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Cosplay and Fashion--Where is the line drawn?

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Post  Guest Fri 12 Oct 2007, 11:48 pm

I had a pretty interesting conversation with a cosplayer earlier today about the difference between cosplay and fashion when it comes to the j-rock, j-pop styles from Japan.

I have been doing a lot of research into the realms of Japanese popular fashion, and I was reading a lot into Gothic Lolita fashion. I came to an awesome article about the line between Gothic Lolita and Anime between the Japanese and international cultures.

In Japan, Gothic Lolita is an alternative fashion statement in the Japanese culture. In the international community, however, the ideas of Gothic Lolita as a fashion are a little blurred, since most people know of Gothic Lolita only through its appearance through anime.

Therefore, as the article states, the Gothic Lolita crowd in Japan are upset by how their fashion statement is called and percieved as "cosplay."

The conversation came up today as I talked to an American cosplayer who generally did original "cosplay" with a Gothic Lolita style. I showed her the article, and then we had a good discussion on it. Was she really "cosplaying" or was she temporarily adopting a Gothic Lolita fashion style. In thinking about it, we had to question what the definition of "cosplay" was. "Costume playing"... Isa what she designs a costume or a fashion?

We didn't really have a conclusion to the arguement; we more or less came up with some different ideas. Therefore, I'd be interested in hearing what you all think about this!

Cosplay and Fashion--Where is the line drawn? Mana11

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Post  Asu Fri 19 Oct 2007, 3:17 am

First let me say: ooooooo, Ali Project <3 <3 <3

OK, now that that's out of the way-
The article is pretty much on point. Gothic and Lolita is a cultural style in Japan and is not considered cosplay.
It may be perceived that way in the West because the outfits can be a bit radical and not the everyday norm for American Fashion.

But it is growing as a fashion trend and soon I'm sure as the style gets more popular and stores start carrying more unique clothes based on the style Gothic and Lolita will be a fashion statement in the US too. There are already plenty of teens who are already dressing in this way.

Another reason why some may think G &L is a form of cosplay is because Art imitates life.
Allot of recent Anime are influenced by a young teen and hip audience, it just so happens that the G&L look is pretty big in Japan and it has Music to back it up (Meaning culture). So that means it will be around for a long time -Sort of like the Hip Hop look.
Well when your audience is into something you tend to create towards that audience and so more and more characters have been created with the G&L look.- Hence Cosplayers pick up on the Characters and since the look is still not a normal dress code in the US -Cosplay may be the only place where some feel they can express that side of them. Make sense?

I just want polyester Bell Bottoms to come back.
Asu
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Number of posts : 29
Registration date : 2007-10-06

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Post  Guest Fri 19 Oct 2007, 11:03 am

Asu wrote:First let me say:
I just want polyester Bell Bottoms to come back.

That took strong conviction to admit to the rest of the world. Thanks for sharing Very Happy

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