Lolita Week NYC: Videos & An Interview With Misako

A few weeks ago I had the chance to head to New York and speak with Misako Aoki at the Japan Society, and the week quickly became known as Misako week as Lolitas were invited along on various adventures with Misako while she was in the city. If you missed any of them, luckily youtube has you covered!

The above video is the lecture and Baby the Stars Shine Bright fashion show at the Japan Society, it's about an hour long and was incredibly fun to be a part of! If you don't know, I'm the one on the end in the Innocent World piano dress!

FCI NY also has a quick Japanese language run down of a bunch of the different events that happened that week, such as the tour bus ride and the tea party. If you want to see 100+ Lolitas crowded together, this is the video to watch!

While she was in New York, Misako was interviewed by Harajuju. Misako doesn't really give a ton of interviews, and when she does, the topic is often kept light and fluffy. I feel like an interview like this, where a Lolita icon talks about a variety of topics is really an important piece of Lolita media that helps bridge the gap between Lolita in the West and Lolita within Japan.

This was really an amazing week, and I'm so glad I had the chance to be a part of it! It was incredible seeing rooms packed full of Lolitas, and it was a rare chance to get to meet someone like Misako, who's enthusiasm for Lolita is really infectious. She just genuinely loves the fashion and wants to share that love with the world. I think we're lucky to have someone like Misako to be the current face of Lolita fashion!

Misako Aoki in New York City

This first week of February 2014 is a pretty exciting week for Lolitas in the New York area! We're lucky enough to get a visit from Misako and a few very exciting Misako events.

Over the years, Misako has done a lot of cool things to bring Lolita to the limelight, from being one of Japan's first official Kawaii Ambassadors, to her new project the Japan Lolita Association, so it's really exciting for her to come to New York City!

Misako's first event in New York, on Wednesday the 5th, is to be part of a panel at the Japan Society, "Lolita Fashion: Costume or Culture?". Myself and Christina of Ramble Rori will actually also be speaking at that event! The panel will end with a Baby the Stars Shine Bright fashion collection showing and a meet and greet wine reception with Misako! You can buy tickets for the event here.

While in NYC, Misako will be filming with Jiji Press and is hoping to put together a group of Lolitas to ride The Ride around Midtown with her on Friday the 7th. This event is still tentative and dependent upon a few things, but if you happen to be free early Friday afternoon in NYC, you can check out how that's developing here (The latest news I've heard is that the tickets will be discounted to $20, but they need at least 15 Lolitas! The bottom of the post should have the newest info).



That Friday, on February 8th, we over at RuffleCon are lucky enough to have gotten the chance to sponsor an event with Misako! From 2-7PM Misako will be the guest of honor at a tea party in New York at The Dove parlor! There are a few activities planned for the evening, including a few raffles. There are only a very small number of spots left, so if this is something you're interested in, you can see details and prices here.

These are all really amazing events, and I'll personally be at the Japan Society event, as well as the tea party on Saturday. I think it's a really cool chance to get to see a big-name Lolita guest outside of an anime con environment, which is usually the only chance some of us get to meet Lolitas like Misako, especially out here on the east coast, where we have an unfortunate lack of physical Lolita shops.

Is anyone else planning on going to any of these events? If you're on the east coast, particularly the north east, what sort of Lolita events do you hope we one day get around here?