Lolita: fashioning identity, liberal selves, and the city. An investigation into practices of construction of the self in hybrid urban contexts

In the last decades, there has been a growing interest in practices of self-creation, brought by an increasingly fast-paced world and hybrid society. While Bauman (2004) highlights the differences between modern and postmodern notions of self, respectively the search for belonging, and the search for escaping fixed notions of identity, Elliott et al. (2012) contend that now more than ever individuals are pushed into becoming autonomous architects of the self. In the context of intensive globalisation (Elliott et al., 2012), where the co-dependence between objects and humans has become increasingly conspicuous in the process of self-creation, global fashion subcultures are an interesting case study to better understand the intricacies of the self, material culture, and the urban environment. By considering Lolita fashion, a subculture first born in Japan in the early 1990s and which has not only managed to withstand the complexities of a fast-changing world but has also become a global phenomenon, this research investigates the lived experiences of the members of the Lolita community in London. Through a multiple-case approach involving both London and Tokyo, and the adoption of ethnography and spatial analysis, as well as object-based research, the aim of this thesis is threefold. Firstly, it analyses practices of construction and negotiation of identity and community in the context of transnational flows, as they are articulated through the entanglement between humans, objects, and the built environment; then, it questions what affordances and hindrances are provided by both small and large infrastructures to the community; and, finally, it takes into account how notions of class, gender, and race, having the subculture adapted to different geographies and times, are articulated and negotiated in Lolita. With the help of Latour’s Actor Network Theory, as well as Appadurai’s Ethnoscapes (1996), this thesis hopes to contribute to shedding light on the material dimension of subcultures in terms of the impact that objects and infrastructures have on Lolita members. Starting with a focus on the development of the concept of ‘kawaii’, its use in governmental initiatives, and subcultural commodification, this research touches upon the very definition of subculture, and questions notions of gender in the construction of what is widely considered the ‘neutrality’ in public spaces. Finally, seeking to fill a gap in existing knowledge on the impact of everyday objects and infrastructures in the creation of community, this research takes into account the dual nature of the Lolita community, as it presents a strong presence both in online spaces and off-line, making for a subcultural experience that requires the existence and entanglement of both components to sustain itself.