Crimson Reflections

Because sometimes the world is too complex for black and white

Olive

Olive is a magazine from Japan that started publication in May, 1982. It was launched as a sister magazine to the men’s magazine Popeye, and aimed at a college audience. The magazine went by the slogan “Magazine For City Girls”.

In 1983, Olive became independent of Popeye, and changed their slogan to “Magazine for Romantic Girls“.

Readers are referred to as “Olive Girls”, and the fashions they wore are thought to have been one of a few styles that led to the development of lolita fashion. The magazine was published bi-weekly on the 3rd and the 18th of each month.

The magazine went out of print most recently in 2003, though that was a revival printing after an earlier hiatus.

The Japanese Wikipedia Page for Olive describes the Olive Girl Aesthetic as people who like these things:

  • Hats (knit hat, beret , etc.)
  • Old clothes
  • French cinema
  • Cafes
  • Afternoon tea
  • Picture books
  • Northern Europen miscellaneous goods
  • Herbal tea , aroma , flowers
  • Audrey Hepburn
  • Handmade candy
  • Organic Food
  • Light makeup, natural makeup
  • Cheap Chic
  • Colored pencils , crayons
  • Glass of DURALEX (Deyurarekkusu Co., Ltd.) “Picardy”
  • Neo Acoustic
  • Shibuya

Per the Olive Japanese Wikipedia Article, notable models include:

The Olive Project on Facebook has a lot of historic information related to an event in 2015, which celebrated the magazine.