Building a Lolita Capsule Wardrobe #4: Adding Smaller and Statement Pieces

As I mentioned at the end of the last post, with main pieces, blouses, outerwear, legwear, headwear, shoes and bags you're pretty much done with an IRL capsule, and are done (or at least, I am) if you're putting together a collage. But there's a few more things to consider if you're putting together a capsule for actual use.

First of all, we can't forget the basics. Most obvious is at least one petticoat in a shape and size that fits all your main pieces. If you have a larger capsule, or differently cut skirts, you may need two or more petticoats.

Bloomers are not entirely essential, but it's handy to have something other than your underwear covering your butt when wearing big poofy skirts, and bloomers are definitely the cutest way to do it. The peeking bloomer look is also gaining in popularity again so you may even want a longer pair!

Camisoles in the right colour to go underneath any sheer blouses is also a must, though this is something most of us already have from our everyday wardrobes. With that, we've covered the foundational garments.

You also need to consider smaller items, like accessories and jewellery, in a real life capsule. Honestly, these things come down more to your personal style and how you like to accessorise. I love clipping a few small bows into my hair with most outfits, or extra flower clips, so that's something any capsule of mine would have to include. You may love piling on rings and necklace and bracelets. Wristcuffs are a very typically lolita thing, but they're not the only arm decoration available - what about gloves or detachable sleeves or just (gasp) bare wrists?

However here's the minimum of smaller pieces I think you should include in a capsule wardrobe:

• A jewellery set to match each main piece (which could just be one set that matches everything!) - if in doubt, you can't really go wrong with pearls.
• A set of wristcuffs in each of the main colours of the wardrobe (or at least in the main neutrals)
• As many small hair accessories (bows, clips, flowers, pins) as you want! I have drawers full...

Other little things that can really change the vibe of a coordinate include brooches, gloves, collars, and even things like glasses! I'd also put things like parasols in this category of "is a nice touch, but not necessary".

As I mentioned, if I'm putting together a capsule collage I don't include these items because they're very fiddly to work with in Photoshop. They're also, in my mind at least, not necessary to having a complete coordinate, but they do give you a lot of variety for a cheap price and a small amount of storage space.

On a similar but completely different note, you should consider adding a few statement pieces to your capsule. What exactly these will be is up to you and you tastes, but they are things that are perhaps not very versatile, or necessary to building a coordinate, that nevertheless really add a "wow" factor. For me, it's my fawn fur pieces - they're not necessarily practical but if I bust out a matching collar and hairpiece in fawn fur it really spices up an outfit.

Of course, your statement piece may already be part of your wardrobe - a particular dress or amazing blouse - but just consider what other kinds of pieces you could work in for a bit of easy pizzazz. Here's a few examples of things that you may add as a statement piece to a capsule wardrobe:

• An over-skirt (or under-skirt)
• A peignoir or other over-dress
• An apron
• A corset, vest, or bustier
• An OTT headpiece

Another option, especially for a sweet capsule, is to get the matching set pieces to one of your main pieces - provided they'll match well enough with the rest of your wardrobe. There's something about wearing a full set that is in and of itself a statement, and it can be a fun way to go.

And with that all considered, we are actually, finally done! I hope you found these posts on building a lolita capsule wardrobe helpful ^__^

Building a Lolita Capsule Wardrobe #3: Selecting Supporting Pieces

Once you've selected main pieces and have an idea of the role your wardrobe is going to play, it's time to choose literally everything else.

In this post about going to talk about the "big" supporting pieces - blouses and cutsews, outerwear, legwear, headwear, shoes and bags. A complete lolita wardrobe, capsule or otherwise, also needs foundational garments and smaller accessories, but those will be yet another post.

Blouses, Cutsews and Outerwear
My little rule for tops is to effectively have one blouse or cutsew for each main piece that requires one, with a bare minimum of three. I normally run with four, two long sleeved and two short sleeved, and dividing between neutral and more interesting colours. I always include at least one cutsew, generally a short sleeved one, because it's great for casual, comfortable outfits.

I then supplement the tops with three to four boleros or cardigans, which generally works out to be the same as one for each non-skirt main piece, and I'd say two is the bare minimum you should have. I tend to choose more long sleeved than short sleeved options here since they're more usable - you can layer a long sleeve bolero over anything, but you can only layer a short sleeved one over short sleeves or no sleeves. For colours I tend to avoid having too many neutrals and go for more complementary colours.

In the overall category of tops it's always a good idea to have a variety of cuts, colour, fabrics and levels of fanciness. If you're looking for an all-rounder kind of capsule I'd suggest the following items:

• A long and short sleeve blouse in a neutral colour (generally white for sweet, ivory for classic, black for gothic) and design (no fancy collars!)
• A long sleeve blouse in one of the wardrobe's colours
• A short sleeve cutsew in a different non-neutral colour
• A long sleeve bolero in a darker wardrobe colour
• A long sleeve cardigan in a lighter wardrobe colour
• A short sleeve cardigan or bolero in a lighter wardrobe colour or neutral

Here's an example of what tops you may want to choose if we return to Kumya's Sweet Heart Check as the central piece of a capsule wardrobe.

Of course, this is just a rough guideline. An all-skirt capsule would need more tops than one with lots of onepieces. Your opinions on colour may differ from mine. As always, the key is to have pieces that are versatile but sufficiently different from each other.

Depending on your climate you may also want to include a coat. I'm Australian, so it's not something I think of too often nor do I regularly include coats in my capsules, but if you climate demands certainly add one.

Legwear
When I put together a five main piece capsule, I invariably end up including seven items of legwear. I'm not quite sure why, so I'm not sure how to distil that to a sort of formula, but I would say you need to minimum have the same amount of legwear as main pieces and can really just go up from there. It's such a simple, and comparatively cheap, way to really get some variety into your coordinates that I really can't suggest being limited here.

While in collage capsules I tend to mostly use patterned OTKS, in real life (especially if you're putting together a capsule as a beginner lolita) my ultimate suggestion would be to get plain tights or knee socks and simple lace-topped ankle socks in all available neutrals and colours in your wardrobe and then have at least one pair of interesting legwear per main piece. It's a lot of legwear, but again it's a pretty cheap way to spice up your outfits. Seriously, ankle socks are like three dollars on eBay and they look fine!

Headwear
I tend to end up with around the same amount of headwear options as I do legwear (again, usually seven items), and for much the same reasons - they're smaller and cheaper (I mean, unless you have an insatiable lust for Triple Fortune bonnets) so why not have more?

These are divided around half and half between more basic pieces, such as a solid coloured headbow or beret, and interesting ones - perhaps even one of the aforementioned TF bonnets. I do try to keep the basic items varied in style but hey, if you find a thing that you love, there's not reason why you can't stick with that and make it a deliberate fashion choice. There's a reason I own every colour of plain beret that'd go with my wardrobe!

Like with legwear, this is again something I think you should have more of IRL than if you are just putting together a pretty picture of a capsule wardrobe, and I'm also a huge advocate of supplementary headwear pieces - but more on that in the next post!

Shoes
Shoes are a topic that seems simple, but kind of isn't. I'm a self-professed lover of shoes because honestly, the right footwear can really make an outfit. Generally I run with three or four pairs for a five main piece capsule and I'd honestly say three is the minimum to have a well-rounded collection, though due to how much space they take up I can understand wanting to run with less and you certainly could. If you're going with a larger capsule I'd say a rule of thumb is to have half as many (rounded up) pairs of shoes to main pieces.

If you want a checklist of shoes I'd say you should have a match everything flat (or low heel), a dressy heel, and a boot. That covers everything pretty well ^__^

Of course, almost more than anything else in a real-life capsule shoe choices vary a lot from person to person. Maybe you can't wear heels, or can't wear flats, or need shoes that support you in a particular way. As with everything else, do what you need to and what you like.

Bags
My rule here is simple - two bags. One that's your "everyday" dag and one that's a bit more special or interesting. Of course, having just one bag that matches everything is also perfectly fine, but I think it's a fun way to add a bit more interest to you coord to have two available options.

With all these main supporting items your capsule is almost complete. If I were putting together a collage, in fact, it would be complete! But for a real-life capsule there are some smaller items and some concepts I want to talk about in the next post, so stay tuned!

Building a Lolita Capsule Wardrobe #2: Choosing Your Main Pieces

So now that we've covered what a lolita capsule wardrobe is (a small, versatile and cohesive collection based around 2-6 main pieces) and thought about some parameters such as when and where you'll wear the items and what colours you want, the next step is selecting the main pieces. Of course, a capsule can start from anything, but in the majority of cases the dresses some first and everything else comes after.

It's important to strike a balance in a capsule wardrobe in having main pieces that are similar enough that you can get away with having very few supporting pieces, while still being different enough that you aren't wearing the basically the same thing (unless, of course, that's what you want). The main things to consider, beyond the obvious issue of colour, is what types of main pieces you want and what prints or patterns they should have.

Generally we consider three primary types of main pieces in this fashion - onepice dresses, jumperskirts, and skirts. In those three you have different sleeve lengths, different strap arrangements, different waistband styles and that's not even factoring all the myriad of other stylistic differences a garment can have. Consider the following - technically they're all just JSKs.

And on top of that we also have salopettes and ouji pants and miniskirts and cutsew dresses!

Of course, as well as main piece type you have to consider the fabric - both in print and in actual fiber - and colours. Again, I advocate for variety across both things because with a small wardrobe you need each item to be different. But of course, it all comes down to your initial parameters. You want an old school sweet wardrobe? Then having all your main pieces in solid coloured cotton is certainly a good option.

And remember a capsule doesn't necessarily have to be teeny tiny, but try to keep it just big enough for your needs. If you wear lolita once a month, having six main pieces would only mean wearing each one twice a year, but if you wear the fashion once a week you may want to have more main pieces or pick ones that are very super versatile. Me? I love having lots of different coordinating options and colours but you may want to only stick to one or two colours. There's no wrong answer!

But to make this a bit more practical let's put it together in a sort of checklist of steps that should go into selecting your main pieces.

First, decide how many you want! This should mostly be determined by frequency of wear, though in the real world budget may also be a big factor. For most of the hypotheticals I put together I use five main pieces.

Then if you haven't already, settle on your colour scheme. Let's pull up BTSSB's Kumya's Sweet Heart Check from the last post. So our main colour is sax blue, with white as a neutral, and pink chocolate brown as supporting colours.

Similarly, choose themes. These don't have to be set in stone, and I'm always a fan of mixing in some neutral patterns like tartan or polka dots as well as solids. To look again at our starting piece, the main motifs are bears (bunny bears, technically), hearts, laces, and check patterns. More broadly, it has a sweet-country vibe which means it would also match well with chocolate, biscuit, fruit and berry aesthetics.

Then it's time to choose the other main pieces. I prefer to include more JSKs than anything else, as they are the easiest and most versatile to coordinate, so in an example of five main pieces I'd have thee JSKs, one OP and one skirt. In terms of colour I'd have three in sax blue, one in pink and one in brown, though the colours scheme would play out in the prints.

Speaking of prints, I do like to keep variety here as well. Of course, if you have a very specific vibe in mind disregard this, but I prefer to have at least one solid, one neutral pattern and one all over print, as well as border prints.

I don't fuss too much over having a variety of fabric types unless you're keeping to a more limited colour palette or print choices. If you're going for an all-black no-print gothic capsule, for example, the way to get variety is by focusing on different cuts and types of fabric. However, if you're into 2010s era sweet, you could have very same-y and simple cuts in a variety of colours and prints. The key here, no matter the specifics, is to chose pieces that work well together but that are not the same.

So with the Kumya's Sweet Heart Check example, that's a JSK in sax with a border print. I'd like to add a solid sax blue OP, an all-over print sax skirt, and a JSK each in pink and chocolate brown. Since this is a hypothetical example, let's scour Lolibrary for examples!

Now, what happened with me is what's likely to happen with you - my plans changed when met with reality. So in the end, this wardrobe has a sax, a brown and a pink JSK, a sax OP, and a pink skirt. Overall, the colour scheme is now more evenly balanced between sax, pink and brown, with red accents. We've got more of a "cherries and chocolate" theme overall too.

This is okay. Unless you're infinitely patient and/or have a very large budget, your capsule may not turn out exactly as you want it. Of course, you'll also have the benefit when putting together an IRL capsule that you'll know what you actually want whereas this was me putting together pretty things to prove a point - very different scenarios!

So that's a little bit about how to choose the main pieces for a lolita capsule and what to consider when making those choices!

Building a Lolita Capsule Wardrobe #1: What is a Capsule Wardrobe?

If you've read my blog for a little while, you'll know I love capsule wardrobes. In theory at least, in real life I'm all about having all the different things, but capsules are great thought experiments for me - and also have some real life use when travelling! They're also a sensible way to start building a lolita wardrobe so I'm hoping to share some of my thoughts and strategies around capsule wardrobes in this series of posts.

First of all, what actually is a capsule wardrobe? The lady who coined the term back in the 70s defined it as a small collection of timeless fashionable pieces that could then be augmented with seasonal items. More recently, we see things like Project 333 popping up which specify the number of pieces in your capsule and the amount of time before you make seasonal changes. My personal definition is that a capsule wardrobe is a limited collection that is mindfully designed so each item works well with the others so it's both easy to dress yourself from and provides varied outfits.

My personal definition of a lolita capsule wardrobe is a cohesive collection of 2-6 main pieces and the appropriate supporting items. I feel like 7+ main pieces really puts you into the territory of it just being a small wardrobe, not a capsule per se. And having only a single main piece, even if you have a few different ways of wearing it, doesn't really classify as a wardrobe for me either. Of course, it doesn't really matter but it's my blog, so therefore I say that a lolita capsule wardrobe needs to be based around 2-6 main pieces.

If you are putting together a capsule wardrobe for actual use, whether because you're on a budget, have limited space, or are travelling, there are two big things to consider before you start putting things together.

The first is to know what you actually need. Admittedly, this is not something I tend to think about much when putting together hypothetical capsules, but for real life use it's essential. Things like frequency of wear, climate, events, and most importantly what you'll actually wear are really key factors.

I find the last point is actually the more important one, and one that I find I, at least, often don't consider adequately. I love heeled shoes. I rarely wear heeled shoes. Guess who forgets this on a regular basis? You have to know what you're actually going to wear and get good use out of in a capsule. Obviously, if you're using capsule principles to start a lolita wardrobe things get a little trickier as you don't have experience behind you but still, if you sit and think about what you are likely to wear instead of what looks prettiest it will help you narrow things down.

As a lolita example, if you tend to only wear lolita to large events like conventions and tea parties and these are mostly held in winter in your country you'll approach your capsule knowing you want more OTT pieces and warm things for layering.

The other thing to think about is colours. A capsule is by nature going to be somewhat limited in terms of colours, and I find that the best way to approach it is to have a primary colour, a neutral, and two supporting colours. For example you may have a sweet lolita capsule based on lavender, with white as a neutral and pink and mint as supporting colours. This doesn't mean that every main piece should be lavender, but they should all work with lavender while the white is there as a base and the other colours provide interest and contrast.

One way to go about selecting colours is to have one main piece that the rest of the wardrobe is built around, and work from there. If you're starting out this may be your first lolita dress, or if you're making a capsule for travel it may be the piece you think you'll wear the most.

Let's say you had the above dress as a starting point, which is BTSSB's Kumya's Sweet Heart Check. Your main colour would be sax blue, with white as a neutral then pink and either chocolate brown or red as supporting colours. Obviously it's not 100% cut and dried, but it can be a helpful starting point.

Of course, you can have an even more reduced colour scheme in a capsule, and sometimes that does make matching things easier, but I find it also makes things very samey. As I said at the start, while a capsule is all about cohesion, in my mind it also needs to yield as much variety as possible. Especially in a fashion like lolita you don't want to wear the same thing over and over, and building a capsule that is too limited puts you in that situation. The biggest challenge with a capsule is balancing variety with cohesion, and hopefully in this series of posts I can illuminate how best to do that.

Next post in this series will be focussed on choosing the main pieces for a capsule!

A "buy it now, buy it new" capsule wardrobe

Or at least, you could buy it new when I saved the images in early May! This was a capsule wardrobe prompt from the CGL thread that I thought was very interesting - one only consisting of items currently available to buy new. I approached this by trying to satisfy my own taste, and I flipped through brand websites picking things I enjoyed...and then had the challenge of trying to make something cohesive out of it!

While it's cute, and certainly does work as a capsule, it's not as versatile as I like. A lot of the pieces aren't quite what I'd choose if I wasn't working only on what I could buy at the time. I may have done better if I hunted around more, but it really goes to show how even if you had the money that you could just leap on the brand sites (or be lucky enough to go to a store) and buy what you wanted, it may still take a while to build up a good, cohesive and versatile wardrobe.

So this was a really interesting challenge! I'm not completely happy with it, but I did up my usual four coords for each main piece and it still turned out pretty well overall.

This JSK I absolutely love, and I really think you can wear it sweet or classic styled, which I've done here. I had to include the matching headpiece, but since this piece is black and pink and white it matches literally every supporting piece in the wardrobe.

Then on Meta's site I fell in love with this OP as well. Since it's an OP, it doesn't matter that there's less that goes with it since it's less versatile by default, but I feel like you can still wear it several different ways.

My last "purchase" from Meta was this high-waisted skirt. Not much to say about it - it's black and has no pattern, so it goes with everything! I am particularly fond of the first look ^__^

Switching brands, I really liked this lace OP from Angelic Pretty. It is quite elegant, and a bit retro, but still fairly sweet. I felt it was quite versatile despite being a solid coloured OP.

Last but certainly not least was this tartan number from BTSSB - which I realised after the fact was actually a set and came with a rectangle headdress. Like the Meta OP, the colour means it doesn't work so well with the black supporting pieces, but I think there's still plenty you can do with it.

Overall this wardrobe was really interesting to put together! I enjoy the sweet/classic/retro vibe it has, and the fact that in such a small capsule you could range from sort of old school country vibes with the gingham JSK to opulent wa with the Meta JSK.

Coordinates from 16 - 31 May 2020

Starting this post with - you guessed it - more working from home coords!

First up, Monday meant more wa lolita with my Victorian Maiden skirt. I promise I'll try wa with a different skirt sometime!

Skirt: Victorian Maiden

Kimono & Obi: Vintage

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand

I am so much happier with this outfit than my first attempt (though my apologies for the blown out pictures, the light was so weird outside). I figured out a better way of folding the kimono up (it's all tucked into the petticoat) and my obi tie is so much better. Better enough that I can actually show you the back this time! I also chose to make my peeking petticoat a deliberate feature ^__^

There's still a lot of room for improvement, and it's kind of not the most flattering look on me, but I'm so pleased to have done a better job already that it's got me excited to try more.

Next day I had a lot of Zoom meetings for work, so I made sure that I looked work appropriate from the waist up. So a fairly simple coord, but nice all the same and I enjoyed wearing pink with this skirt.

Skirt & Headbow: Handmade

Socks: Metamorphose temp de fille

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand

I skipped wearing lolita for the rest of the week, I was so swamped with work (and also kind of sick and stressed) that I did not have the energy for it. And that's okay!

Next Monday I reached a point with my lolita outfits...I repeated a coord from earlier in the year! Shocks and shame! Well, it's not a complete repeat, just the main piece and cutsew combo, but still. I mean, I'm not actually shocked or ashamed, I just really liked this outfit and wanted to wear it again, but it feels weird to be wearing lolita so much that I've come around to repeating coords and it being okay, you know?

Also, I didn't put shoes on because it was raining outside so I decided I could not be arsed. Why wear shoes just to stand up literally half a meter away from the desk where I was working? Ultra casual lolita FTW!

JSK: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Cutsew: Drug Honey

Headbow: Angelic Pretty

Socks: Offbrand

I promise I'll wear Shirring Princess in a non-casual outfit someday!

On Tuesday I pulled out my BTSSB tartan and once again coorded the sweet dress in a more classic way. I rather like how it turned out and it's certainly not a coord I'd have come up with if I wasn't trying new things with working from home.

JSK & Capelet: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

Beret: Peacockalorum

Socks: Innocent World

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand

Thursday turned out to be a pyjama day, and I'm okay with that. There's a lot going on right now (some of which is very exciting and I'll share about it in a month or so) so I'm trying to be gentle with myself. Wearing lolita is great, but so is staying warm and cosy.

Buuuut skipping Thursday lead to me skipping the rest of the week working from home, oops! However, I redeemed myself slightly by wearing a quick and casual coord to catch up with some friends.

Skirt: Metamorphose temp de fille

Cutsew, Bag & Bracelet: Angelic Pretty

Shoes: Bodyline

Everything else: Offbrand/Taobao

All we did was get drive thru fast food, then sit in a park to eat it, but it was still really amazing to actually see friends IRL. Pandemic is weird man.

So all in all my round up post for the latter half of May only has five coords! It's hilarious to me that I'm feeling a bit sheepish about that - it shoes how quickly something becomes normal. I should have had 8-10 coords for this period! But it doesn't really matter, I enjoyed wearing lolita when I did and I hope you liked seeing these coords ^__^