Even though I usually wear lolita these days, my first love in jfashion was ouji. Ouji is a vaguely masculine-leaning, often shorts-wearing counterpart to lolita; for more, read Stephano's Ouji Overview. But, as I grow forever older and grumpier, I've become skeptical of the 'ouji' label as an umbrella term. As any ouji can tell you, it's nearly impossible to find ouji stores or get multiple substyles in one place.
Kal's article for Wunderwelt Libre made me think more about the terminology's validity. Although Kal's article is an excellent overview for people unfamiliar with the style, I have a few critiques: namely, I really don't think we should say 'kodona' at all anymore. 'Kodona', as Kal mentions, is a neologism coined offhand in a band interview and ceased upon by the Western lolita community. Nobody I know in real life uses this term anymore, either as interchangeable with 'ouji', or as a more childish/punk variant, as proposed by Kal. As a community, we have enough trouble with existing Japanese labels with actual meaning; we don't need to add more. Dandy is also a term I usually ignore, but I imagine it can be useful when trying to deflect interrogation about masc aristo coords without using the charged term 'gothic'.
Personally, I think the 'ouji' aesthetic is less of a continuity with attached community, as lolita or gyaru, and more a term that unites looks from disparate fashions, namely, gothic, steampunk, punk, and lolita. Sweet ouji seems to be the only style constructed as both lolita-adjacent and not part of lolita.
Gothic/Steampunk-leaning
Gothic and steampunk ouji are produced by brands such as FanPlusFriend, Sheglit, Ozz On, BPN, Atelier Boz, Atelier Pierrot, Miho Matsuda, Excentrique, Ichigo15, 69th Department, some Alice and the Pirates, and MMM. Grouping steampunk together with such esteemed gothic brands like MMM seems counterintuitive, but there's a lot of crossover between the historically inspired aspects of good steampunk and the elegant vampiric feel of gothic style. Sometimes ouji looks are distinguishable by pants length, but for brands like these, the idea of ouji seems to just include princely/short pants versions of the brand's usual historically-influenced style.
Punk
Punk brands like Deorart, Maxicimam MA, Peace Now, some H Naoto, and Putumayo (RIP) have made shorts and blouses that work well for ouji. These looks are typically pretty youthful and playful, fitting better with Kal's idea of 'kodona' than the elevated princely ideal. These brands typically don't have a great size range. Again, the ouji items aren't set apart here; they're meant to be intermixed with the casual cutsews and other punk clothes. It's a look within punk, not a punk substyle of ouji. A lot of lolitas in the GLBs and KERA posed with partners wearing punk looks that could be read as ouji by some.
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| Snap 005 from Kera 7 |
Lolita
Metamorphose, Innocent World, AATP, and MAM Maxicimam have been known to release both matching shorts for print series (including Meta's infamous Romantic Alphabet) and stand-alone shorts releases. This is the closest thing to ouji as I've seen it treated here in the U.S.; series items are styled together to form a complete look that is inconsistent with most other releases from the same brand. Of course, though, these releases are typically only in a single size, and are not the primary focus of the brand. Once again, AATP is a stand out: they release ouji on a consistent basis. This makes more sense if you remember that AATP isn't a fully-fledged brand, but the gothic and masculine leaning sub-brand of BTSSB.
Emily Temple Cute and Jane Marple also have a number of shorts releases, but they're usually really cutesy and girly or just too casual. To be ouji, they'd have to be shoehorned in quite a bit.
Sweet Ouji?
Sweet ouji is a rarity compared to gothic ouji and classic ouji, the counterparts of the other two maiin lolita substyles.There have been efforts by fabulous brands like A Gato Designs, Glitter Tale, Tour New Soul, and Puvithel to make room for sweet ouji, but it's still tough. Most secondhand ouji is black, black, or grey (if you're lucky), and the occasional release (usually as a counterpart to a dress in the same print) does not a full wardrobe make. Altering lolita dresses into shorts salopettes and vest sets can fill things up, but sweet ouji is kind of a stand-alone fashion, existing both within and without lolita, and so, can be very difficult.
Conclusion: Ouji as an adjective
There is a small population of people who wear only ouji styles, but most people I know who wear ouji also wear something else in the realm of alternative fashion: punk, goth, lolita, or fairy kei, usually. The reason it's difficult to build an ouji wardrobe is that ouji is a big mash-up of princely-leaning aesthetics from a thousand different styles and brands, with maybe one or two purpose-made brands to ease the load.
As a gender non-conforming person, I really hope for the expansion of ouji resources; the greater lolita community always has room for diversity. That said, because it's tough to find ouji looks within the maze of substyles that these looks belong to, it's probably not going to get huge.
Personally, I now only use ouji in conjunction with other words, as gothic ouji or classic ouji. It just doesn't have the conceptual coherence or recognizable silhouette that allows lolita to simply be lolita. Regardless of terminology, ouji styles will never lose their magic to me; there is just something amazing about strutting into the tea party to be the collective's ouji accessory.
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