Kawaii Hong Kong: how city’s Lolitas live the cute dream
One of Japan’s most recognisable exports, the fashion for all things ‘cute’ has been embraced by Hong Kong enthusiasts and an open-minded public
Elegantly dressed and opulently coiffured, four girls sit around a table eating dainty pastries and sipping tea. They giggle coquettishly in their puffy dresses embellished with lace cuffs, tulle accents and oversized bows. The scene could be from an animated version of 18th-century Versailles but, in fact, we are in the Hit the Road café, in Causeway Bay, and these girls – blond wigs and vivid contact lenses notwithstanding – are most definitely Chinese.
Kat Wong, 25, Sammi Wong Kwok-yee, 31, Clare Lau, 26, and Angela Leung Yuen-ting, 30, are devotees of kawaii fashion. Their signature style, known as “Lolita”, hails from the Tokyo youth-culture hub of Harajuku.
The brands and magazines that gave rise to Lolita fashion knew that the Vladimir Nabokov novel from which the style takes its name featured a young, pretty Western girl, but perhaps not that it contained themes of paedophilia. The book itself played no role in informing the look, the aesthetic of which is inspired instead by the 18th-century French Rococo movement.
Having made its mark on the international fashion scene, the style can be found from Los Angeles to London, and even Paris, where captivated girls buy dresses from Japanese labels such as Angelic Pretty and Baby, the Stars Shine Bright.
“I love the details,” says Leung, who first came across Lolita fashion on the internet a decade ago. Since then, she has been an active member of Hong Kong’s Lolita community, hosting events known as “Lolita tea parties” in a range of venues, including The Cityview hotel, in Yau Ma Tei.
“It is really beautiful and gorgeous,” she says. “Before I knew about Lolita, I dressed in trousers and shorts, but then I started to wear dresses – it’s very pretty.”
