Akina designer/artist Lang Leav of Sydney won a well-deserved Churchill fellowship to research fashion subcultures – particularly her main inspiration, Gothic Lolita. From July to August 2008, she was hurtled into the heart of the Tokyo underground scene, teaming up with photographer Tim Rudder and translator/model/musician Jimi Blumer (both of whom make cameos in my upcoming theme restaurants book). The narrative of her journey has just been released, and it’s as beautiful and haunting as her work. Some excerpts:

Lang Leav (above) on Tokyo Dark Castle: “I begin to make my way through the crowd. I walk past two Lolita, whose hands wander idly over each other’s bodies while they sway their hips in rhythm to the thumping music. On stage there is an orchestrated orgy as two leather-clad women simulate sex with a man dressed in chains.”

What can I say – Man Heaven is the zeitgeist. “We make small talk in the elevator and exchange numbers. Later I will learn that he is James Blumer, a model from L.A. who holds the second highest certification in Japanese. He is also the only Westerner to play in a Visual Kei band, a genre of music that is synonymous with the subcultures of my study. On impulse, I ask him if he will be my translator. ‘I would love to,’ he smiles.”

She met a proud, French Lolita. “The opulent lifestyle of the insatiably overindulgent Marie Antoinette makes it no wonder she is idolised by the growing number of modern day Lolita who wander the streets of Paris. ‘Marie Antoinette,’ says Valérie, confirming my thoughts ‘was the perfect Lolita.'”

Into the fantasy world of a maid cafe: “Boléro an orchestral piece by Maurice Ravel plays on repeat in the background. ‘I listen to this over and over again,’ sighs Mary. Outside, the sounds of wind chimes contribute to the symphony, as if vainly hoping to imprint itself into the orchestrated sounds. It makes me think of Mary and others like her, wanting to belong to this romantic aesthetic of yesteryear, an ambition made only possible beneath a shroud of fantasy.”