Lolita Fascination ~

Okay, I will admit it.  For all of my new found obsession with vintage and sewing and all the charm of worlds past, there is still another fashion discourse that absolutely fascinates me. 

Not from worlds past, but other worlds far away….   Let me fill you in on the back story.

Myself being the usual hyper attention deficit artist that I am, I can never pay attention to one source of inspiration at a time.  And ever since I was a little girl {around 10 or 11} I have had an obsession with Japanese/Asian/Oriental culture.  It all started with a love of bonsais.   Yes.  Miniature trees. 

 

I remember it most distinctly ~ I was at the Old Bus Depo Markets with my family and I saw a  stall filled with these tiny trees.  I wandered past them, but something kept drawing me back and that something has stayed with me through all the years.  Now what has that got to do with anything you may ask? 

Well, I was reading through some posts on Lolita Charm ~ {Lolita being a Japanese style of dress that I used to semi~sort of relate to.}  Sweet Lolita looks like this ~

No I never actually wore the get up, but I liked the aesthetic of Goth Lolita/Punk Princess and used to apply that idea to my clothing style.  Gothic Lolita looks like this ~

However, back to the post I was reading!!  I found it interesting that once again the relationship between a woman, her body and her clothes was an issue for an entirely different subset of culture.

I asked the question yesterday whether us vintage style ladies deal with a mass of unwanted emotion caused by the number on a tag {or a sewing pattern as the case may be} and I find myself drawn back to this topic again.

A lot has already been said on the case of sizing and body image distortions.  Gertie, from Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing, has already had a number of posts address this issue in thoughtful, insightful discussions.  I can not count the number of posts I have read about body issues on various fashion blogs.  Unfortunately, no matter how much we may want the art of fashion to be about expressing ourselves through the clothes we wear, {for me this is a very important element of my artistic expression!}  it always seems to come back to what you can fit into or not.

I must confess, I thankfully have never had any eating disorders, but like most women, still have that love/hate relationship with my body with a quite a lot of “Let me stay at home with a brown paper bag over my head.” days.   And as such, I am always interested to read what other people have to say about the matter.

Victoria, from Lolita Charm has this to say on the topic ~

Yogurt is Not Cheesecake: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves

The average woman has a very weird relationship with food. ….

 Fashion is to create an artwork out of an ordinary human being - to be a work of art. But when the canvas you see in the mirror is not like the ones you want to create, how do you cope?

 Measure out clothes in beauty and comfort.

~*~ Note: For the full post please click on the title.  ~*~

So, what you think?  Is this a topic we can never talk too much about, or do you think that we mostly are down with and can ignore the messages we are being sent?

Or for that matter, do you think the messages of “thinspiration” are still being pushed because mainstream fashion on the street is still crying out to be skinnier? 

xox,

b.