Lolita 52: What influences my lolita style?

Short answer: Everything!

Long answer: Well, the short answer really did kind of sum it up. Mostly though I take a lot of inspiration from whoever I’m having a lolita crush on at the moment, and whoever that is changes over time and has ranged all over the place though generally in the sweet-classic end of the lolita spectrum, as I’m not that into gothic or ouji.

Fanny Rosie will forever be one of my lolita style icons.

Generally, when I cruise other blogs, CGL, livejournal and tumblr I see a wide variety of things and some just stick with me. I like seeing how people coord pieces and develop their personal styles. I honestly wish there was more lolita content to browse everyday!

I don’t tend to draw much inspiration for lolita from other fashion styles; even though I know there is a lot of overlap with other styles of dress I feel that lolita is distinct enough that I don’t tend to import ideas into it. But within the lolita sphere pretty much anything can count as inspiration!

Princess Rose outfits

Recently I found the time to put together some outfits with one of my acquisitions from the end of last year - Innocent World's Princess Rose. It's probably the oldest piece in my wardrobe, released in 2006, and it's gorgeous. I had to modify the straps into a halter because the bodice sat far too high on me but not it fits nicely and if I ever decide to sell it it's an easy enough thing to change back.

My phone refused to photograph the colour the same way twice - I think the second outfit is probably the most accurate. It's a very lush wine-red, and all the laces match in colour so perfectly! I love all the little details in this dress, and particularly the thick, old-school lace on the hem.

Firstly I tried pairing it with peachy pinks to create a softer classic look. I love how well those shoes and that blouse match, though they match so well it's really hard for me to use one without the other!

Next I tried a more structured lolita look. I honestly don't have much to say about this outfit. It's cute but I don't love it as much as the first or the next look.

Lastly I paired it with my ever favourite brown in a more lushly detailed outfit. I would definitely wear this outfit, it's just as fancy as I'm comfortable going!

I love having a piece in my wardrobe that is definitely "old school" in design features but isn't the typical "solid colour with white lace" affair. I don't have the pieces in my wardrobe to really coord it in an old-school look but one thing I love about loltia is the melding of old and new.

What's the oldest piece in your lolita wardrobe?

A Wardrobe Challenge: Not enough socks, never enough socks

Well, "never enough socks" is just ym opinion... says the girls whose OTK storage box is overflowing despite very rarely wearing any of them. I never said that my posts in this series would be devoid of my personal fashion bias.

Anyway, enough rambling (isn't this blog aptly named?). As you can see, after a very long time of not doing this, I'm returning to the Wardrobe Challenge series, this time with the wardrobe of fellow lolita blogger, the lady being Adventures of a Drop Bear Lolita. As usual, lets start with the pieces she showed me she already has.

Overall, she has a very cohesive collection, especially in terms of colour scheme. The first thing I notice is that the legwear section needed bulking up with a few more options (hence the title of this post). There is also a lack of short-sleeved blouses but being a follower of her blog I know she is aware of this so rather than adding in some short-sleeved options I made the assumption that getting Australian-weather appropriate options was already on her to-do list so instead, as usual, I focused on plugging the noticeable gaps instead.

I didn't feel like there was much "missing" from her wardrobe, but what was missing I felt was very important - the black items in particular, though the bolero, additional socks and gold shoes also add a lot of versatility. I feel like a few more leg- and head-wear alternatives further to what I've suggested above would also be good, but this is enough.

As usual I've put together three outfits for each main piece to show the different ways they can be coorded with the existing and additional wardrobe options.

First up, one of BTSSB's classic solid pieces. This was naturally super-easy to coord in a variety of different ways.

Next up is one of two reasons I added in the black pieces to my suggestions. This JSK is far sweeter than the rest of the wardrobe, but while only adding a few smaller pieces it can now be worn is several different ways.

This dress is gorgeous, and having the matching bonnet made for easy coording of headwear. However, there wasn't really much legwear that match so both the tights and OTKs used here are my additions.

I fell in love while coording this dress. Navy isn't usually my thing but navy and brown is apparently something I am really keen on!

With the print on this JSK being in only a single colour it basically counts as a solid coloured piece and thus lends itself well to vairety.

And this OP is the other reason I had to suggest adding some black. I'm not sure how well the outfit with navy would work out IRL but I think it should be nice with the colours in the print.

I used to really love Chess Chocolate when I was getting into lolita. It's just so damn cute! The socks in the middle coord don't match 100% as they have the subtle pink floral pattern, but that could be solved by adding a pink floral clip to the headbow.

This is an overdress, not a full dress, but she does have a simple underdress and I feel it may also be great over the first BTSSB JSK as well for a different look. It's a lovely and versatile dress and that's really all I have to say about it.

Lastly, we have the lone (and adorable) skirt. Like with Chess Chocolate, in the centre coord the socks again aren't a 100% match due to the floral motif but as I explained above, you can fix that easily.

This wardrobe is a perfect example of how sticking to a colour scheme can really make coording easy. Though I did feel a few more additions were needed, by and large the big building blocks of the wardrobe were already in place and just a little fine-tuning was needed. It was really fun to do this again, after nearly a year since the last one, ad I am once again happy to take requests to analyse and make suggestions on wardrobe of less than twenty main pieces.

Outfits with my handmade green skirt

I showed you my newest handmade lolita piece and now I want to share how it works in a few different outfits!

I still am quite happy with this skirt. It's not groundbreakingly amazing but it's a nice casual lolita skirt, which I like, because I do casual lolita more than anything if I'm being completely honest about things.

Firstly, an outfit that I've already worn a variation of in a non-loltia way. San bolero, bow and petticoat this jut made for a cute, albeit unusual, casual outfit for some shopping last weekend. Add those in and you have a nice, summery casual lolita coordinate.

Then I tried something new (which my camera hated, so excuse the picture quality) and to be honest, I'm not too happy with it. Something is just not quite right here and I think it's that the top is so light and the bottom is so dark. However, if I were to actually wear this with my hair down it'd probably work a lot better because I have quite a lot of long, dark hair so it would kind of balance things out.

Lastly, I put together a very "typical" outfit, for lack of a better term. It's nice but I feel it's also a bit boring thought I really shouldn't, because it's got a decent amount of detail going on, everything matches nicely and as I said, this is a pretty casual skirt so any outfit with it is by default going to be casual.

Wow... after writing out the descriptions to these outfits you'd think I don't like this skirt, but I do! I think I've just gotten to a point with doing flat-lays that I like trying to do things a bit more unique and out-of-the-box and I get a little frustrated when an item of clothing doesn't lend itself to that. However, those items are generally the ones I like to actually wear the best, so there we go.

Lolita 52: How I accesorise

With bows! Oh my yes, I love me some bows.

A rainbow of bows!

To be slightly less facetious about it I honestly don’t accessories much at all, so I find my collection of little bows extremely helpful in that regard. They are super simple to clip to my hair, a beret or my blouse and they are unobtrusive enough that once they’re on I don’t notice them much at all.

Much as I think many accessories are gorgeous (hello wristcuffs!) I’ve never been much of one for jewellery except when I’m really going all out on an outfit. But at that point it’s less “Roli wearing lolita” and more “Roli dolls up” which to my mind are two completely different things and the former is the one I’m focusing on while going through the Lolita 52. I don’t wear lolita everyday but I still want my answers to all these prompts to be me talking about my “everyday lolita” style, not my “I had a fancy photoshoot” style.

It's lolita auction haul time again!

Just a little haul this time; a JSK, a cutsew and a bolero. But I thought better a small haul with things I really want than a big haul filled with stuff I bought just because I had an open order. This whole "restraint" thing is getting some good practise!

As usual, I used Buyee as my shopping service and once again am quite happy. The AUD is doing pretty badly against the JPY at the moment, so the prices aren't as good as they used to be, but that's not Buyee's fault. They have restructured their fees, which I appreciated, and somehow I had a free international shipping coupon, which I used, so I cam out quite well.

This order started when I found the Metamorphose kimono print JSK, and then I managed to get the cutsew quite cheaply, and the bolero for a steal, and then I called it quits before this got out of hand. I was rally excited about the items proportionately to the order in which I bought them, which made it rather funny that my level of satisfaction was directly the opposite of my excitement!

Isn't this just gorgeous?

First, I want to show off the JSK. I'm not quite sure when this one was released, as it's not on Lolibrary, but I immediately fell in love. It's purple (I love purple) and while the print is quite loud I really like it, and I don't always like Meta's kimono prints. And when I saw it I felt like it could also work really well as a quirky dress for going out to dinner and such as well as for lolita.

Print close-up.

It is definitely all that and more - it's gorgeous in person. But it is short! So very, very short! It also doesn't quite fit me around the bust and waist at my current size but the length makes it a total no-go for me. I think you have to be shorter than 5"5 to wear this JSK comfortably. So I've already put it up on my sales page. Ah well. You win some, you lose some.

Isn't this the cutest sailor top ever?

The Angelic Pretty sailor cutsew (I'm petty sure it's their "Sailor Border Cutsew") I bought because I have been emboldened by the fact that I fit the AatP cutsew from my previous auction haul and because it is adorable! It was definitely a frivolous purchase but I felt it was worth it as it bolsters up the casual side of my lolita wardrobe.

With the detachable bits detached.

I'm actually rather chuffed with this cutsew. It's really nice, and I'm pretty sure it will fit me but I haven't been able to try it on properly because the sleeve cuffs have zero stretch and are about 2cm too narrow for my arms. Which is a bummer but it's all the more incentive to get to the gym because unlike the JSK, this will definitely be something I'm keeping! It's actually even more versatile than it initially appears as both the chest bow and the part of the collar with the AP logo are detachable.

This is a bit wrinkly after washing, and it is true black I swear!

Lastly, I won the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright bolero quite cheaply which was a double win because cheap ending bids are awesome and it was something on my wardrobe goals list for this year. To be honest, I wasn't mega excited about it but I think that's why things like simple boleros and short-sleeved blouses tend to not make it into my wardrobe because there's not much to be excited about even though they're items that greatly increase my wardrobe wearability.

A shoddy close-up to show the fabric pattern.

However, when I actually got my package the bolero really blew me away! It's a lovely textured fabric, with organza ties at the front and bows on the sleeves. There are actually two sets of ties at the front but the previous owner tacked one set to the inside; I like it as it is now but if I want to wear this with a more fancy outfit I can unstitch them and have double the bows! This bolero is also awesome because it really can be worn in casual or more dressy ways so it is super versatile. And it fits me perfectly, so in the end the thing I was a bit "meh" about is the thing I'm happiest about!

If anyone can identify the JSK or the bolero that would be awesome, because I'd probably love to have the bolero in other colours and if that Meta released other cuts in that kimono print I'd be interested in those as well as long as they aren't too short!

Getting drawn by a kindly anon

Recently I finally gathered up the courage to post a picture of myself in a CGL draw thread, and got drawn real sassy by a nice anon (who just wanted to be credited as anon).

I love the level of sass in this drawing! I suppose I kinda had a bit of a bitch face going in the picture I posted though! 

I have to say, I always love lurking the draw threads on CGL. I drew a girl from one of the threads once, it was pretty awful because I've lost what little skill I gained drawing as a teenager, but I really love the friendly, giving atmosphere those threads have and I'm trying to figure out a way I can do something artsy for people, because getting the drawing above really made my day!