Fashionistas will be heading over to the Vancouver Convention Centre to experience "Angelic Pretty" for the first time in Canadian history. The exclusive fashion show taking place Aug. 16 will be displaying collections from this Japanese Lolita clothing brand.
"[Angelic Pretty] street fashion in Japan has been around for a while, for about 10 years, since 2001," said SFU Professor Melek Ortabasi, who specializes in Japanese literature and culture. "A large part of their market is in Asia and Lolita is a subculture, sort of a counter-culture."
Only women will be strutting down the runway in the authentic Japanese fashion. Sixteen models have been selected to participate in the AniRevo-hosted event during the afternoon.
Prior to selection, applicants were told they had to meet certain expectations to be considered for the show. Designers required candidates to have a valid membership badge to Anime Revolution and have no visible tattoos, facial or exposed piercings, body art, body modifications or plugs.
Small measurements are also obligatory, with applicants needing to be between 5'2 to 5'7, a bust size of 28 to 36 inches and a waist size of 26 to 29 inches. Non-altered and non-filtered head shots and full body images had to be attached alongside the applicants' measurements.
"The sizes that are specified, that's the usual range of sizing for young women's clothing in Japan, it's not unusual," said Ortabasi. "When I go shopping for clothes in Japan, I'm a size six here but there I am a large. It's not a particular limiting of sizes; to some extent it is ideological. If you are not in these sizes you are large or big, at the same time if you go to Japan you won't see size 14 or larger sizes."
The event will be a joint collaboration between the Anime Revolution convention and Angelic Pretty fashion designers. Guests will be invited to see wardrobe trends and fashion pieces straight from Japan. According
to event organizers, head fashion designers will be flown in from Japan to take care of the show.
"I certainly know that fans overseas will not all be in the size range," said Ortabasi. "I noticed [Angelic Pretty] has an English website and they are aware that girls overseas are buying these things... The Japanese fashion industry's overseas market is limited and they aren't going to expand their sizing to accommodate it."
AniRevo will welcome "fashion guests of honour" Maki and Asuka, two of the most prestigious designers in the Lolita fashion community.
"Anywhere else like Japan, young women who are pretty and slim and within a range of measurement, it doesn't make Japan different but this is a particular type of 'pretty' in Japan," said Ortabasi. "It is cute versus sexy. In North America, it is a skinny blond woman with the big boobs, a mature and sexy image whereas Angelic Pretty caters to this particular little girl babyish look. Generally speaking, these are young women who are not particularly busty or in your face sexy, but the cute aesthetic image. It's both a cultural difference issue and discriminatory but so are our perceptions of beauty."
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