lolita media library: Shōichi Aoki’s Fresh FRUiTS

General info

This is a compilation published in 2005 of street fashion snaps taken by photographer Shōichi Aoki (青木正一) that were originally published in a monthly magazine called FRUiTS, which ran from 1997 until 2017. This is the second compilation of photos from this magazine; the first was published in 2001.

How it’s related to lolita

There are many people wearing lolita fashion in the photos.

Comments

The first FRUiTS compilation was the very first place I saw lolita fashion in 2001. A good friend who liked goth and punk fashion had gone to New York City for a school trip. She bought this book in a museum gift shop and brought it to school to show our group of friends. It was the first time I’d felt interested in fashion beyond what classmates were wearing because everything was so fun and colorful. She lent it to me for a few days and I spent HOURS looking at the photos after I got home from school. After this I decided that someday, somehow, I was going to try this out for myself. This is a fashion time capsule. Flipping through the pages now is quite nostalgic. It’s a great reference for when you’re trying to do more old school inspired coordinates and want to make sure you’ve got the look down. It’s also been helpful during my treasure hunts for photos of old items to put in Lolibrary that only have translated text descriptions. It’s quite exciting to find a photo of something old and realize that your text description matches!

Free FRUiTS historical archive!

High quality scans of the first 50 issues of FRUiTS magazine are available on the Internet Archive! It’s a great Japanese street fashion resource worth a look if you want examples of what kind of content this book has.