The slow rot of the suburbs. Giant crumbling parking lots, the grass easing into the cracks. Culture reduced to commodity and then left to erode…..

Matthew Good’s “Suburbia” captures the energy of these spaces well:

“You will come back within yourself
You can be art when we melt
I will know what you were for
I say we’re leaving

There ain’t nothing here at all
Another day, a week, the mall
And baby if I was in demand
You would be mine
You would be mine”

We shot this series in the parking lot of an enormous home renovation store that closed. The space was left vacant for a few years, slowly decaying. It’s since been repurposed so this captures the time before it was reused. The emptiness. The evening was absolutely perfect for a shoot, breezy with low clouds drifting over a blissfully lit sky.

Lolita fashion is the perfect style to shoot in these environments. All those frills and decadent details contrasted against decay and failed optimism. It’s also kind of a consumerist style in a lot of ways as well, like many hobbies or subcultures there’s a threatening undercurrent of “accumulate” that people can be swept up in. Losing sight of enjoying or utilizing the items they’ve collected, for the bare joy of adding more to the collection.

Faewife is wearing our “Church” jumperskirt with her own shirt and New Rock boots. You can find this dress on our site or come try one in person at our shop Doll Funeral in Toronto!

-Taeden