It was more difficult to find Hijabi Lolita’s therefore the sample size is smaller, though no less informative. All four interviewed were female Lolita’s between the ages of 19 and 25. Key themes identified were that of; imagined identities, again a strong sense of belonging to a community and modesty and authenticity.
Something that had been brought to the attention of the researcher during an interview was another Muslim youth subculture, linked closely to cosplay, referred to as Hijabi Lolita. Lolita as a word was first used by Vladimir Nabokov in his novel Lolita, published in 1955. While the word Lolita carried meanings of sexualisation in Nabokov’s novel, the same cannot be said for Lolita as a fashion. It began to be used as a subcultural …show more content…
The purpose of dressing as such was to imitate dolls and appear delicate and feminine as a form of female empowerment for those who wished to dress modestly as opposed to the sexualised ideas of female empowerment. Coordinate is a word that is used to refer to the particular array of cloths the Lolita is wearing as opposed to the word costume which the Lolita community dislikes. The style of dress has branched off into other sub categories over the years, such as Gothic Lolita, sweet Lolita, and princess Lolita and so on. Recently the same has happened with Hijabi Lolita. Because of the Lolita styles close ties to fan culture and the cosplay subculture as well as the modest dress style it’s no real surprise the fashion was adopted and adapted by young Muslim women who were a apart of those cultures. Unfortunately once again there is little written, in the way of academic articles, about this subculture. However websites aimed at pop culture fans have provided a larger degree of information of the subject as the community and subculture grow larger and more popular. Lolita fashion however does share many of the …show more content…
Both Lolita and cosplay are closely inked subcultures due to its cultural beginnings and link to youth fandom heritage, so it is no real surprise that youth passing through or experimenting with these subcultures before later deciding which on suited them best has been a common reoccurring theme found during the research. The same parallel can even be seen within some of the Taqwacore interviewees such as one who had talked about time they had spent being involved in the heavy metal scene as well as the punk scene before discovering Taqwacore and choosing to remain there, a similar story was told but with death metal and thrasher music until the interviewee later settled into Taqwacore. However in terms of fashion and imagined self for over half those interviewed fashion and the look of the style was intergyral to the experience of being a ‘proper’ Lolita. Throughout the interviewees conducted it appeared as though modesty and authenticity of ones coordinate was essential to being considered a real Lolita. Wearing a dress to short, adding the wrong types of accessories or clashing colours were big mistakes that took away from a person’s authenticity as a Lolita that put one at risk to
Something that had been brought to the attention of the researcher during an interview was another Muslim youth subculture, linked closely to cosplay, referred to as Hijabi Lolita. Lolita as a word was first used by Vladimir Nabokov in his novel Lolita, published in 1955. While the word Lolita carried meanings of sexualisation in Nabokov’s novel, the same cannot be said for Lolita as a fashion. It began to be used as a subcultural …show more content…
The purpose of dressing as such was to imitate dolls and appear delicate and feminine as a form of female empowerment for those who wished to dress modestly as opposed to the sexualised ideas of female empowerment. Coordinate is a word that is used to refer to the particular array of cloths the Lolita is wearing as opposed to the word costume which the Lolita community dislikes. The style of dress has branched off into other sub categories over the years, such as Gothic Lolita, sweet Lolita, and princess Lolita and so on. Recently the same has happened with Hijabi Lolita. Because of the Lolita styles close ties to fan culture and the cosplay subculture as well as the modest dress style it’s no real surprise the fashion was adopted and adapted by young Muslim women who were a apart of those cultures. Unfortunately once again there is little written, in the way of academic articles, about this subculture. However websites aimed at pop culture fans have provided a larger degree of information of the subject as the community and subculture grow larger and more popular. Lolita fashion however does share many of the …show more content…
Both Lolita and cosplay are closely inked subcultures due to its cultural beginnings and link to youth fandom heritage, so it is no real surprise that youth passing through or experimenting with these subcultures before later deciding which on suited them best has been a common reoccurring theme found during the research. The same parallel can even be seen within some of the Taqwacore interviewees such as one who had talked about time they had spent being involved in the heavy metal scene as well as the punk scene before discovering Taqwacore and choosing to remain there, a similar story was told but with death metal and thrasher music until the interviewee later settled into Taqwacore. However in terms of fashion and imagined self for over half those interviewed fashion and the look of the style was intergyral to the experience of being a ‘proper’ Lolita. Throughout the interviewees conducted it appeared as though modesty and authenticity of ones coordinate was essential to being considered a real Lolita. Wearing a dress to short, adding the wrong types of accessories or clashing colours were big mistakes that took away from a person’s authenticity as a Lolita that put one at risk to