Review: Gothic & Lolita (book)
Cover of the book.
Masayuki Yoshinaga – Phaidon Press Inc. – 2007- 200+ pages
ISBN 978 0 7148 4785 6 – Amazon: $22.83 (at time of review)
I bought this book about 3 years ago, so it’s not exactly a new product. However I figured it didn’t hurt to add a review for it here!
To start out with, this is a photography book, so it’s not like it provides a lot of actual information on gothic lolita fashion or street fashion. That being said, the photographs are great and beautiful to look at.
One important thing to note about this book is that the photographs are not limited to people in Gothic Lolita fashion. There are quite a few photographs of people in other types of alternative fashion – cyber/club wear, western goth, and a few real oddballs. However a majority of the pictures are of girls in some kind of lolita fashion (mostly “gothic” but also a few sweet, classic, wa, etc.). This fit my needs well, as I was primarily looking for a collection of good lolita photographs so that I could practice drawing lolita style dresses.
On each page there is a photograph of either one or two people. The model’s name and age are written vertically on the side of the photo, and there is a small bit of text toward the bottom of each photo which I’d call a “stats box.” This text includes things like: current obsession, clothing brands, and “point of fashion”. These bits of info vary from person to person and convey a bit about the model’s personality and preferences.
While I wish the book had a little bit more actual “Gothic Lolita” and Lolita subtypes pictured, and less western goth / club goth outfits, overall I really enjoy this book. I get it out from time to time to do a quick sketch or two in order to practice drawing, and also just to look at the pictures. Since this is Gothic Lolita / Goth that we are talking about, each person has a unique and interesting outfit on, so looking at the pictures never gets old.
While $22 might be a bit pricey for some strangelings’ wallets, I think its worth it, and I would certainly purchase this book again!
Kurolace 
Have you heard of the ‘Gothic & Lolita Bible’ – it’s a magazine/book that might be more what you’re looking for. Even one edition of that would provide a ton of long lasting material.
Yes I have heard of the Gothic & Lolita Bible. I have all the English issues that were published about 4-5 years ago (before sadly being discontinued – actually I thought I’d do a review/summary of those next). I’ve been thinking about getting some of the Japanese ones, just haven’t gotten around to it yet… I’d be tempted to actually try reading it…which would led to me looking up kanji every other word 😛
Edit – I was wondering if the one shown is actually an issue of it but they don’t usually reach 200 pages and from what I’ve seen online you can get a couple for the same price.
Actually this is a book, not a magazine. 🙂 So that’s why is so thick (also slightly justifies the price).
Yeah I thought perhaps it was a special issue but wasn’t sure since the mag is thick but not that thick. Well, if you get round to the Japanese ones they’ll at least keep you busy in even more ways 🙂