Outlandish pannier skirts with layers of frilly lace; teenage girls with larger-than-life make-up; a dash of sexuality and lashings of Victoriana are the order of the day for Japan's Lolita girls.
What began as a street fashion two decades ago as youngsters aped the doll-like European styles of baroque and rococo has morphed into a near mainstream movement, with dozens of offshoots.
Popular Lolita models such as Misako Aoki were big hits at this autumn's Japan Fashion Week, showing off white parasols and pastel pink puff sleeves with high-laced boots, tiny top hats and huge ribbons.
Taking its name from the title of Vladimir Nabokov's novel about a middle-aged man's sexual obsession with a 12-year-old girl, Lolita style embodies the childhood world of fairytales and comic-book fantasy. (Economic Times)
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