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LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT.


LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. classic sweet lolita, gosurori, gothloli egl, shopping guide tokyo, gothic japan girl models, spooky goth emo teens, japanese tokyo alternative punk clothes, women's designer brand clothing, department stores japanese, visual kei teens

At Laforet, the Harajuku department store that stocks your favorite alt brands, I was surprised to see a gaggle of Gothic Lolita and J-rock teens on the staircase.

LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. classic sweet lolita, gosurori, gothloli egl, shopping guide tokyo, gothic japan girl models, spooky goth emo teens, japanese tokyo alternative punk clothes, women's designer brand clothing, department stores japanese, visual kei teens

Pirate eye patches, striped socks and Sweet Loli JSKs?

LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. classic sweet lolita, gosurori, gothloli egl, shopping guide tokyo, gothic japan girl models, spooky goth emo teens, japanese tokyo alternative punk clothes, women's designer brand clothing, department stores japanese, visual kei teens

Laforet often holds special events in the two basement floors, such as Visual Kei band signings. (There’s a Heidi x h.NAOTO event on Saturday, August 21…)

LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. classic sweet lolita, gosurori, gothloli egl, shopping guide tokyo, gothic japan girl models, spooky goth emo teens, japanese tokyo alternative punk clothes, women's designer brand clothing, department stores japanese, visual kei teens

If I went to high school in Tokyo, I’d skip class and be in line!

LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. classic sweet lolita, gosurori, gothloli egl, shopping guide tokyo, gothic japan girl models, spooky goth emo teens, japanese tokyo alternative punk clothes, women's designer brand clothing, department stores japanese, visual kei teens

Minnie Mouse would wear this Metamorphose temp de Fille ensemble.

LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. classic sweet lolita, gosurori, gothloli egl, shopping guide tokyo, gothic japan girl models, spooky goth emo teens, japanese tokyo alternative punk clothes, women's designer brand clothing, department stores japanese, visual kei teens

The Angelic Pretty shop is the sweetest, frilliest place on the planet.

LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. classic sweet lolita, gosurori, gothloli egl, shopping guide tokyo, gothic japan girl models, spooky goth emo teens, japanese tokyo alternative punk clothes, women's designer brand clothing, department stores japanese, visual kei teens

Atelier Pierrot and Alice and the Pirates are more to my liking.

LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. classic sweet lolita, gosurori, gothloli egl, shopping guide tokyo, gothic japan girl models, spooky goth emo teens, japanese tokyo alternative punk clothes, women's designer brand clothing, department stores japanese, visual kei teens

I couldn’t believe my eyes… this new Lolita dress, hanging in Atelier Pierrot, had a price tag of 14,175 yen. I had found almost the exact same dress — a Metamorphose version with the same fabric — for about half the price in Closet Child! (Photos here.)

LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. classic sweet lolita, gosurori, gothloli egl, shopping guide tokyo, gothic japan girl models, spooky goth emo teens, japanese tokyo alternative punk clothes, women's designer brand clothing, department stores japanese, visual kei teens

Baby, the Stars Shine Bright always has cute stocking prints. Which one would you like to wear: the playing card symbols, strawberries, cherries, or Gloomy Bear in a basket?

hello kitty t-shirt, rare limited edition, bloody injured sanrio, LAFORET HARAJUKU: GOTHIC LOLITA PUNK ALTERNATIVE BOUTIQUES, TOKYO CLOTHING STORES. ROCKING HORSE SHOES, BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT. classic sweet lolita, gosurori, gothloli egl, shopping guide tokyo, gothic japan girl models, spooky goth emo teens, japanese tokyo alternative punk clothes, women's designer brand clothing, department stores japanese, visual kei teens

Hello Kitty is everywhere. What do you think of this guro-version of Kitty, which puts her in bandages and surrounds her with skulls?

Hold onto your hats — I have many more Laforet Harajuku photos for you in the next few posts. You can see photos of basically every Gothic Lolita Punk store in Tokyo in my shopping guide.

PS: please tune in to my Twitter for up-to-the-second updates about Closet Child, Tokyo life and the Pepsi TV shoot!

Japanese Word of the Day: Okotaru = Goof around
Song of the Day: Patty Ryan – Love is the Name of the Game

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58 Comments

  1. flip
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:00 am | Permalink

    uber cutennmakes me wanna go back to japan again ahahan

  2. flip
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:00 am | Permalink

    uber cute

    makes me wanna go back to japan again ahaha

  3. shadowpal2
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:05 am | Permalink

    (long sigh) – I’m finally back. And my god does it feel SOOOOOOOOOOOOO WEIRD. Coming back to your home after a tour around South Asia. nnBut hey I enjoyed Singapore and India a lot – a whole lot. Singapore of course is very very very very very clean due to the pretty harsh laws they have in place. It’s a nice small island to tour and stuff. I enjoy their sort of “nature & city as one” kind of philosophy. It truly does bring about a lot of beauty. Now as far as fashion goes…well it’s pretty western but it does seem that there is a minority of people that do know about gothic lolita fashion. However I just never seen it actually worn by any Singaporeans during my stay.nnBut there’s a store there…called Black Alice. WOW! Turns out they have a website: http://www.blackalice.com/. I bet there are some more Singaporean gothic lolita fashion stores…but that’s the only one I heard of from a group of people I was talking to there. It doesn’t seem too bad – but only problem is online there really isn’t much of a choice of clothing under a certain area. nnBut again I really enjoyed Singapore. The people there are very friendly, but I kind of have a hinting suspicion that the teenagers are a bit…uhh…disrespectful occasionally. Oh well we all have had been disrespectful at least once in our lives I guess. nnNow…it’s true that the average temperature is around the 30 degrees Celsius or so. I’m used to it and actually enjoy humidity weather since here in Silicon Valley everything just feels so dry. I also enjoy the thunder and lightning hahaha!nnAs for India – uhh…gothic lolita is completely unheard of. But they do have a different fashion style, however it seems that there was more of this fashion back 10 years or so. Things are becoming a bit western there – which kind of saddened me since I enjoy seeing so much of cultural aspects. But there are still women/girls that wear Salwar Kameez, Sari, and Ghagra Cholis. nnThe clothing is very beautiful in my opinion and pretty cheap if you’re a person converting from The $, S$, u00a5, u20ac, or u00a3 to Indian Rupees. (They created a symbol for the Indian Rupee right when I was there actually haha). But you can find a great salwar kameez for like 200 rupees or so…which is close to $5. The most expensive piece of clothing I saw at India was this Sari with a very beautiful design on it…and it was like 15,000 rupees or so…it’s like $325 or so. nnBut I gotta say it was a bit awkward for me to go in as a guy all alone and look at Saris and Salwar Kameez. Jeese the tension between men and women there is pretty damn high. On the subway or metro women and men have to separately from each other. I even heard that they make a BIG BIG deal if a guy sits in a salon which is for women to get haircuts and eyebrows done and stuff like that. So even if you’re the boyfriend of a girl that wants to get her hair done…GET THE HELL OUT. nnReally really strange. As for infrastructure…Calcutta is still growing. It’s a lot better than what it was before (I’ve visited before) – but there’s still so much congestion on the streets. Gosh it’s ridiculous. But it kind of gives me an adventure to go on if I want to get some bananas or something like that haha. nnSo yea that’s pretty much it. As far as a response to this:nnAHHH GOOD OLD GOTHIC LOLITA – So frilly, so elegant, so cute…I mean seriously being off the internet for 6 weeks or so and not seeing gothic lolita makes me realize how beautiful it truly is. Keep on rocking La Carmina. nnSpeaking of rock…wow I missed a lot of JRock stuff…X JAPAN is here?!?! In the U.S. – ABC news interview? WHAT?! D’espairsRay has a new album?! SHIVER by the GazettE released? OH GOSH.

  4. shadowpal2
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:05 am | Permalink

    (long sigh) – I’m finally back. And my god does it feel SOOOOOOOOOOOOO WEIRD. Coming back to your home after a tour around South Asia. But hey I enjoyed Singapore and India a lot – a whole lot. Singapore of course is very very very very very clean due to the pretty harsh laws they have in place. It’s a nice small island to tour and stuff. I enjoy their sort of “nature & city as one” kind of philosophy. It truly does bring about a lot of beauty. Now as far as fashion goes…well it’s pretty western but it does seem that there is a minority of people that do know about gothic lolita fashion. However I just never seen it actually worn by any Singaporeans during my stay.But there’s a store there…called Black Alice. WOW! Turns out they have a website: http://www.blackalice.com/. I bet there are some more Singaporean gothic lolita fashion stores…but that’s the only one I heard of from a group of people I was talking to there. It doesn’t seem too bad – but only problem is online there really isn’t much of a choice of clothing under a certain area. But again I really enjoyed Singapore. The people there are very friendly, but I kind of have a hinting suspicion that the teenagers are a bit…uhh…disrespectful occasionally. Oh well we all have had been disrespectful at least once in our lives I guess. Now…it’s true that the average temperature is around the 30 degrees Celsius or so. I’m used to it and actually enjoy humidity weather since here in Silicon Valley everything just feels so dry. I also enjoy the thunder and lightning hahaha!As for India – uhh…gothic lolita is completely unheard of. But they do have a different fashion style, however it seems that there was more of this fashion back 10 years or so. Things are becoming a bit western there – which kind of saddened me since I enjoy seeing so much of cultural aspects. But there are still women/girls that wear Salwar Kameez, Sari, and Ghagra Cholis. The clothing is very beautiful in my opinion and pretty cheap if you’re a person converting from The $, S$, ¥, €, or £ to Indian Rupees. (They created a symbol for the Indian Rupee right when I was there actually haha). But you can find a great salwar kameez for like 200 rupees or so…which is close to $5. The most expensive piece of clothing I saw at India was this Sari with a very beautiful design on it…and it was like 15,000 rupees or so…it’s like $325 or so. But I gotta say it was a bit awkward for me to go in as a guy all alone and look at Saris and Salwar Kameez. Jeese the tension between men and women there is pretty damn high. On the subway or metro women and men have to separately from each other. I even heard that they make a BIG BIG deal if a guy sits in a salon which is for women to get haircuts and eyebrows done and stuff like that. So even if you’re the boyfriend of a girl that wants to get her hair done…GET THE HELL OUT. Really really strange. As for infrastructure…Calcutta is still growing. It’s a lot better than what it was before (I’ve visited before) – but there’s still so much congestion on the streets. Gosh it’s ridiculous. But it kind of gives me an adventure to go on if I want to get some bananas or something like that haha. As for other places like Bombay and Bangalore – they’re in pretty good shape but too western for me, I like me some new culture!So yea that’s pretty much it. As far as a response to this:AHHH GOOD OLD GOTHIC LOLITA – So frilly, so elegant, so cute…I mean seriously being off the internet for 6 weeks or so and not seeing gothic lolita makes me realize how beautiful it truly is. Keep on rocking La Carmina. Speaking of rock…wow I missed a lot of JRock stuff…X JAPAN is here?!?! In the U.S. – ABC news interview? WHAT?! D’espairsRay has a new album?! SHIVER by the GazettE released? OH GOSH.

    • shadowpal2
      Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:12 am | Permalink

      AHHH!!! Oh boy…I got a bit carried away with my “comment” there. Hehe…sorry =(

    • lacarmina
      Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:27 am | Permalink

      Fascinating!! I loved reading about your travels. In fact, my next Lip Service column is about SINGAPORE – so there will be coverage of the Singapore Goth scene and shops.
      I’d love to go to India one day…
      Glad you had a great trip and are back!

  5. Nurse_lidia
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:08 am | Permalink

    I want strawberries prints!

  6. Nurse_lidia
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:08 am | Permalink

    I want strawberries prints!

    • lacarmina
      Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:28 am | Permalink

      Ahhh you would DIE if you saw the Baby, the stars shine bright dress on the mannequin at Closet Child… strawberry prints and red ribbons!

  7. shadowpal2
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:12 am | Permalink

    AHHH!!! Oh boy…I got a bit carried away with my “comment” there. Hehe…sorry =(

  8. lacarmina
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:26 am | Permalink

    <3 Wish you were here!

  9. lacarmina
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:27 am | Permalink

    Fascinating!! I loved reading about your travels. In fact, my next Lip Service column is about SINGAPORE – so there will be coverage of the Singapore Goth scene and shops.nI’d love to go to India one day…nGlad you had a great trip and are back!

  10. lacarmina
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:28 am | Permalink

    Ahhh you would DIE if you saw the Baby, the stars shine bright dress on the mannequin at Closet Child… strawberry prints and red ribbons!

  11. Tara A Dettman
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 2:01 am | Permalink

    I can’t wait to get to Tokyo on Friday..OMG…must go to h.Naoto for more shopping therapy!!! i love Laforet! I wish I could get tickets for the Heidi event. oh well.. I wish I could stay for the h.Naoto goth night event on the 28th>.< See you sooooooonnnnn!

  12. Tara A Dettman
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 2:01 am | Permalink

    I can’t wait to get to Tokyo on Friday..OMG…must go to h.Naoto for more shopping therapy!!! i love Laforet! I wish I could get tickets for the Heidi event. oh well.. I wish I could stay for the h.Naoto goth night event on the 28th>.< See you sooooooonnnnn!

  13. Anonymous
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 2:10 am | Permalink

    omg everytime i see your photos i get more and more jealous! lol i want to be there!! i love the ap store shot! omg i would be broke if i walked in there… lol side note..did that girl dress her bunny bear?!?! lol AWESOME IDEA!!

  14. Anonymous
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 2:10 am | Permalink

    omg everytime i see your photos i get more and more jealous! lol i want to be there!! i love the ap store shot! omg i would be broke if i walked in there… lol side note..did that girl dress her bunny bear?!?! lol AWESOME IDEA!!

    • lacarmina
      Posted August 19, 2010 at 7:15 am | Permalink

      ahah you must dress your Momo!!

      • Anonymous
        Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:22 pm | Permalink

        ahhaha she’d hate me.. she wears nothing! lol well bows she can do

  15. Abigail Emily
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 2:29 am | Permalink

    So many great photos!! lusting all the risks being taken in these photos! nnwww.lovelywanderlust.com

  16. Abigail Emily
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 2:29 am | Permalink

    So many great photos!! lusting all the risks being taken in these photos!

    http://www.lovelywanderlust.com

  17. lacarmina
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 7:14 am | Permalink

    Ohh can you tell me more about the Naoto Goth night?? Got a link?

  18. lacarmina
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 7:15 am | Permalink

    ahah you must dress your Momo!!

  19. Rocking Doll Museum
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 7:58 am | Permalink

    ‘Atelier Pierrot and Alice and the Pirates are more to my liking. ‘rnrnThis! I see to much pink ! D:

  20. Rocking Doll Museum
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 7:58 am | Permalink

    ‘Atelier Pierrot and Alice and the Pirates are more to my liking. ‘

    This! I see to much pink ! D:

  21. trashtastika
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:03 pm | Permalink

    Yes! I’d like to know too! Tho I already have a gig on at Earthdom that night, but still….

  22. trashtastika
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:06 pm | Permalink

    Wow, this is getting spooky! I just did a post today on Atelier Pierrot, as I love the brand too – and next up I was gong to do one on Black Alice – and see one of your readers has commented on it! Spooky ooky :)

  23. trashtastika
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:06 pm | Permalink

    Wow, this is getting spooky! I just did a post today on Atelier Pierrot, as I love the brand too – and next up I was gong to do one on Black Alice – and see one of your readers has commented on it! Spooky ooky :)

  24. EleganBlack
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:54 pm | Permalink

    Wow, all those teens there looked magnificent ! That’s the place where I’d love to be every second of the day ! OwO Too bad that I can’t go to Atelier Pierrot’s website though.

  25. EleganBlack
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 1:54 pm | Permalink

    Wow, all those teens there looked magnificent ! That’s the place where I’d love to be every second of the day ! OwO Too bad that I can’t go to Atelier Pierrot’s website though.

  26. Anonymous
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:22 pm | Permalink

    ahhaha she’d hate me.. she wears nothing! lol well bows she can do

  27. MoonMaiden90
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:50 pm | Permalink

    I like the red stockings on the other side o the gloomy bear ones loln& I LOVE the clothes that are in the last pic, including the kitty shirt! ^-^nnn

  28. Allesandro
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:50 pm | Permalink

    I love Lolita fashion! n

  29. Allesandro
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:50 pm | Permalink

    I love Lolita fashion!

  30. MoonMaiden90
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:50 pm | Permalink

    I like the red stockings on the other side o the gloomy bear ones lol
    & I LOVE the clothes that are in the last pic, including the kitty shirt! ^-^

  31. lacarmina
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:52 pm | Permalink

    Oh that’s so spooky! As it should be :P

  32. lacarmina
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:52 pm | Permalink

    I hardly ever touch pink… :P

  33. lacarmina
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:53 pm | Permalink

    Ohhh thanks for letting me know! Fixed – http://www.atelier-pierrot.jp/

  34. lacarmina
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:56 pm | Permalink

    I think the Kitty shirt design is great!

  35. lacarmina
    Posted August 19, 2010 at 10:56 pm | Permalink

    <3!

  36. Blondie2383
    Posted August 20, 2010 at 2:55 am | Permalink

    wow, I wanna go to japan so bad!You have some great coverage!! I have to agree that The Angelic Pretty shop is the sweetest looking shop! I want frilly prints in my life!!nncheck out my new blog you seriously have a killer blog sweetie love it!nwww.mystreetsweets.com

  37. Blondie2383
    Posted August 20, 2010 at 2:55 am | Permalink

    wow, I wanna go to japan so bad!You have some great coverage!! I have to agree that The Angelic Pretty shop is the sweetest looking shop! I want frilly prints in my life!!

    check out my new blog you seriously have a killer blog sweetie love it!
    http://www.mystreetsweets.com

  38. Rocking Doll Museum
    Posted August 20, 2010 at 7:59 am | Permalink

    Good! Neither do I! XD

  39. Rocking Doll Museum
    Posted August 20, 2010 at 9:03 pm | Permalink
  40. lacarmina
    Posted August 21, 2010 at 12:41 am | Permalink

    Thanks!

  41. Niinasalazar
    Posted March 6, 2012 at 3:07 pm | Permalink

    :D

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