Lolita: A Style Icon

Lolita: on the cusp between fashion and cinema, childhood and adolescence, capriciousness and sensuality...The figure of the 'Lolita' embodies one of the most fascinating, but at the same time one of the most ambiguous aspects of femininity. She is womanhood in transit: the passage from childhood to adolescence, from the infantile non-sexual being to the teenager's first manifestations of fascination. While almost all girls experience this transformation, only a handful become Lolitas. Named after the eponymous novel published in France in 1955 by Vladimir Nabokov, Lolitas have a subtle appeal expressed in the forms of whims, sidelong glances, and pouts. This youthful ephermerality has been immortalised in fashion and cinema: from Kubrick to Lana del Rey, from Jane Birkin to David Hamilton, 'Lolita' has been dusted down and reshaped on countless occasions, giving rise to what is virtually a cult. This book focusses on the essence of Lolita: naivete, impudent femininity, and petulance.It draws attention to the way that aspects of this archetypal character have continued to influence the look of millions of women all over the world, exploring the items of clothing that symbolise her and highlighting the stylists that invoke her best.