Welcome to the wonderful world of rorita (lolita) fashion! Whenever someone talks about lolita fashion, the first thing that comes to mind is gothic lolita. However, there are a lot of different types of lolita. Today I’m going to guide you through this fascinating world and show off the styles of lolita fashion that are common in anime. We’ll also be talking about the ones that don’t come up as often.
Lolita fashion is inspired by Victorian and Rococo fashion styles. In Japan, a lolita is “an adult woman with a baby face” or a “girl who possesses no eros in her body yet”. The fashion style focuses on this idea of youth, so it’s a great style for flat-chested girls, who have an advantage over busty girls here.
According to the Japanese Fashion Wiki, the fashion style was a form of rebellion against the strict gender roles in Japan and expectations of how to act as an adult by embracing the cuteness and purity of childhood. Lolita blends elegance and maturity with that cuteness and purity, each style of the fashion putting emphasis on these elements in their own way. The Japanese Wikipedia entry for lolita fashion explains further, noting that most lolita fashion is modeled after the idea of the “fairytale princess” and noting that some refer to the style of clothing as “adult girl’s clothing”.
Main Types of Lolita
There are three main types of lolita: gothic lolita, classic lolita, and ama (sweet) lolita.
Gothic Lolita is the most well-known, normally using a mix of black and white, with some lace and symbology of crosses and roses. It tends to balance both elegance and cuteness, normally going for a more modest skirt length. A great example of goth lolita fashion is the adorable Kureneko from My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute!
Classic Lolita is a style that focuses on elegance and maturity, while still maintaining some elements of cuteness. Longer dresses are common, normally aiming for the mid-calf mark. The enigmatic Silver Lady from The Ancient Magus Bride wears a classic lolita style. This probably has less to do with her following lolita fashion and more to do with the fact that she lives in the English countryside though.
Ama Lolita is generally the most kawaii of the types of lolita fashion. The skirts tend to be shorter than gothic or classic lolita and it focuses on lots of cute character designs or delicate frills and lace.
Sub-Types of Lolita
Punk Lolita is a sub-style of goth lolita fashion, adding a rocker vibe with skull motifs. The outfits tend to be shorter than the traditional goth lolita style, adding to the rebellious look. It can seem like goth and ama lolita styles were mixed to create punk lolita. Punk lolita isn’t a common style featured in anime. However, the outfits worn by the girls in the kawaii metal band Babymetal as well as the Lolipop Misty Nightmare Girl Onahole are good examples of punk lolita.
Casual Lolita is one of the most laid-back styles of lolita, as the name implies. Most of the outfits in this subtype focus on clothes that can be worn every day, especially outside of events. Aoi’s outfit during the beach episode of Kaichou wa Maid-Sama and Kuroneko’s white lolita outfit both would fit for a casual lolita style. Kureneko’s white outfit still carries some gothic themes, though.
Hime Lolita, or princess lolita, focuses on elegance, even more so than the classic lolita. Roses are a common theme, but usually in softer colors than those used in gothic outfits. Silk, lace, and other fine materials are common for hime lolita, all in tasteful proportions. This one isn’t commonly seen unless the anime is set in Victorian(esque) times.
Guro Lolita is short for ‘grotesque’ lolita and is a subtype of gothic lolita. Guro lolita generally adds blood, bandages, eye patches, and other horror themes to the traditional lolita themes of cuteness. Pink and white are common colors, especially since it makes the horror themes stand out even more. Due to my general dislike of splatterpunk and anything that deals with blood too heavily, this is my least favorite type of lolita fashion.
Shiro and Kuro Lolita are generally subtypes of ama lolita fashion, with the outfit being all white or all black. It is extremely popular to “twin” with this style, with one person wearing the white outfit and the other wearing the black outfit. While shiro and kuro are the most popular twinning styles, it is also often found in the pinku and sax style (which focuses on pinks and blues).
Ouji (Lolita), also known as kodona or dandy style, focuses on men’s period clothing. Just like with any lolita fashion though, it can be worn by any gender. There is a lot of debate as to whether or not ouji is actually considered a proper lolita style, but it generally follows a similar concept to lolita. Rather than going for a fairytale princess look, the goal is to go for a fairytale prince look in Victorian and Rococo style outfits.
Sailor Lolita is lolita fashion with a nautical or sailor theme. Sadly, the only relevance to Sailor Moon is they both use the sailor suit as the basis of the fashion. There were some sailor lolita dresses based off of Sailor Moon done as a special in 2019 through Angelic Pretty, however. So, everything comes full circle eventually.
Ero Lolita is short for erotic lolita. By its very nature, this style of lolita breaks away from the mold. Ero lolita generally focuses on the sexy aspects of the clothing, like garter belts and stockings, while still being cute. It can easily overlap with other styles of lolita (especially goth lolita). Rory Mercury from Gate is a great example of a mix between goth and ero lolita, despite being called a goth lolita in the anime. Whether or not you want to call her style goth lolita, ero lolita, or goth ero lolita, she definitely works the outfit.
Other Styles of Lolita
Wa and Qi Lolita are based off Japanese and Chinese traditional clothing, but with a lolita flair. These are two of my favorite styles of lolita, since I like things that blend modern and traditional aspects to create something new and unique. However, due to their rarity even within the lolita fashion subculture, there aren’t a lot of examples of wa and qi lolita in anime.
Pirate and Steampunk Lolita are the least common lolita styles, since they tend to be mistaken for costumes or cosplay. So, generally, they are only worn to lolita events. However, many of the outfits in Princess Principal fit into steampunk lolita.
There are several other subtypes of lolita fashion, depending on the color, style, and themes of the clothing, but they all share the core of lolita fashion- romanticized cuteness.
