Hello friends! <3
Not much has been going on this month lolita and meet-up wise, so
I thought I'd share how I got into lolita...
*Let's go back in time*
It was in 2009 while I was at college, attending an anime club meeting. One of my friends showed up wearing a light blue skirt with tiny little strawberries all over it. I thought it was cute and we got to talking. They told me it was a Japanese fashion called lolita and that they had gotten it from Bodyline. Curious to find out more, I searched online and found the Bodyline website. I fell in love with all of the cute colorful clothes. I especially liked this one dress with carousel ponies on it.
I decided I wanted to try wearing lolita. At first, I thought it'd be easy to find similar suitable items locally. I found some accessories like jewelry, purses, and shoes, but the clothing was more difficult. I made some attempts at lolita cords using stuff I already had, but they never looked quite right. This is a pic of my very first coord I put together for attending a local convention...
After graduating college, I continued my attempts at assembling coords. It was frustrating at times but I was determined to succeed. I wanted to wear cute clothes and look cute too. I got a skirt and headbow set from one friend. It was black with fruit and parfaits on it. I also got a dress from another friend which had strawberries on it. They worked great for coording! I was super excited to wear them to meet-ups. I felt that I had started to become a real lolita :-)
Encouraged by this, I got more clothes and continued to work on coording.
*Fast forward about 7 years*
I have learned and improved so much since back then! I realize now that I didn't fully understand the lolita look and what went into creating it. I was overlooking key aspects such as needing a petticoat to achieve the proper skirt shape and that blouses should have non-pointy collars. I learned to choose a few main colors for your coord and stick to a theme if possible. For example, the recent coord below has three main colors: pink, lavender, and gold. My blouse and socks are pink, the dress and headbow are lavender, and the purse and shoes are gold, etc. The theme is sweet since the print features teddy bears and bunnies. Accessories can really help to bring out the theme in a coord. My earrings which you may not be able to see were gold bunny rabbits. So yes, even accessories should match. It might seem like a lot of work to do, but it looks great when it's all put together in the end.
My wardrobe has also shown evidence of my journey through lolita. When I first started out, there used to be a bunch of skirts, a few blouses that matched, some assorted jewelry, and a couple pairs of shoes. Most of it was offbrand or Bodyline. This pic is one of the earliest ones I have of my starter wardrobe (from 2014)...
Now, I have a whole wardrobe full of blouses, dresses, shoes, etc. Most of the main pieces are brand with the rest of the items being a mixture of offbrand/thrift store finds. Luckily most of what I have can be mixed and matched easily.
Encouraged by this, I got more clothes and continued to work on coording.
*Fast forward about 7 years*
I have learned and improved so much since back then! I realize now that I didn't fully understand the lolita look and what went into creating it. I was overlooking key aspects such as needing a petticoat to achieve the proper skirt shape and that blouses should have non-pointy collars. I learned to choose a few main colors for your coord and stick to a theme if possible. For example, the recent coord below has three main colors: pink, lavender, and gold. My blouse and socks are pink, the dress and headbow are lavender, and the purse and shoes are gold, etc. The theme is sweet since the print features teddy bears and bunnies. Accessories can really help to bring out the theme in a coord. My earrings which you may not be able to see were gold bunny rabbits. So yes, even accessories should match. It might seem like a lot of work to do, but it looks great when it's all put together in the end.
My wardrobe has also shown evidence of my journey through lolita. When I first started out, there used to be a bunch of skirts, a few blouses that matched, some assorted jewelry, and a couple pairs of shoes. Most of it was offbrand or Bodyline. This pic is one of the earliest ones I have of my starter wardrobe (from 2014)...
Now, I have a whole wardrobe full of blouses, dresses, shoes, etc. Most of the main pieces are brand with the rest of the items being a mixture of offbrand/thrift store finds. Luckily most of what I have can be mixed and matched easily.
Knowing my measurements, what dress cuts worked for my body type, and what I liked and disliked was super helpful for me. Also, being employed does wonders for expanding your wardrobe since lolita can be an expensive hobby. I have definitely enjoyed my experience with lolita and am looking forward to learning and creating even more coords in the coming years. Thanks for staying with me through this unexpectedly long post <3
