Elegant Gothic Lolita - Television Tropes & Idioms

Elegant and classy. Oh, and Les Yay away!

One Winged Angels aside, everything can be a cute girl.

The Elegant Gothic Lolita wears an outfit that makes her look like a Victorian doll: lots of frills, bonnets, huge ribbons, mostly black. There's also shades of Alice In Wonderland, though with the aforementioned dark motif. On occasion, her hair may be in Princess Curls. She may also employ arcane symbols. Named more for the famous expression, although these are characters usually well below adult age. It's worth mentioning that Elegant Gothic Lolita is only a sub-style of Lolita fashion in general, though the style most well-known in the west.

Although fundamentally unrelated to the Western sense of "goth", it's popular to dress characters who are villains or have icy personalities in these. Or characters who seem to have supernatural powers. Or just as random cute cosplay. Or even giving a girl Age Inappropriate Dress.

There's a subculture in Japan

of people who dress up in Elegant Gothic Lolita fashion; it's often referred to as simply "gothic lolita," "gothic and lolita," "GothLoli" (gosurori), "loligoth", or "EGL". Some older individuals who are uncomfortable with the word "Lolita" refer to it as "Antique Cosplay." Our goths' stylings are referred to as "goth punk" there.

There's also a subculture of Westerners trying to imitate the Japanese look, and prone to attacking each other about how everyone else in the community is doing it wrong.

Not to be confused with Original Gothic Lolita

or "OGL". See also/compare Awesome Anachronistic Apparel.

Examples

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Music

Anime and Manga

Cosette d'Auvergne from Le Portrait de Petite Cosette
Suigintou (Rozen Maiden); the other dolls are also dressed in Victorian fashions, but are generally more colorful.
- Souseiseki has roughly the same palette as Suigintou, but wears a style of dress based on Victorian clothing for boys, known as "ouji" or "kodona".
- Actually, the all of the dolls could be seen as different types of lolita in general. Hina Ichigo is a Sweet Lolita, Kirakishou is a Classic Lolita (or a slightly more refined Sweet Lolita, take it either way), Suiseiseki and Shinku are Aristocrat-lolitas, and Kanaria is more like mix of Classic Lolita and Aristocrat-lolita.
Evangeline A.K. MacDowell from Mahou Sensei Negima
- In one chapter of the manga, Evangeline takes on Asuna as an apprentice and demands that she dress only in gothloli style.
- In another, she dresses those still at school during the holidays in cosplay/Goth Loli, because she was bored. The fanboys were entertained, at least.
  - Another example would be Tsukuyomi and her victorian-stylized outfits she wears into combat (never seen without one). She rarely leaves battle with the outfit intact.
Chikage from Sister Princess is borderline EGL.
- Although Aria from the same series may be a better example - in clothing style, anyway. Chikage is more 19th century male dress, for the most part.
Chobits features several characters with "gothloli" looks.
One of Ayumu's idol outfits in Gokujou Seitokai is GothLoli.
Silky from Tenshi ni Narumon
Alice from Digimon Tamers. The writer has mentioned on his home page that she may be a ghost. This troper thinks he just has a fetish for young gothy females.
- Also Nanami from Digimon Savers, who wants to rule the Universe with fellow genius Touma.
The three "princesses" from Princess Princess are forced to dress up in an Elegant Gothic Lolita style because that year's costume designer is a gothloli fan.
In The Wallflower (Or Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge), we are given the "GothLoli Sisters" who are rather less than elegant, not very lolita-ish, and also not very gothic... but that's what they call themselves, and often chant "Goth Goth Loli Loli".
Hotaru Tomoe (Sailor Saturn) in the second half of the third season of Sailor Moon.
Anju Maaka from Karin.
Before changing families Senko Himemiya's (later known as Chika Midarezaki) standard outfit was of this variety in Kyouran Kazoku Nikki
- There is also the random shots at the end of the opening video where the female family members are seen wearing EGL.
Kanako from Love Hina Again; she even persuades Keitaro to dress in a goth-like manner briefly. Check out the credits for that episode of the miniseries, which have the other characters, save Haruka, similarly... modified.
The SISTERs of Coyote Ragtime Show.
Black Lagoon has an extremely disturbing example in Creepy Twins Hansel and Gretel.
- There's also the comparatively subdued example of Sawyer the Cleaner, who dresses in this style when she's not head-to-toe in surgical scrubs.
Venus Versus Virus has one of these as a protagonist. She also has a clothes' store that sells dresses in the same style.
- The twins, Layla and Lola, dress in gothic lolita fashion.
In Code Geass, Mysterious Waif C.C. inexplicably wears an Elegant Gothic Lolita costume in one episode; side materials suggest that Lelouch bought it for her without bothering to check her tastes first. As she was going out in public, it's still less conspicuous than her normal apparel of what appears to be a straight-jacket.
- You're trying to make sense of one outfit in a series filled to the brim with all kinds of fanservice?
- A special mention needs to go to the {{picture drama}} where Milly forces the entire student council to cross-dress, and Lelouch gets dressed up like this. He is not exactly pleased, but there's a certain amount of squee from everyone else over "Luluko."
- In the Lost Colors game, Nunnally ends up dressed in a red and white Lolita outfit. Damn, where's the picture when you need it...
  - Here you go.◊
Vita of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's and Lutecia of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. The latter has the attitude, but the former is more of a mix between Little Miss Badass and Cute Bruiser who probably only has the outfit because her master Hayate thought it was cute.
Lala the doll in a few chapters of DGray-Man. The sadistic Road dresses unconscious Lenalee like this too, mostly to tick off Allen.
The lead trio in Saint October. They even call themselves the GothLoli Detectives.
Dolce in Geneshaft wears a distinctively Elegant Gothic Lolita outfit, in contrast with the colorful and stripperific uniforms of the rest of the (mostly female) cast. It helps underline that she's quite a nutcase as well.
In the second season of Genshiken, the males discuss what Ogiue would be like as an ero-game character. The answer: she would be a shy girl in a Gothic Lolita dress who would nevertheless be sexually aggressive even if it was her first time.
Emily from Soukou No Strain is dressed that way by Sara.
Kuro from Kodomo No Jikan prides herself on her extensive (and costly) GothLoli-wardrobe.
Sakura during the Infinity arc in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.
The manga adaption of the Suzumiya Haruhi franchise featured this during Kyon and Mikuru's date. They stumble upon Yuki (What was she doing there, anyway?) who got dressed up like this by some clothing-store owners. Kyon remarks that it looks "pretty damn good" on her.
- Due to the popularity of the aforementioned, PVC figurines have been released of the female leads in personally-tailored GothLoli costumes.
In Death Note Misa Amane wears one of these while singing a hymn in a montage after Light asks her to take over as Kira.
- In the anime, Misa also wears this in the Grand Finale... as she quietly stands atop of a rooftop, after Light's death. It's strongly implied that she threw herself off it.
- As a matter of fact, it's possible that her original montage actually takes place directly before her scene in the finale, which may be why she, in the montage, is seen on a rooftop looking forlornly at the horizon. The outfit may have been so distinct specifically to draw us to this conclusion.
Nathalia aka Belarus from Axis Powers Hetalia.
Merriweather from the manga Godchild.
Perona from One Piece.
Hime with heavy emphasis on elegant and Gothic
Kuesu from Omamori Himari.
Everyone and everything from Kuroshitsuji.
Lu Lu from Monochrome Factor is a perfect example of this trope.
Marika from Mari And Gali.
The outfits worn by the girls of K-ON! in the ending theme.
Cirucci Thunderwitch fills this role in Bleach.
Isabella from Paradise Kiss dresses in Elegant Gothic Aristocrat style, which is basically Elegant Gothic Lolita with floor-length skirts and a more ladylike look. Probably because it's hard to pull off the lolita part when you're a six-feet-tall transsexual.
The Ame-Warashi in xxxHOLiC.
Pii-chan in Gokinjo Monogatari.
Quon from Rah Xephon certainly qualifies, cute umbrella and all.
- One of the DVD covers has her dress in a more traditional Gothic Loli outfit. Her facial expression and being taller than most lolis makes it border Uncanny Valley.
The Witches of Umineko No Naku Koro Ni dress this way, although Bernkastel is probably the best example.
- Another very good example is Erika.
In Moon Phase, Hazuki / Luna when we first meet her in her castle / home / prison.
How is Illyasviel von Einzbern not here yet? Granted, she's more genki than elegant, but still...
In Loveless, Nagisa's outfits are all traditional gothic lolita. Yes, even when she's at home or eating lunch.
Moyashimon. Kei Yuuki, Tadayasu's childhood friend has a distinct love for this style of dress apparently.
Hildagarde from Beelzebub dresses like this.
Yaya's confidant alternate ego Nana dresses this way in Othello (has nothing to do with Shakespeare's Othello).
Pandora Hearts includes both the outfits and the Alice In Wonderland.

Comic Books

Live Action TV

Video Games

In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, the two vampire sisters are this. Interestingly, we find out they dressed the same way before they became vampires.
- This Troper can't believe any father would let his, ahem, stacked daughter walk around in a dress like Stella's wearing, though!
Little Miss Badass Latooni Subota finds herself turning into this in Super Robot Wars Original Generation. First by accident, second in order to match her with the Princess she was assigned to guard, and finally ordered into it by one of her superior officers because frankly, she looks so damn cute in it. To be fair, however, every time she wore that dress, she ended up with a fair amount of Character Development, and the officer giving the order actually says as much.
- And don't get us started on her giant robot. There's a reason the game's development staff nicknamed it the Gothlolion.
- Irui Guneden, is also this in her child form.
Amy from Soul Calibur 3. In the arcade version, at least. Soul Calibur IV even more so.
- SCIV also includes a robotic Elegant Gothic Lolita in bonus character Ashlotte.
Tabitha from Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin. She's more of The Libby in personality, however.
Chidori in Persona 3 has both a gothic dress, an icy personality (except when she's busy cutting herself), and a supernatural power.
Yurika Kirishima of the Rival Schools sequel Project Justice dresses in this style (and her profile even lists a like of frilly and lacy clothing) but the colors of her clothing (light blue dress and a bright red ribbon) contrast to the typical dark colors associated with this trope.
Ninon Beart of King Of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 practically defines Gothic Lolita.
The "Dark Beauty" dress Cordelia can acquire in Shadow Hearts: Covenant is, appropriately enough, in this style. In From The New World, Hilda takes up the fashion.
In The World Ends With You, Lapin Angelique, the store in A-East, carries Gothic And Lolita attire as its main stock.
Virtually the entire Touhou cast is dressed in goth-loli style; even the traditional Japanese outfits seen in the games come with frills and lace.
- One gets the impression that the artist (ZUN) doesn't know when to stop adding details. He's once explained the expressive frills as "I don't know how to draw straight lines."
- Mountain Of Faith's third boss, Hina Kagiyama and Undefined Fantastic Object's sixth boss, Byakuren Hijiri are actually some of the few who fully represent this trope.
Cave has two series, Ibara and Death Smiles, which are Shoot Em Ups with gothic lolita elements. The latter is more heavily centered on them.
The generic female mage characters in Disgaea all dress this way. This, combined with the fact that the male skulls have obnoxious voices, means this troper always goes female when it's time for blasting things with magic.
Marley, one of five trainers that you can team up with in Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, dresses in this style.
Bad Girl, anyone?
- In the sequel, Shinobu fashions this kind of style too.
- Margaret also sports the same style. The look of her outfit seems to be a Shout Out to Suigintou, along with the hair color and all.
Growlanser V had a mute gothic loli. Being designed by Satoshi Urushihara, emphasis on "insane detail."
Len in Tsukihime although she's only given a proper model in the sequel, Kagetsu Tohya.