Lolita Charm: MIG: New World of the Girls

Thursday, February 24, 2011

MIG: New World of the Girls

I ran across this Japanese webzine recently and had to share! (Hopefully I'm not just a dork behind on the times, but...) MIG, short an acronym for Made in Girl, is a Japanese fashion zine created, as their slogan says, by girls, for girls! In fact their slogan is 'New World of the Girls, Created By the Girls, For the Girls'. How powerful is that?! The feminine street fashions of Japan really do seem to be women taking back fashion from the realm of 'what will men think is hot?' to, 'what do I think is cute?' Fashion as self-expression and a personal aesthetic instead of just 'fitting in', fashion as an individual journal entry and not as a showpiece for the rest of the world. I'm in love with that concept. This fashion zine, as well as being online, can also be found for free in random places around Tokyo, according to rumor. It's a grand composite of all your favorite Japanese girl street fashions, from Angelic Pretty and the classiest cake hats around to dolly-kei's Grimoire and the ever-popular fairy-kei mecca SPANK!

A model for syrup

While issue #1 is mostly photographs detailing various girly street styles, very much giving a feel of 'street style girls are REAL girls too', in issue #2 they have a feature called 'GIRLS' STORY' - photography and brief articles on unique street style girls. From interviews with Angelic Pretty's Maki and Asuka, they also have articles on the La Pafait girls (himegyaru), various female artists and designers, and even just simple street fashion loving girls. It is so wonderful to see girls celebrating the work of those like-minded, showing that while they may be different, they are really all part of the same movement. I love seeing some of the freedom expressed in Japan's recent interpretation of street styles. I am a lolita, mostly a sweet lolita, through and through; but I am so fascinated watching the girls I see in street snaps work within the broad spectrum of feminine street style rather than just in their niche: mori girl with classic lolita, sweet lolitas adopting natural-kei, fairy-lolitas, and the oodles of himegyaru inspecting Angelic Pretty boutiques for accessories. In the west, it seems we are still standing on the shores of street fashion, bedecked in the trappings of lolita but unwilling to wade in. Forget about the words 'that's not lolita'; replace them with the Blythe doll-like motto, 'feels like so'. Don't worry about being perfect or following a blueprint. Follow your own sense of style and beauty, and mix the colors in your paintbox until you find the perfect shade of fashion. Live in the new world of girls.