Phaidon | 272 pages | $29.95
By SHARON STEEL | December 3, 2007
If I was ever in the position to buy Avril Lavigne a holiday present, it would be Gothic & Lolita: the tiny pop punker could use some fashion inspiration that doesn’t refer back to Dickies pants or Hot Topic T-shirts. Masayuki Yoshinaga’s brilliant street-style photographs of Japanese teenagers and twentysomethings document a fantastic subculture in rare form. The coy, baby-doll Lolitas pose in starched, frilled Little House on the Prairie dresses, white knee socks, and mary-janes. The Goths stare down the camera — colored contacts turning their glare red or ice-blue — with fishnets, high-heeled boots, and corsets tightly enveloping their bodies. They model for the artist with style-twins, boyfriends, and alone, on quiet streets and bustling urban centers. Yoshinaga even managed to worm his way into some of the kids’ homes, where he shoots them in their rooms: one young lady spread out her dress collection on the bed, along with a pink Chanel purse, pearls, a little top-hat, and a well-groomed puppy, as if to prove: yes, this is who I am. Club-kids, demure maidens, surreal occult worshippers — they’re all here. Yoshinaga found and followed a country-wide masquerade where the masks never, ever come off. Self-expression is a beautiful thing.
Related:
Guitars are from Mars, Feist and Björk are from Venus, 2009: The year in books, Abs of steel, More 
- Guitars are from Mars, Feist and Björk are from Venus
It’s 3 am. Do you know if you’re a man or a woman?
- 2009: The year in books
Here, listed alphabetically by author, are 10 of the best books the Phoenix reviewed in 2009.
- Abs of steel
A wonderfully campy, oddly comforting motivator that suggests anyone with the guts and desire can become a modernized version of a Roman warrior.
- Wishing on a popstar
Avril Lavigne has never had a problem with viewing herself and her music as an aid to empowerment.
- The Big Hurt: Falling down the rabbit hole
Lee, Hoppus, Wentz, Avril, and 3OH!3 fall down the rabbit hole
- Lavigne squeaks; Winehouse freaks; Oasis leaks
Courtney Love and Avril Lavigne both have laryngitis this week. Explain that, Richard Dawkins.
- 30 ways to have fossil-free fun in Boston this Summer
It’s tough to maximize your summer fun when, every time you start your engine, you realize that you’re strangling the last few breaths of life out of the planet’s 17 (or so) remaining white rhinos.
- You say 'bizarre'
I stood in front of the Plain Mabel table for a full five minutes, gripping a super-soft zipper pouch fashioned out of fabric that featured a pink bunny rabbit hunting for lady bugs, deliberating.
- The best damn thing?
Avril Lavigne doesn’t always act like a spoiled bitch.
- 10 ‘fun’ things to do in Boston without gas
- Carnal knowledge
When I interviewed Nick Cave for the Phoenix three years ago and he told me — drolly, languidly, literarily — that his next writing project was about “a sexually incontinent hand-cream salesman” on the south coast of England, I assumed he was taking the piss.
- Less
Topics:
Books
, Avril Lavigne
