Neo-Victorian is an aesthetic movement which amalgamates Victorian and Edwardian aesthetic sensibilities with modern principles and technologies. A large number of magazines and websites are devoted to Neo-Victorian ideas in dress, family life, interior decoration, morals, and other topics.

In arts and crafts
         Examples of crafts made in this style would include push-button cordless telephones made to look like antique wall-mounted phones, CD players resembling old time radios, Victorianesque furniture, and Victorian era-style clothing with Goth, Punk and Rivet accents.In neo-romantic and fantasy art one can often see the elements of Victorian aesthetic values. There is also a strongly emerging genre of steampunk art. McDermott & McGough are a couple of contemporary artists whose work is all about a recreation of life in the XIX century: they only use the ultimate technology available, and since they are supposed to live anachronically, this means the use of earlier photographic processes, and maintaining the illusion of a life stuck in the ways of a forgotten era.

In dress and behavior

          Many who have adopted Neo-Victorian style have also adopted Victorian behavioural affectations, seeking to imitate standards of Victorian conduct, pronunciation, interpersonal interaction. Some even go so far as to embrace certain Victorian habits such as shaving with straight razors, riding penny farthings and using fountain pens to write letters in florid prose sealed by wax. There is often a cosplay element, with Victorian-style fashion adopted. Neo-Victorianism is embraced in, but also quite distinguished from, the Lolita, Aristocrat and Madam fashions popular in Japan, and which are becoming more noticeable in Europe.

Social Conservatives

        Neo-Victorian aesthetics are also popular in the US and United Kingdom among cultural conservatives and social conservatives. Books such as The Benevolence of Manners: Recapturing the Lost Art of Gracious Victorian Living  by Linda S. Lichter call for a return to Victorian morality. The term Neo-Victorian is also commonly used in a derogatory way towards Social Conservatives.It should be noted, however, that the actual cultural social attitudes and conventions of the Victorian era can be disputed.

In popular culture and literature

         Neo-Victorianism can also be seen in the growing steampunk genre of speculative fiction. Neo-Victorianism is also popular with, and in many ways prefigured by, those who are interested in Victoriana and historical reenactment.Neo-Victorian details appeared in The Diamond Age, in which Neo-Victorians are one of the main groups in the novel.A growing number of 'serious' mainstream novels are taking the approach of neo-Victorianism, such as Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (2004), a fantasy novel written as a pastiche of Jane Austen.

:Lolita (ロリータ・ファッション, ^? roriita fasshon) is a fashion subculture in Japan that is primarily influenced by Victorian children’s clothing as well as costumes from the Rococo period. Lolita has made this into a unique fashion by adding gothic
and original design elements to the look. From this, Lolita fashion has
evolved into several different sub styles and has created a devoted
subculture in Japan. The Lolita look consists primarily of a knee
length skirt or dress, headdress, blouse, petticoat, knee length socks
or stockings and rocking horse or high heel/platform shoes. Teddy bears and dolls such as Super Dollfies are often carried to emphasize the childlike look.

History

Although it isn't exactly known how lolita became started, Lolita as
it is known today most likely started in the late 1970s with the
formation of famous labels like Pink House and Milk, selling clothes
that would fit today's standards of Lolita clothing. Shortly after that
came Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, and Metamorphose temps de fille. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the Lolita fashion trend began to pick up with bands like Malice Mizer and other Visual Kei
(or visual type) bands coming into popularity. These bands wore
intricate costumes, which fans began adopting as their own style.^[2] The style soon spread from its origins in the Kansai region, and ultimately reached Tokyo where it became popularized throughout Japanese youth culture.
When these bands began to wear the Lolita style, it quickly took off,
and even today, most American Lolita might tell you they learned about
the style from their favourite Japanese visual kei band. Today, Lolita
fashion has grown so much in popularity that it can be found even in department stores

Lolita

Although "Lolita" is a reference to Vladimir Nabokov's
famous novel, and lolita fashion is often worn by teens, most followers
of the style do not consider it overtly sexual. Adherents present
themselves as Victorian children or baby dolls and prefer to look
"cute" rather than "sexy". Many Lolitas claim that the term 'Lolita'
doesn't necessarily have anything to do with sex at all. The usage of
the word may also be considered wasei-eigo. Japanese culture
places a higher value upon extremely youthful appearance and behavior
than Western, and some adult women buy large amounts of products, such
as Hello Kitty
goods, that are typically marketed only to children in the West.
GothLoli is perhaps a more visible extension of this phenomenon.

Subtypes: Gothic Lolita;Sweet Lolita;Classic Lolita;Punk Lolita;Wa/Qi Lolita;Ouji/kodona/dandy(male Lolita fashions);Ita Loli

Lolita culture

In Japan, despite still being a subculture and fringe fashion,
Lolita fashion is mass-marketed and has wide visibility particularly in
the streets of Tokyo and Osaka, on television, in manga (see Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa
for an example of gothloli inspired manga) and computer games. Outside
of Japan it is still a widely unknown fringe fashion although it has
slowly begun to spread to other countries. Gothic Lolita, along with
cosplay and other Japanese cultural phenomena, can sometimes be seen at
concerts and anime conventions throughout Europe and the United States.
The style has not yet been mass marketed outside of Japan, although
increasingly Japanese brands are available for purchase abroad directly
from the brands. However, there are plenty of dedicated fans filling
the still-remaining gap. Gothic Lolita magazines are widely available
for purchase on the Internet and at Japanese bookstores which also deal
in anime and manga. Adherents often sew their own homemade lolita
outfits, sometimes offering them for sale to make up for the difficulty
of acquiring them from Japan. Apart from most western fashions, Lolita
tends to hold higher expectations to those that dress it. Higher
quality clothes are favored over "cheap" lace and cosplay-esque
designs. ^[19]
Many adherents also purchase lolita outfits, accessories and dolls
online from Japanese brands such as Baby, The Stars Shine Bright or
through Ebay or other fellow lolitas.

Harajuku (原宿 "meadow lodging") listen (help·info) is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan. The area is known internationally for its youth style and fashion.^{[citation needed]} Harajuku street style is promoted in Japanese and international publications such as Kera, Tune, Gothic & Lolita Bible and Fruits.

The term "Harajuku Girls" has been used by English-language media to
describe teenagers dressed in any fashion style who are in the area of
Harajuku.^[6] These girls may be members of various sub-cultures including Gothic Lolita, Ganguro, Gyaru, and Kogal. They may also be dressed as characters from an anime, movie, or manga (known as cosplay).

In the 1980s large numbers of street performers and wildly dressed teens including takenoko-zoku
(竹の子族, "bamboo-shoot kids") gathered on Omotesandō and the street that
passes through Yoyogi Park on Sundays when the streets were closed to
traffic. The streets were reopened to traffic in the 90s, and a great
number of teens stopped gathering there. Today there are still
teenagers hanging out in Harajuku, mostly on the bridge across the
train tracks from Harajuku station to Yoyogi Park.

Visual kei is associated with Harajuku. In attendance one will find Visual kei cosplayers (those dressed as their favorite bands) and those in the Gothic Lolita subculture/fashion.

          Fashion refers to styles of dress (but can also include
cuisine, literature, art, architecture, and general comportment) that
are popular in a culture at any given time. Such styles may change
quickly, and "fashion" in the more colloquial sense refers to the
latest version of these styles. Inherent in the term is the idea that
the mode will change more quickly than the culture as a whole.The terms "fashionable" and "unfashionable" are employed to describe
whether someone or something fits in with the current or even not so
current, popular mode of expression. The term "fashion" is frequently
used in a positive sense, as a synonym for glamour, beauty and style. In this sense, fashions are a sort of communal art, through which a culture examines its notions of beauty and goodness. The term "fashion" is also sometimes used in a negative sense, as a synonym for fads and trends, and materialism.
A number of cities are recognized as global fashion centers and are
recognized for their fashion weeks, where designers exhibit their new
clothing collections to audiences. These cities are New York City, Milan, Paris, and London. Other cities, mainly Los Angeles, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome, Miami, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Sydney, Barcelona, Madrid, Vienna, New Delhi and Dubai also hold fashion weeks and are better recognized every year.



Areas of fashion
Fashions are social
phenomena common to many fields of human activity and thinking. The
rise and fall of fashions has been especially documented and examined
in the following fields:

• Architecture, interior design, and landscape design
• Arts and crafts
• Body type, clothing or costume, cosmetics, personal grooming, hairstyle, and personal adornment
• Dance and music
• Forms of address, slang, and other forms of speech
• Economics and spending choices, as studied in behavioral finance
• Entertainment, games, hobbies, sports, and other pastimes
• Etiquette
• Management, management styles and ways of organizing
• Politics and media, especially the topics of conversation encouraged by the media
• Philosophy and religion:
  although the doctrines of religions and philosophies change very slowly
  if at all, there can be rapid changes in what areas of a religion or a
  philosophy are seen as most important and most worth following or
  studying.
• Social networks and the diffusion of representations and practices
• Sociology and the meaning of clothing for identity-building
• Technology, such as the choice of computer programming techniques
• Hospitality industry such as designer uniforms custom made for a hotel, restaurant, casino, resort or club, in order to reflect a property and brand.

Of these fields, costume especially has become so linked in the
public eye with the term "fashion" that the more general term "costume"
has mostly been relegated to only mean fancy dress or masquerade
wear, while the term "fashion" means clothing generally, and the study
of it. This linguistic switch is due to the so-called fashion plates
which were produced during the Industrial Revolution, showing novel ways to use new textiles. For a broad cross-cultural
look at clothing and its place in society, refer to the entries for
clothing, costume and fabrics. The remainder of this article deals with
clothing fashions in the Western world.

         So this is my second post for my Fashion Of the World  Blog . A couple of people mentioned Maria Antoinette as a fashion icon and I
most definitely agree. The look is achievable with an extra poufy
dress, white pompadour and lacy fan. I thought the stuffed pug would be
a cute addition.. One could even carry around a box of chocolates/slice
of cake and repeat "Let them eat cake," for extra effect! (I read in a
novel about her life that she didn't actually say that though?). Ever
since the movie and my visit to Versailles over the summer I've been
intrigued by Marie Antoinette.

    
GEISHA STYLE

      Geisha are expected to be excellent carers and entertainers of men;
they should be refined in the art of conversation as well as a more
traditional art such as dance or singing, most Kyoto Geisha are adept
at the Shamisen (a traditional Japanese 3 stringed instrument similar
to a guitar) however this is a talent dying out amongst the Tokyo
Geisha.
     
Geisha usually live in an Okiya, a traditional style Japanese
house. These are usually run by an elderly woman or mother (okasan) of
the house, most often a retired Geisha herself. The Okiya has a family
style hierarchy and is a female run business. Geisha are expected to
play "older sister" (onesan) to a young Maiko; this is a bond that will
stay for life, and is like having an apprentice to guide and show the
ropes, in this way there is a cycle of interest in the community and
new comers always have a foot in the door. The Flower and Willow world
is one of the rare areas of Japan where women hold all the power,
mostly the men in the Geisha world are dressers, wig makers and other
artisans. Most of the businesses particularly the tea houses and Okiya
are run and serviced by women, and it is a reverse situation to the
rest of Japan where women children are preferred since they can be
enveloped into the business.
        
The teahouses where Geisha entertain are separate to the Okiya and
usually run by long running families. Geisha are booked through their
Okiya to entertain at an Ochaya (tea house) for a period in an evening.
Geisha may attend several such banquets in a night and charge "flower
money" for the time they are spending entertaining. This notion is
based on the form of time keeping in the past, where Ochaya would burn
flower incense sticks for the time a Geisha was working and would
charge according to the number of sticks burnt. Geisha also charge for
the time spent in other entertainments, flower sighting (during the
Sakura cherry blossom season) or even casual meetings.
       
Traditionally the major income for a Geisha was by taking a Danna
or patron. The Danna would then pay for all the daily living expenses
of the Geisha, and in turn would attain a more intimate long running
affair with the Geisha. Often such relationships resulted in children,
sometimes supported by the father and often enveloped into the Geisha
world. Today Geisha cannot always find Danna who can support such a
lavish lifestyle and often have to continue working at banquets and
other Geisha work when they are not with their Danna.


Dressing as a Geisha

For a geisha, getting ready for work involves hours of preparation. The
distinctive appearance of a geisha is part of her allure, but it's not
only about beauty and exclusivity. It's also a way to tell the
difference between a maiko and a geisha and between a child geisha and an adult geisha. You can tell a lot about a geisha just by looking at her.       Unlike a regular kimono, a geisha kimono exposes her neckline -- in Japanese culture, this is considered the most sensual part of a woman.   The white makeup that is a trademark of the geisha was once lead-based and poisonous. Now, it is harmless. If a maiko
follows the traditional way of achieving the look, she first applies
oil and a layer of wax to her face. This makes the skin perfectly
smooth and forms a base to which the white powder can adhere. She then
applies red lipstick only to her lower lip. This is a sign that she is an apprentice. 

The Most Difficult Uniform EverEvery geisha has a dresser -- geisha-style kimono are very difficult to put
on correctly, and it's almost impossible for a woman to get into one
herself. There are underlayers, overlayers and yards of expensive
fabric that must be tucked and folded into place. A maiko obi is so long she can't even hold it off the floor without help.