A group of 50 Irish women have told how they found their inner beauty – by dressing as Japanese-inspired Lolitas.
The Irish Gothic Lolita Community comes together once a month to celebrate the fashion subculture based on Victorian and Edwardian style.
Some of the women say it has helped build their confidence – and they have no qualms about going down to the shops for a litre of milk head-to-toe in their finery.
Dubliner Sarah Rowe, 32, told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I’m one of the oldest ones in Ireland. I’ve been wearing this fashion for about 13 years now.
“One day I was in a book shop and I saw a Japanese fashion magazine. There was something about the image on the cover…
“I couldn’t read what it said but I thought ‘wow that is incredible’.”
Sarah researched the genre and discovered girls in Japan wore it every weekend to break the monotony of their week-day uniform.
She added: “I’d just finished secondary school at that stage, my parents said they knew I was going to be a weird kid so they weren’t surprised.
“It made me feel better about myself – basically making my outside match the way I feel on the inside.”
Sarah buys most of her clothes online and has a selection of dresses which cost around e300. She has a variety of accessories and wears wigs to complete the look.
She said: “It’s all about self-actualisation, when I was young I always wanted bigger hair. The focus is on the finished look being very feminine – more art than artifice.
“It’s all the things that we’re told at 13 to give up, cute girly happy things. Some days I don’t have it in me to wear a full outfit, other days I will absolutely wear it to the shops.
“I bought them because they’re beautiful clothes, so it seems a shame to leave them in the wardrobe.
“For most of us the only time you get to dress up for yourself is your wedding day or debs, we are doing ourselves a disservice by not dressing how we want to be all the time.”
Sarah admits her attire sometimes attracts negative comments especially since the name is associated with Nabakov’s controversial classic novel of the same name.
She said: “You can get that sort of misunderstanding when they hear the word Lolita, they ask is it a sexual thing or a fetish of some sort.
“The book is horrifying, she was 12 and here was this middle aged man saying she consented. But this is not sexual, we don’t dress for others, only for ourselves.
“I get a lot of comments like Mary Poppins or Little Bo Peep, but most people get on board with it.
“People think we do it for attention, but it’s not to get attention, it’s because it got our attention.
“My husband is okay with it now. He asked out a girl in jeans and a hoodie and he ended up going out with a girl in a big frilly dress.
“Later he admitted he didn’t like the amount of attention it attracts when we’re out.”
Sarah features on a documentary short called Living Lolitas which will be available on the RTE Player from Tuesday October 15.
She said: “Not everybody gets us, and I get that. But this is an intrinsic part of my personality now. Women are entitled to dress up and have something for themselves.”
