Lolita Fashion In Media: Cat Street

Welcome to the first entry in a new series, Lolita Fashion in Media! In this series, I aim to cover all appearances of lolita fashion in various media over the years. Today I will be focusing on a certain character from an old shoujo manga called Cat Street. It was actually through this manga I was first exposed to lolita fashion, so I thought it would be the perfect first post.

Background

Cat Street ran from 2004 to 2007. It was written by Kamio Yoko. Before Cat Street, Kamio-san also wrote Hana yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers), which is perhaps best known for its adaptation as a Korean drama.

Story

Cat Street is about a girl who, having suffered intense humiliation and disappointment as a young child, becomes a recluse for several years. She then enters a sort of school for misfits in society, and begins to experience those wonderful things in life she had been missing out on: namely, friendship and love.

The lolita in the story is not the main character, but one of her friends—a sweet lolita named Momiji. 

Momiji’s first appearance.

Momiji’s passion is to design and wear her own lolita clothes. She dropped out of middle school because she was bullied for the way she dressed. However, no matter how much her peers make fun of her, she never gives up her passion. She views lolita as a necessary expression of her true self; she dreams of confessing to the boy she likes in a lolita dress, to show that she is not afraid of being herself.

Her physical appearance may be intimidating, but Momiji is actually a very sweet girl and a supportive and loyal friend. She is also definitely a bit of a hopeless romantic—she can be found crying over Chinese romance novels.

Style

Momiji’s personal style is old-school sweet lolita. I commend Kamio-san: she clearly did her research on the fashion! She has rocking horse shoes and chunky platforms, and wears her hair in tight rag curls, with head-eating bows and rectangle headdresses. If you like old-school lolita fashion, or have watched Kamikaze Girls, then Momiji’s outfits will look familiar to you.

I thought it would be fun to compare some of Momiji’s outfits to actual lolita clothes released around the time Cat Street was published:

BABY, the Stars Shine Bright — Heart Apron (2003)

BABY, the Stars Shine Bright — Afternoon OP (2003)

BABY, the Stars Shine Bright — Poodle Parade Shirring OP (2003)

Conclusion

If you like lolita fashion, you might enjoy flipping through Cat Street to see Momiji’s different outfits (there are a lot more than the ones I included in this post!)—however, she is a side character, so don’t expect the story to go very deep into the subculture. Nonetheless, she is definitely a positive representation of lolita in general, so lolita readers may appreciate that.