Designer Naoto Hirooka, whose brand, h Naoto, is one of the main creative forces behind Gothic Lolita, said the whole Lolita look like much of the animé culture with which it is intricately entwined.

“I think many Japanese women feel intimidated by high fashion in the West and feel that they can never live up to the refined beauty that they feel Western women strive for,” he said. “So, instead, they shoot for a cute look, one that doesn’t require tall, curvaceous bodies and instead emphasises girlishness.”

Hirooka said the escapism of Lolita is also a reaction against conformism and the expectations on young Japanese women to quietly assume their adult roles as wives or workers in this country’s male-dominated society.

“One of the salient points about Lolita is that it is really a fashion that is not intended to attract men,” he said. “The women are creating their own world into which they can get away from the pressures of the larger society.”