Exhibited: Kitty and the Bulldog ~ Lolita fashion and the influence of Britain

23 April 2012 – 27 January 2013

The Victoria & Albert Museum
The Toshiba Gallery, Room 45
Admission is free.

Attended on: 23rd April 2012

Kitty and the Bulldog is a display of 9 outfits from the different sub-genres of Lolita fashion, this complements the exhibition: British Design 1948-2012 - Innovation in the modern age.


It's great to have a fashion exhibit in The V&A while the permanent fashion collection isn't open, and even better to have one that focuses on a fashion sub-culture that isn't commonly seen on the streets of London.
I've actually been excited about this for a while so I decided to go on the opening day, here are a few pictures that I took - apologies for camera phone quality:

Mens-wear, I think this was BPN?

Sweet Lolita + Old-school Sweet Lolita w/ Usakyuma 

A little girl was there with her dad and he asked her which of the dresses was her favourite and she said 'the left one is like a princess would wear', so adorable! The name of the dress is 'Aristo Kitty's Invitation' by BTSSB just FYI.

So much Moitié in such a small space - seems a waste to have them on mannequins! 

I thought that this was a really great and balanced exhibition. All the main sub-styles were covered equally and were well put together - even Punk, which is notoriously tricky to pull off, was really well represented. I only had one gripe and it was in the form of a pair of shoes:

Black shoes :@

I felt tan/brown would have gone much better as there was no black present in the outfit - not even accents! The rest of the dress isn't visible but it's mainly cream/red tones, seemed a shame to have the random black at the bottom. Also, you can see on the left hand side, an illustration on the frosted glass - these were next to each 'look' and are beyond cute, I'd love to know who did them! 

I highly recommend seeing this exhibition even if you don't have an interest in Lolita fashion! From a fashion/cultural point of view it's not something you will see everyday and it's a great resource if you are gathering first hand information for a project.

   
~Pippa