"Lolita" store attracts customers to go inside and browse on July10, 2021, Hangzhou, East China's Zhejinag Province. Photo:VCG

Once a hot collector's item, Lolita costumes have been dropping in price as the cosplay has become more commonplace in China, leaving many dress collectors who were dependant on their rarity finding it hard to cash in like they did before. 

Miao Zi (pseudonym), a Lolita cosplayer enthusiast, has been active in the hobby for the past four years. During this time, she has spent hundreds of thousands of yuan buying at least 117 costumes, according to life magazine Vista.

Miao Zi once bought a dress worth 1,100 yuan ($170) that she "really fancied" back when she first stepped foot into this niche market, with the hopes of "reselling it at a much higher price after getting tired of it."

Once upon a time, secondhand dresses such as this could be resold for two to three times more than the purchase price, as this type of dress was so rare that "you had to watch out and grab one from other buyers before you could even think about how much you needed to pay for it," Li, an experienced Lolita enthusiast and collector, told the Global Times.

But now, as Lolita cosplay is becoming increasingly popular among young Chinese and more manufacturers are stepping in to meet demand, prices are now taking a plunge. 

Lolita cosplay in China

This unique look first rose to popularity in Japan and then was introduced to China years ago. The fine tailoring of the Victorian dresses trimmed with lace captured the hearts of many young women.

On Chinese social media, one could find numerous influencers dressing in these clothes for their videos and Lolita cosplayers were becoming an increasingly common sight at comic book exhibitions.

With the rising popularity among cosplayers, the price of a skirt could range from hundreds to thousands of yuan considering the handmade tailoring, design, and quality that came from it being a niche market.

No longer unique

However, now that Lolita cosplay has become more trendy, this once small circle has become less mysterious. The increase in manufacturers trying to get in on the trend has driven down prices, but at the same time has led to a drop in quality. This in turn has led some exquisite-pursuing cosplayers to choose to step aside.

On Xianyu, a Chinese secondhand trading platform, many "retiring" sellers are selling dresses at a discount of 50 percent or even 80 percent off original prices.

Li is a college student in Beijing living with five classmates in a small student dormitory. A Lolita cosplayer for the past three years, she has all of her "favorite" costumes hanging up on the wall to prevent any wrinkles from setting in.

As an enthusiastic dress collector, she once saved most of her money just to buy these dresses. She told the Global Times that she used to "spend almost half of my living expenses on purchasing dresses back when my addiction was at its height."

Yet Li has been recently considered stepping away from the hobby and selling most of her dresses.

Observers say that like many niche circles, such as traditional Chinese Hanfu costume, followers tend to lose interest once their hobby becomes too popular, and so will then lose interest and turn to some other new and rather unknown field.

 "Also, there are all kinds of sellers and so sometimes it is hard to ensure the quality of a dress, which makes things tricky and rather boring."