Japan has a romance with anything cute. And it's okay, really. Cute things are nice to look at but the Japanese just don't know when to stop being cute. One of this please-stop-being-cute instance is when grown-up women dressed so cutely in ruffles, pastel colors, ribbons and laces. This is called "kawaii fashion." Kawaii means cute in Japan.
Kawaii fashion is so rampant in Japan. Women in their 20's and 30's clothed with ribbons, laces with matching ruffled parasols acting like a cute little girl are a common sight here. Even for almost a year of being here, I still want to choke everytime I see women in kawaii fashion. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate kawaii fashion as long as it it's for girls- younger girls.
I can't understand why would grown-up women wanted to look ridiculous in clothes so out of their age. What's more, the kawaii fashionistas are not contented with keeping their style in Japan. They are planning to make a kawaii fashion world invasion.
Disconcerting news from the world of Japanese fashion: adherents to the cutesy subculture of Lolita fashion are organizing themselves into an official group. Their target: the whole world.
The Japan Lolita Association was formed in February to spread Japan’s special brand of “kawaii fashion” to the world. Aoki Misako, a well-known Lolita model who in 2009 was appointed “Kawaii Ambassador” by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (an absolutely real, and possibly even serious, position), will serve as chairperson, and the society’s office will be established at Fukuoka’s Omura Beauty College.
The association’s main activities will be to report lolita news, recruit and appoint Kawaii Ambassadors to support the global lolita network, host events such as tea parties and get-togethers for association members, and encourage and nominate lolita fashion-related schools and educational institutions. It all sounds perfectly innocent, but who knows what’s really going on behind those frilly petticoats and lacy parasols.
Becoming a member gets you perks such as subscription to their email newsletter and notifications of tea-parties and events. You can sign up here at their homepage. If you sign up with your smartphone, you even get a super-extra-kawaii membership image.
The association is also seeking information on Lolita-related events, so event promoters who want their event shared with Lolita fans should submit their information to the ‘Events & Tea parties’ page.
I seriously don't know whether I'll laugh or cry when I read this. However, it's their life. They're happy with being cute. I just have to look away and stop myself from howling when I see them.
