Lolita, archetype for the ages, underage coquette for the masses. Vladimir Nabokov’s character seeped into the fabric of film and fashion, and now the famous nymphet is again legging her way to spring’s center stage. Years after the book’s release in 1955, all-American Lolitas surfaced wearing high-waisted hot pants, halter-tops, flared skirts, silk chiffon, tiny tees, and picnic prints such as gingham and calico flowers. To this day, there’s still no better way to look like a bombshell ready to burst. Here we take a look at Lolita’s influences throughout the decades. Humbert Humbert, eat your heart out.
1960s
(Center) Why, Lolita, what lovely legs you have! Sue Lyon as the teenage temptress gets the wolf’s, er, Humbert’s attention in a skimpy bikini in Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 film. (Left) Bathina body balm by Benefit, $28, at benefitcosmetics.com (Model) MOSCHINO
Photography: (product and runway images) courtesy of vendors and designers, (film stills) courtesy of Everett Collection
1970s
Jodie Foster as Iris “Easy” Steensma in 1976’s Taxi Driver: There’s nothing easy about watching Foster play a child prostitute. But her sexy seventies style is fierce. (Model) D&G
Photography: (product and runway images) courtesy of vendors and designers, (film stills) courtesy of Everett Collection
1980s
(Left) Pretty Baby launched Brooke Shields’s career in 1978, but those suggestive Calvin Klein ads and teenage romances such as The Blue Lagoon and Endless Love made her an eighties icon. (Right) Dentelle blush in Vintage Pink by Dior, $40, at neimanmarcus.com (Model) CHANEL
Photography: (product and runway images) courtesy of vendors and designers, (film stills) courtesy of Everett Collection
1990s
(Center) In 1993’s The Crush, a campy horror take on Lolita, Alicia Silverstone makes a fatal impression in a gingham swimsuit. (Left) Dunk Hi shoes by Nike, $120, at nikestore.com (Model) CHRISTOPHER KANE
(Right) Jeremy Irons can’t take his eyes off Dominique Swain’s ruby-red lips in 1997’s Lolita. (Left) Nars lipstick in Jungle Red, $24, at sephora.com (Model) PRADA
Photography: (Christopher Kane) © WWD/Condé Nast/Corbis, (product and runway images) courtesy of vendors and designers, (film stills) courtesy of Everett Collection
2000s
Evan Rachel Wood, a self-proclaimed Lolita fanatic, inspired her much-older fiancé, Marilyn Manson, to write 2007’s “Heart-Shaped Glasses.” In the music video, the couple plays licky face while drenched in blood. Ew. Lolita sunglasses by Juicy Couture, $98, at juicycouture.com (Model) PETER SOM
Photography: (product and runway images) courtesy of vendors and designers, (film stills) courtesy of Everett Collection