This review is a bit late, but late is better than never!
Girlism is a Chinese lolita fashion magazine. Today we will be looking at issue 13, which was released in 2021.
There were 2 cover versions of this, like many of their issues. I chose the one with Xie Anran on the cover. Anran even has a behind the scenes video of all photos she took for this magazine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoxJMbQaEmU
It came with 2 posters of Anran and a tote bag printed with Lovely Lota’s mascot character, named Koko. The other version had a different set of posters with the other cover model, Matsumura Sayuri, but the same tote bag.
I’m really impressed with the quality of the tote bag. It even has a design on the back! I’ve been using it a lot lately as a cute extra bag for when I’m out in lolita all day.
These extra novelty items are supposed to be limited so it’s better to order the issues earlier to ensure you get them. Besides tote bags, in the past they have also had clear files, postcards, and stickers. In fact, the past issue had a Usakumya/Kumakumya themed tote bag that I wish I had known about earlier!
It is similar in size to a Gothic & Lolita Bible. However, because it is a magazine instead of a mook, the pages are thinner. Despite that, it is still much nicer quality than your average normie fashion magazine.
In terms of content, it covers many of the same types of topics such as new releases, events, makeup/hair tutorials, DIY tutorials, reader snaps, written articles, and so on.
For this issue in particular, there were interviews with Matsumura Sayuri, Xie Anran, and Raimu.
Since there are hundreds (probably over 1000) of Chinese brands out there, this magazine only features a small slice of them. Baby is the only Japanese brand to appear in it. The new releases are all cutely laid out.
Despite Baby having no physical shops in China, Baby does seem to heavily promote in China. In this magazine, they have 2 pages of advertisements and a feature on their fashion show in Shanghai. The dress being modelled on the cover is also a Baby dress!
Misako also does a lot of lolita work in China too, but I’m not sure how often she contributes to this magazine. This spread is a timeline of her past year activities in lolita, with pictures and text provided by Misako herself! She posts a lot on social media so this was a nice way to catch up on everything she did over the past year.
As for the hairmake pages, they seem to be using a lot of wigs? The pages look nice but I wonder if these options are possible with real hair. They are really well designed though.
The DIY pages are also similarly pretty. I thought the recipes looked a bit out of place because they don’t seem very lolita, but they do seem pretty fancy.
For reader snaps, they laid the pictures out in a way where it spans multiple pages. I feel like it wastes a lot of space compared to what I am used to seeing.
I have talked about the things that I liked in this issue so far, but there are definitely some things that I didn’t like at all.
There is a huge section focusing on checking out different locations, which looks out of place. The GLB had these sometimes too and they bored me quite a bit. I want to look at a lolita magazine for lolita content, not necessarily something that has a vague link to lolita.
The most strangest part of all, is the article detailing a person’s weight loss journey. It might just be cultural shock? Nonetheless, I still found it to be an uncomfortable topic in a lolita magazine. I won’t include a photo of it here.
That’s all for now! I hope I gave you a good idea of the highlights without spoiling too much! If there’s specific things you are interested in being translated, please let us know in the comments~
I would definitely get another copy of Girlism in the future! I think some of the novelties they include make it worth it even if you don’t intend on reading it. The pictures are nice and the quality is decent as well. I would not use it to keep up with new releases, but it is a nice piece of printed media to look at.
I hope you can enjoy lolita forever~
Chrysanthemum
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