Lapin Labyrinthe Review

Royal Princess Alice said: a new magazine. To which the only response was: yes, please!

Lapin Labyrinthe delivers on the aesthetic promises made by the cover picture.

And clearly it wasn’t just me who thought that. Having gone onto the webshop where this magazine is sold, I discovered that volume 1 has sold out of its original run, the second run and the third one is currently still on sale, with the countdown to volume 2 already having a date! Considering the string of lolita magazines that stopped at the first issue, this is fantastic news.

Particularly as Lapin Labyrinthe proved to be different from what I expected - which might be why it did so well. I anticipated receiving your standard lolita/kawaii fashion magazine: previews of various upcoming releases from brands, some hair and makeup tutorials, outfit snaps, maybe something extra… The usual fare. Instead the magazine is more aesthetic-driven and focused on storytelling through fashion. Not exclusively, but significantly.

The first chunk of pages is very brand-personal, as we get to know the Royal Princess Alice models. With emphasis on both “get to know” and “Royal Princess Alice”. The beautiful images from the brand’s promotional photoshoots are equally pieces of art to admire and an archival catalogue of releases - as someone who doesn’t pay them much attention, I found several designs I didn’t realise were theirs or that I hadn’t seen before. Each model is given her own spotlight followed by a short Q&A where they talk about how they spend their free time, their makeup tips, what they like to eat on a special day, and end with a message to the readers. From the lineup of Midori Fukasawa, Arika Miu, Eri, Manatsu, and Aberu, we get a whole host of wishes to meet soon and pure joy for sharing an interest in the same fashion, which the magazine somehow manages to make it come across as genuine and not put on for a show. Maybe because it’s so much easier to relate to a model who admits to watching anime or playing visual novel games.

Midori exemplifying both the cute designs that I wasn't aware of until I got the magazine and the genuinely lovely messages to the readers (hers says "Clothes that convey a story are cute, aren't they?")

But that’s only the first 30-odd pages of a roughly 120-page magazine! As the chief producer, Royal Princess Alice could’ve easily made it almost as a fanzine to their own customer base, and they didn’t. Instead what follows afterwards is a visually stunning journey through coordinates based around playing cards, which appear to be community submissions, and after that an equally beautifully presented introduction to the fashion including breakdown of all the various substyles, also through what appears to be community submissions. The focus on artists is clear, as most photos in the whole zine are credited not just with the model, but the photographer, which to me really shows the commitment to building people up from within and around our community.

I do wonder how the callout for these submissions was organised and whether the submissions were matched to the theme by the editors or if the models and photographers had the chance to prepare something especially to submit to the magazine.

Those two segments take up almost all of the rest of the magazine. There is a short comic, or more accurately a visual short-story, as well as a handful of miscellanea at the end: some event reports, some art, a small indie brand feature, and a get-to-know spread about the magazine staff with photos. Whilst there is certainly content meant for reading in Lapin Labyrinthe, this is clearly a visual feat first and an informative or an entertaining read second. Particularly as with the magazine being printed on A5, some of the text genuinely gets lost without a magnifying glass. Which is a shame - I understand that sacrifices had to be made in order to keep the price low, but they could’ve been made at the expense of some of the visuals rather than of readability/accessibility.

This is part of a full 2-page spread about the Gothic and Lolita Market, but it's in the tiniest font possible that my shortsighted arse struggles to read. Honestly, I can read more now that I've taken the picture than I can with the magazine in my hand. Which is not good.

Nonetheless, because this is such an aesthetic-driven magazine, I wouldn’t worry about losing anything in translation. I mean, for years people have found enjoyment in just flicking through Gothic & Lolita Bibles, without needing to understand the text, and so much of those were basically ads. So no doubts people will find lots to enjoy here, regardless of whether you personally enjoy Royal Princess Alice’s brand aesthetic, since the community submissions feature a whole assortment of brands.

Most magazines don't introduce the team behind them to you, certainly not like this. It's great to see the faces behind Lapin Labyrinthe.

Having said this, with that big introduction to lolita spread and the one about substyles, issue 1 of Lapin Labyrinthe does have a feel of aiming at the newer fashion enthusiasts. Of course, the aesthetic photoshoot or the spread about the models can be enjoyed equally by all, so it’s not as if newbie content dominates the pages. Nonetheless, between that and the RPA-focused things it does make me wonder as to the direction the magazine will take in volume 2. Will they stick to this as their format or will they develop in another direction? If the plan is to stick to this paper size, then I would prefer the magazine to remain more focused on the visuals, unless this goes hand in hand with using larger fonts that are easier to read. I struggle to imagine how much more diversity there could be within the parameters of “more pictures, less text, RPA-focused, with something significant for the newbies and a themed spread of community-submitted photos”, but I will happily wait and see. Given that previously magazines that followed the GLB-style format more closely tended to start and stop, unless they expanded beyond lolita fashion, I would rather Lapin Labyrinthe stay away from that and continue than go down the typical route and go out of print having dropped what makes it unique.

This is the first time that I have come across Japanese language media using the label 'oldschool' (or rather 'kaiko rori', meaning 'nostalgia lolita'). I wonder if this is the influence of us, the Western community, and our terms on the Japanese or if they arrived at the term independently.

The price of ￥1,800 (tax inclusive) is pretty much what I would expect for this sort of publication. Compared to something like Le Panier, which felt very editorial, Lapin Labyrinthe feels more like a well-produced community zine. With that in mind, even though Le Panier is printed on much higher quality paper and with a much more polished feel whilst costing less, I can see why the prices differ since Lapin Labyrinthe has only two advertisements all the way at the very end, so it’s clearly not receiving additional subsidies from any sorts of sponsorships or advertisement revenue. A project for the community by the community. Which is clearly doing something right if it sold out twice and is now in its third printing run.

Currently Lapin Labyrinthe is only available through its own website and webshop, but there doesn’t seem to be an option to order directly from abroad. This is something that Eri aka Mint Kismet was talking to the editors about, but for the time being you will require a shopping service to obtain. Which, if you intend to get issue 2, you may want to start planning for now as that’s scheduled for release on August 27th - and you can bet that I will try to get a copy for myself!