Betwixt and Between: It's a Doll's World

Judging from what I've seen in photographs, everyday dress in Japan is mostly Western in style. But traditional Japanese dress is much closer to hand than premodern dress is in the West. And then you have cosplay, dressing up as characters in mange and anime, which is similar to Western fan practices, and "dollers", which I've just learned about:

Though “dollers” have been around some 20 years, people who dress up as dolls—inside large plastic heads—have traditionally been male. That a pretty, friendly girl is now happy to talk about her lifestyle in this cosplay subgenre has given the practice a wider audience, and doller otaku a new focus for their interest.

Dollers where whole-head masks that are like doll's heads. They're quite confining:

[Trying on the mask] Wow! You can hardly see or breathe properly with this mask on.

Yes, you could suffocate if you wore it for too long and you can hardly see where you are going. But I don’t mind being led by the hand, usually by photographers. What’s important is I can become something on the borderline between human beings and dolls. I like the idea of existing somewhere between the 2-D and 3-D worlds.

H/t Tyler Cowen.