Lolita Blog Carnival: The Effect of Events on the Lolita Community

I find it amusing that this makes two LBC topics I'm blogging on in a row that are kind of weird to talk about as a massive introvert. However, the introvert perspective is totally valid, so here I go!

Events are a *big thing* in this subculture, from local meets to brand events to full weekend affairs. It's undeniable that events have always been here, and probably always will be. Case in point - even this year, events are persisting in digital formats. If they weren't important to lolitas as a whole on a fundamental level this wouldn't be happening.

I have to say, even though I'm not a huge event goer myself, I do know that if our subculture didn't have events, it would be much poorer for it. If the clothing itself is the keystone of the fashion, events make up nearly the entire rest of the archway, or whatever keystones are used for. In the West, there isn't a place like Harajuku that can form a community organically around the fashion - we've had to do it ourselves.

One of the two big events I've been to.

Of course, this does mean that events are perhaps too emphasised, especially for introverts like me. Lately I've been feeling like a bad lolita since 2020 is going to end with me attending zero meet ups. But of course that isn't bad at all! Yet it's still a pervasive thought that I'm not doing lolita "right".

So the downside of events being so integral to this subculture, at least in the West, is that there is an emphasis on events to the point that not engaging in events, due to preference or circumstance, comes across as a bit unusual. Though I do have to admit that it's possibly just my anxiety talking - my brain often tells me that everyone's judging me!

On the other hand, especially in the current age of social media, events are being supplemented by online engagement. Naturally this isn't necessary at all - the only thing you need to be a lolita is wearing the fashion! - but lolita in complete isolation is an idea that doesn't quite feel right to me.

So overall in my view the effect of events on the lolita community is a positive one - it gives us a way to come together and enjoy the fashion with other people. But with a rise in things like YouTube and the resurgence of blogs there are other ways to engage with the community, and to my mind that's only a good thing.

Read more from other bloggers:

The Bloody Tea Party

Lolita Blog Carnival: How Do You Keep Your Love For The Fashion Alive Without In-Person Events

 Oh man *laughs in introvert*

So, complete honesty time, the current pandemic situation has not really affected my attendance of lolita events. Well, I did plan to host a craft day but had a cold, so had to cancel on principle when I wouldn't have if it was not, you know, government mandated at the moment. But by and large I'm not a sociable person so this isn't really 2020 specific opinions, but more the opinions of someone who's more lone-lita than anything.

Just do it 

Thing number one is to not let circumstances stand in the way of wearing lolita. Don't feel like you have to wait for the perfect occasions, just wear these clothes that you love. In a sense, dressing up in lockdown can be freeing. You want to wear OTT but don't want to put on makeup? Go for it! You want to do something experimental? Try it! You want to just lounge around the house in a JSK with nothing else? You totally should!

An outfit I wouldn't have tried if I wasn't wearing lolita to work from home this year.

Participate online

A very simple way to keep involved in lolita is to engage with the online communities when you can't participate in IRL ones. Personally, I'm a lurker, not a poster, but I'm still a part of Rufflechat and CoF on Facebook. It's nice to feel connected, even if I'm doing to Internet equivalent of sitting in a corner at a party.

Create content

Last but not least, my favourite way of keeping the candle burning for this fashion - content creation! Start blog or a YouTube or Amino or TikTok...whatever the cool kids are doing these days. Have fun with lolita and hey, when we get to a point where we can have proper meets again, you can share those too.

I've found YouTube really fun so far!

Ahem...click here to view my channel ^__^

So basically, this introvert strongly believes that, while the lolita fashion subculture is a subculture and thus no frilly person is an island, there are many ways to enjoy the fashion without going out and spending time with people. 

Read more from other bloggers:

The Bloody Tea Party

Bodyline's place in the lolita community

When I got into lolita in 2012 , we talked about Bodyline a lot. We wore Bodyline a lot – nearly everyone had at least a few pieces from there, be it shoes or some cheap dresses. But with the rise of Taobao, the saturation of the second-hand market, and the general ease of online ordering, Bodyline almost feels like a relic of the early 2010s. Is there even still a place for Bodyline as lolita fashion moves towards 2020?

Do you remember when Squirrel Party was a well-known print?

First of all – what is Bodyline? It’s a costume and lolita store, with physical shops in Japan and an online store. It used to be owned by a comically unsavoury character called Mr Yan, but I believe the company is now owned by someone else. Both Mr Yan and the costume section  of the store were sometimes off putting aspects of the company, along with variable garment quality, occasional replicas, and generally cheaper construction and materials. Bodyline has never been “brand” in the lolita sense. But they’ve always been around, with ads in old edition of the GLB and now with a cute
Instagram account.

As I said, back when I started Bodyline was a solid presence in the Western lolita scene. With an easy to buy from website and often free shipping, compared to the sometimes complicated brand websites and costly EMS shipping, it made a lot of sense to buy from there. Bodyline had shoes and blouses in a rainbow spectrum, and lots of different skirts and dresses to choose from. When I came into the scene, Bodyline was over their direct replica stage (though they still put out heavily inspired clothing), and produced a wide range of things. Quite a few were questionable in design but most were solid pieces that could be coordinated well. And for me, at least, buying a dress that lacked the finer details and nice materials of a brand dress for a fraction of the cost was always worth it.

I’ve always been a fan of Bodyline. My first lolita purchases were two dresses off eBay but my second was a giant haul from Bodyline – most of that was sold off a long time ago but I still have one of the skirts from that haul, and some of the shoes. Even now, seven of thirty one of my main pieces are from Bodyline – 21% of my total main pieces.

Some of my Bodyline dresses ^__^

But what I’ve come to realise gradually over the last few years is that we just don’t talk about Bodyline any more. It’s not a thing. Part of that may be because they’re not really coming out with much new lolita stuff, definitely nowhere near as much as they did at their peak. People still wear Bodyline, a little, but it certainly is nowhere near as prevalent as it was and that makes me wonder if it’s still a part of the lolita subculture, and if not, what it is.

Let’s be realistic – with everything becoming more accessible (even if brand-new brand is still not what I’d call affordable) Bodyline no longer is the go-to cheap store for this fashion. Even I wouldn’t tell a new lolita to buy from Bodyline as their first port of call these days when it’s only a little tricker to order from Taobao – the sheer variety available on Taobao blows Bodyline away.

So I think that as lolita fashion marches onwards to a new decade, Bodyline will be left to the 2010s. Not that it will cease to exist – I think that big red store will loom over Takeshita Dori for many years yet with an online presence to match. I certainly will buy from them again if the release something new that suits my wardrobe! But I feel that, like EGL on Livejournal and print magazines, Bodyline is no longer a pillar of our subculture like it once was. And even though change like that is inevitable, the decline of Bodyline almost makes me as sad as when GLB ceased printing – it marks an irrevocable change and the lolita that existed when I started no longer exists.

Ten more blog post ideas for lolitas

I've had a few more ideas since sharing my post of fourteen blog post ideas for lolitas, so here we have another ten! Of course, even though both my lists exclude them, outfit posts, meet-up and event reports, hauls and clothing reviews are always great blogging material. These are just some more supplementary ideas for the times when you want to blog more, but aren't sure what to blog about.

1. Something that I see blogged about occasionally is "your ideal lolita ... " where the ellipsis can be "coordinate", "meet-up", "shop", "print idea" and so on and so forth. There's a lot of imagination and fantasy in lolita, I find, so why not share your daydreams about the prints you'd love to see of the shops you'd like to run or visit?

2. Again this isn't an idea I've come up with but it's something I think would be fun to do, and in fact it was a Lolita Blog Carnival topic once or twice, but coming up with coordinates for your favourite characters would be fun. For bonus points, take characters from literature rather than a visual medium, that way you don't have to conform to expected hairstyles, colour schemes etc.

I'm just going to leave this here... 

and perhaps make my own fandom outfits soon...

3. Share how you store your lolita clothes, or even just snapshots of your wardrobe. I for one love seeing lolita clothes all hung up together.

4. Try to make an outfit in the style of one of your lolita idols. Better yet, wear the outfit you came up with, do your hair and make-up like they do, and try to take an outfit photo like they would.

5. Write lolita fiction! I love the America's Next Top Lolita comic and think that if you have the time and creativity to tell lolita stories, why not go for it?

6. Tell you readers about your dream dresses. Perhaps make an initial post about the lolita things you'd love to have, then post again when you acquire pieces or change your mind; just keep your readers in your "dream dress" loop.

7. Share how you put coords together; do you start with a dress, a theme, or something else entirely? What inspires the choices you make when putting together an outfit? That's why I've loved the February Dress Me Up theme on EGL these past two years; it gives you some insight into how differently people can approach the same clothes. Sometimes I see outfits that work really nicely but I would have never, ever put those pieces together so it would be cool to see inside other people's heads when it comes to coording.

One of the outfits made for me in the Dress Me Up theme.

8. Teach us something! Write a tutorial for anything lolita-related you can do well from crafting to baking to photography to hairstyling and beyond.

9. I read this on someone else's blog, but for the life of me can't remember who! If you know, please tell me so I can credit them for this good idea. Which is; write the names of your main pieces on slip of paper, put them in a jar or hat or whatever, then do the same with either the colours your tops are or themes or something like that. Then pull a slip out of each jar and try to make it work!

10. Tell us about your strategy for wardrobe building; either what you did, or what you'd do if you were starting your wardrobe from scratch again.

Hypothetical wardrobes are my jam. This one can be found here.

I hope there are some useful ideas in here for my fellow lolita bloggers! If you have a lolita blog please leave a link in the comments so I can check it out ^__^

Fourteen blog post ideas for lolitas

Lately there's been a bit of discussion in online circles about lolita blogs. By and large there aren't that many that update regularly with really good content. I think part of that reason is that there doesn't seem to be much, on the face of things, to blog about. "What I bought" and "what I wore" are the two main topics that lolita blogs focus on. While things like the Lolita 52 challenge I've been doing and the Lolita Blog Carnival are definitely helpful at providing topics to talk about I thought it was still a good idea to share some things that I think would make for interesting blogging.

So, here are some ideas a lolita could blog about that are less common than reviews, event reports and outfit posts. Not that those topics are bad to blog about at all [I love reading event reports!] but these are some options to potentially broaden your blogging horizons.

1. Post about your favourite outfits you've seen online this week, with proper credit on the photos, of course.

2. Make a certain number of outfits with each of your main pieces. For me, with a wardrobe of currently eighteen main pieces I'm doing three outfits per main piece. For a larger wardrobe more would be good, for a smaller one, less. Doing this has the added bonus of helping you identify any gaps your wardrobe may have. I always find it easiest to do this sort of thing as flat-lays; that way you don't have to bother about dolling up and can just focus on the clothes.

One of my current favourite flat-lays from this post.

3. Take very detailed photos of your main pieces, like Anza does. We've all experienced inaccurate stock pictures and dresses that look way better in real life so posts like this would be a great reference for everyone.

4. Something I do a lot, but don't see anyone else do much of, is make hypothetical wardrobes. Come up with a collection of items that fit a particular theme, colour palette or budget, or even do something like the a Project 333 capsule wardrobe but for lolita.

The first wardrobe challenge I did! Those posts come under my "hypothetical" umbrella.

5. Blog about recent releases and your thoughts on them. Bonus points if you are consistent and blog about every release of a particular brand, including non-print series. I'll follow you in a heartbeat if you do this for Metamorphose. Disclaimer; I got this idea from Luna Rain, who often talks about new prints and whose discussion I always enjoy.

6. Do a photoshoot... it's easier than it seems! Even a parent, friend or partner can take decent photos and there are various online photo editors that produce good results, or so I've heard. Scope out your town and find a few interesting places to take your photos. If you're game, sign up from a site like Model Mayhem and model for a local photographer. Remember though, always be safe when working with people you don't know! Or be the photographer for some of your lolita friends, like Rosalynn from Lolita Wonderland did recently.

One of my shoots with James aka The Enthusiast behind the camera.

7. Sew or craft and post about it. This is a more commonly done than anything else on this list but I guess I'm more angling towards sharing even the little things you make. Made a basic flower crown or a simple rectangle skirt or added lace to an offbrand blouse? Show us how it looks, how you made it and how it works in an outfit! A craft project doesn't have to be huge, perfect or even particularly unique to be worth sharing.

8. Share offbrand finds, either ones you've bought or even ones you've seen on an online store. Thrift store finds are also good blogging material!

9. Feature other blogs, or do blog post round-ups. Or interview the people behind other lolita blogs.

10. Discuss current trends in lolita and where you think they'll go, or perhaps examine current mainstream fashion trends and what influence they may have on lolita.

11. Post about commercial sewing patterns that you think have potential for lolita, and the changes you'd have to make in order to get the perfect lolita garment out of them.

I discussed the pattern I used to make this JSK here.

12. Try out some typically lolita lifestyle things, like baking or drinking fancy tea or listening to classical music or whatever, and share your experience. Even if it's not actually part of your everyday life it could be fun to try on the persona of the mythical "lifestyle lolita" and blog about what it was like.

13. Write up features, or interviews if you can, of lolita indie brands. Or, if your blog is popular enough, perhaps even some of the big brands would be interested in answering a few questions!

14. Post about your lolita goals, and then review them. These can be like New Years resolutions, or monthly goals, or whatever time period you want. The thing that makes it interesting blogging is your follow-up of how you went with actually achieving them.

Some of these ideas are definitely more involved than the others, but there should be a few ideas in there for everyone. And of course, just because you blog about lolita doesn't mean your blog has to be 100% lolita content. Blog about what you like to blog about!

As a final point I have three pieces of advice for anyone looking to start a lolita blog. The first is take advantage of scheduled posting! Write a bunch of posts at once and schedule them up so your blog updates regularly even if you don't write regularly. Secondly, don't feel like every post you write has to be a masterpiece. I would prefer to follow a blog that updates once or twice a week where  two thirds of the posts are fairly quick [think a few hundred words and a couple of pictures] than one which only updates every two months with a big, in-depth post. Lastly, try to keep your blog fairly nice with an easily readable font, clear pictures and write as well as you can.

Do you have any good ideas for what a loltia blog would write about or do you have a lolita blog? If so, let me know in the comments!

Dress me up!

As we all know, January is wardrobe theme month on EGL. This February the mods brought back a follow up theme: dress me up! The premise is that you are partnered with a fellow lolita and you each make the other a coord from your wardrobe post. You can also let other people make you coords if you want, and since I love playing with people's wardrobes I came up with a bunch of coords for lots of people who participated.

My partner was coincidentally another Australia lolita, who also has a blog and has blogged about the outfit I made for her. She made me two pretty outfits, a winter one and a summer one. First up, the wintry one!

I love this coord because it's not something I'd put together myself but I'm excited to wear it when the weather gets cooler! I had to change out the headwear she chose because my pictures weren't clear on the colours and since I was changing it I though the giant fur hat thing was a good choice. I'm not sure what I'd do with the flowers, but I though they brought some good lightness to the general hair region.

The summery coord is also really cute though unlike the first one I don't think it's something I'd wear as I suit darker colours better... though the more I look at this picture the more in love I fall and the more tempted I am to try. I was so happy she put together two coords for me instead of one, it was a really nice thing to do ^__^

And another user made me this old-school coord [though for some reason it's not showing on EGL even though I got the email notification for it]! I added the white flowers to the hair as well as the black ones they suggested, and my black and white wristcuffs which I didn't include in my wardrobe post but that I though fit the style well. I think this outfit is really cute, I'd definitely wear it for a photoshoot or something, though probably not for everyday wear.

I loved seeing people put together outfits I made for them, and I'll definitely put up worn pictures if/when I wear any of these coords!

2015 Lolita Wardrobe Post

I did it again! I posted my wardrobe to EGL and you can see it if you click here. I just wanted to share some of my favourite shots here and have a bit of a ramble about my wardrobe, because it's mine and I'm proud of it.

This shot I love for two reasons. Firstly, it's my newest JSK next to my oldest... and they're both pretty florals! Second, Anniversary Rose is my first brand-new, non-lucky pack brand that I've kept. I still don't think I'm ever going to be a solely brand lolita, but I feel quite proud that I've added several brand pieces to my wardrobe this past year.

My shoe collection hasn't grown much [only five new lolita pairs in the year] but I just loved how pretty this photo was! It's nice to have a wide variety of footwear.

Similar to how I'm glad to have added some brand to my wardrobe, I'm also happy to have worked in more good indie stuff and a little handmade! The Lyris dress is still my favourite piece, and I'm really happy to have finished the brown and green JSK.

None of these socks were in my wardrobe last year, but now I have them I can't imagine being without them. Brand OTKs are comfortable, stretchy and wonderful... I don't think I can go back to offbrand. I've also acquired more tights, including a black and a white lace pair.

This year I also own bags! I've never been much of a bag person but thanks to the cheapness of taobao and the gloriousness of Axes Femme I actually have a variety of bag I use when wearing lolita. The gobelin one is my favourite, I don't even have words for how awesome it it. And my other Axes Femme one is super cute, it's one of those three-way bags and it would be the cutest in a school-girl inspired outfit.

I also discovered that I love coloured blouses. A lot. And I've added quite a few, including the two above. I just feel that coloured blouses can make outfits that much more unique and really make prints pop.

In 2015, as I've already mentioned in another post, I want to buy less and sew more. To keep myself vaguely organised and accountable I'll be posting up a "want to sew" list soon. But overall, I'm really happy with how my lolita wardrobe has come together. It really feels like a cohesive collection now, adn I'm proud of it.

Knocking sweet lolita down a notch.

Yesterday on EGL I saw this thread. Long story short, the OP had traded for Angelic Pretty's Milky Planet JSK [2013 version] in sax blue [which is rather more bright blue than the usual soft saxon] and wanted inspiration and ideas on how to wear it in a not sweet way and also without resorting to their wardrobe staple of black. A couple of people pointed out that if you don't want to wear sweet, why would you get a sweet dress, but to me it was an interesting idea to try and wear something in a way it wasn't intended to be worn.

So I came up with two different coords for that version of Milky Planet. They're both very simple outfits, but represent ways that I think would be somewhat effective at toning down such a super sweet print.

This first coord, while still definitely a sweet lolita outfit, tones down the dress by minimising details and introducing a third darker colour. The slight gothic-ness of the boots and the pointed tips of the sailor blouse give it a slightly more edgy vibe. Introducing navy [though not too much of it] brings some restraint to the bright colours of the dress. I'd probably wear this outfit with either a full size hat or a very simple hairstyle, like braids with bows at the end, to complete the look without adding any more stereotypical sweet lolita elements like a headeating bow. But I couldn't be bothered scouring the internet for the perfect headgear so please use your imaginations for that bit ^__^

Again, this coord introduces a new colour to complement and tone down the print. It still has a lot of cute detailing - the blouse with its crossed neck ribbons and lacy cuffs, the soft beret, the pom-poms on the shoes - but the colour here is what really  grounds this outfit and changes it from being a colour explosion to being a gently framed colourful piece. 

You'll notice with both outfits that I've used pantyhose instead of socks and have kept away from typically sweet accessories like bows and anything particularly frilly or lacy. With a print this in-your-face I think it's best to use more understated accessories if you want to make it less conventionally "sweet lolita". So though both these outfits would still fall under the sweet substyle, they are definitely not your usual sweet lolita outfit.

I actually had a lot of fun putting these outfits together, so if you happen to have a dress you'd like to see  in a certain type of coord, please comment [like I always say with my hypothetical wardrobes] and let me know ^__^

2013 Lolita Wardrobe Post.

January is apparently the time to post one's wardrobe to EGL, so post it I did - my little Bodyline, F+F and handmade wardrobe sneaking in amongst posts full of brand upon brand. I like my wardrobe this way. I've never been one to spend hundreds of dollars on a dress [shoes, now...that's a different story] so I like that there are budget lolita options.

I'm not going to cross-post the whole thing, but if you want to see my post on EGL you can find it here.

It was awesome to do this because it really let me take stock of my wardrobe. In 2013 I want to make a lot more of my own clothes [I'll let you in on a secret...I'm starting an indie brand soon!] and also support some of the awesome indie brands out there. I really need to get more accessories, especially tights and headwear, and I want to find some blouses that I love. I like the ones I have and they look good on me, but I really want to find a blouse I fall head over heels for.

But I love that I [with the help of my lovely man] was able to leap properly into this adorable fashion and get a complete wardrobe quickly. It's been a whole lot of fun so far and it's so cliché  I know, but wearing lolita makes me feel great!