Have you ever heard about Gothic Lolita, or Gothloli? It is a category in outfit design. The design is basically monotone based (black and or white) and has a lot of victorian era influences. Typically, Gothloli comes with lots of frills, ribbons, head dress, and silver accessories such as rose or cross.
Gothloli is actually a sub category of Lolita fashion. While Lolita fashion is more vivid in color and infantile in design, Gothloli is a bit more adult oriented. The most interesting thing about Gothloli is that although the name implies the design is for low teens, most Gothloli fans are over 20. This is not strange because Lolita fashion itself means adult female wearing infantile outfits. If a child wearing infantile outfits, it is child fashion; you get it?
Usuallly Gothloli fans form a group and go out together for hobby oriented shows, shopping or music concerts (there are pop bands wearing Gothloli outfits too). They indeed stand out in public spaces but they seem to enjoy it (although each individual seems to be abashed if she is alone. The point is 'is this a cosplay too?' and the answer is 'Yes'. We have already noticed Gothloli Cosplay at Comic Market in 80's but at that time, they were not defined as Gothloli and wore more colorful costumes than that in today. In 90's, we saw the rise of desent Gothloli Cosplay. This is somewhat related to pop bands such as LUNA SEA, PENICILLIN, GLAY, L'Arc~en~Ciel. They represented a music category called 'Visual Kei' (Japanese interpretation and revival of old british glam rock) which came in and went out very quickly. Visual Kei bands wore outfits with victorian era influences, and they also had very dul and d�candence mood. At their live performances, fans wore Gothloli too. This should merge into Character Cosplay fans and made new Gothloli cosplay we see now. Gothloli Cosplay is still changing. It includes maids, princesses, widows, etc... There is no definition for Gothloli yet. If you like Cosplay and also keen in fashion, keep your eyes on Gothloli. While the new century has just got started, we feel we are still at the fin de si�cle (end of century), and this might accelrate Gothloli Cosplay prevalence even further.
