC LOLITA charts the current trend from the clubs of Tokyo tothe streets of Harajuku and Akihabara. These street fashions provide inspiration to professional and would-befashion designers, as well as teenagers and Gothic' fans from coast tocoast.