So Pretty / Very Rotten

In a series of essays and comics that are at once academic and intimate, cartoonists Jane Mai and An Nguyen delve into Lolita subculture and their relationship with it. Empowering and beautiful, but also inescapably linked to consumerism, the Rococo-inspired fashion is indulgent and sublime, pretty and rotten.

An Nguyen is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Ottawa, ON best known for her romantic comic series Open Spaces and Closed Places.

Jane Mai is a freelance illustrator and comic artist from Brooklyn, NY.

Novala Takemoto is a Japanese author, fashion designer and prominent promoter of the Lolita lifestyle.