Creative lolita coords made easy.

Well, maybe not easy, but definitely easier! These are a few ideas I've had and a few things I do when trying to come up with nice and unique lolita coords.

Though before you read on, let it be said that there is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing tried-and-true combinations. White blouse and socks with a sweet lolita coord will always look nice and lots of brown in a classic outfit will always be fine ^__^

Forget the labels.
Something I find that can be limiting when trying to think of a new outfit is labels. If you're thinking of your new outfit as being "gothic" or "sweet" you can limit you thinking. Just put together things that you think would look nice and worry about what to cal it later. The substyles really only exist to make it easier to talk about things anyway, so making sure your outfit fits as specific substyle isn't an important starting point. Forget what to call your new, uber creative and wonderful coord, just make it!

Is it sweet? Is it punk-ish? No! It's a coord ^__^

Keep an inspiration folder.
I have a gigantic lolita coord inspiration folder. There are hundreds of awesome coords saved, and some are sorted into folders according to the main items I own [some, like the folder for my Bodyline red-and-white JSK remain empty, while the Silk Cherubims folder is rather full] for quick reference. I find that saving inspiring outfits, and especially outfits using pieces you own, is a great way of getting fresh ideas.

Of course, I'm not saying copy other people's outfits. You can if you really want, but to me a lot of the fun in lolita is being creative with the way you dress. Also, and I'm going to put this bit in bold because it really does matter that much; save all the pictures you want for your own reference but never, under any circumstances, share them online without consulting the person who originally took and owns the photo. Maybe I'm alone in feeling so strongly about it but people who just randomly post other people's pictures annoy me so much. Even when there's a disclaimer of "I don't own any photos on this blog" that still annoys me, because it's an acknowledgement that they're doing something wrong and don't care. As both a photographer and a model, I really object to people posting my work around without even asking. So please, be nice. Save and look at anything you want, but don't share it online ^__^

Learn to sew, or at least craft.
It's so much easier to finish of a coord exactly the way you want when you can make your own matching accessories, or even just make the whole outfit from scratch! And then you'll also have the added benefit of knowing that no-one else out there is wearing the exact same thing as you.

A floral headband I made, for sale here.

Sewing is actually fairly simple, especially if you're a practical or logical type of person. That lolita staple, the rectangle skirt, is incredibly easy and though following patterns can be a bit tricky sometimes you do get the hang of it. Sewing really is easy as pie, once you master the basics. Actually, easier than pie. Literally. I've tried pie making and sewing, and sewing is definitely easier...

Pick an item and make as many outfits as you can.
Recently [and extremely belatedly] I did the Lolita Blog Carnival "one piece, five looks" challenge and even though the dress I chose was super versatile since I could change underskirts I still found it challenging to come up with radically different outfits. But I really like the results! Especially the "punk" coord [pictured below] because even though it's something I'd never really wear out it was also something I'd never even thought of and now I do have thoughts in the back of my mind about how to layer print and non-print items. And of wearing my waistcoats more.

Just experimenting with your clothes, rather than only pulling them out when you're getting dressed to go out, can be a great way of seeing your wardrobe in a new way. You may also want to try working in some non-lolita items - personally, I have some lovely structured jackets that really look great with puffy lolita skirts. It's also a great way of seeing if anything in your wardrobe doesn't match and needs to go. If you can't make outfits you like with something, what's the point of keeping it?

Chill out a bit.
Come up with the coord and wear it out. Take an outfit shot if you want. And then don't worry about it. Unless you post that picture online of your wore the coord out with other lolitas, chances are no-one is going to notice that your shoes don't quite match the rest of your outfit, because in all likelihood anyone who saw you was so amazed by your poofiness they wouldn't have noticed if you were barefoot ^__^

Keeping that blogging mojo strong.

I will be honest - in part, I'm writing this to give myself a kick up the arse because with uni and all blogging keeps tending to fall by the wayside for days that turn into weeks. So I thought I'd have a bit of a think, and share some ideas for keeping your blog regularly updated - some of these are things I do, some are things I'd like to try.

Start a series.
If you start a series of posts and it something you know you'll always have something to say about, that's an easy fix, especially if you can make it a regular thing. For me, Photo Fridays are great. I have years of photography and modelling to dip into and talk about if for some reason I have no new stuff I always have old stuff to share! However, irregular series can be just as good - like my "loliable shops" posts. It's not something I talk about often, but it's something I can pick up if I'm drawing a blank on what to post about. Some ideas for regular weekly series I can think of just randomly are MakeUp Mondays, where you could discuss cosmetics or maybe Fiction Fridays, where you talk about books. With something broad like those topics [and they are also alliterative, which is awesome] it would be pretty easy to come up with a pretty unique post each week. For sporadically posted series it's even easier to come up with ideas - just pick something that interests you that you think you will be able to make more than one post out of. My "things I don't have in my wardrobe" series started when I read one of those advice blogs about the things a woman should have in her wardrobe and realising that I had very few of their totally, uberly, essential basics. And also that I disagreed that one should have such things.

Schedule in advance.
If you read nothing else here, read this. Scheduled posting is like, the totally best thing ever. For people like me, who can be forgetful and then grumpy when I remember I forgot things, posting on time would become quite a difficult thing. But with scheduled posting that's not a problem,and what's more, I could write a whole month's worth of posts [and sometimes do, at least the Photo Friday posts] all at once when I'm feeling inspired and then the blog just takes care of itself.

Join a blogging circle thing.
Groups such as the Lolita Blog Carnival can be really helpful. Not only does joining such a group give you something to write about on the days when inspiration is thin on the ground, in the LBC at least participating in the group's topics can lead to increased blog traffic in the link sharing to everyone's posts. Now, despite the fact I think it could be really helpful for a blogger things like this aren't really my cup of tea, though I do occasionally pick up LBC topics after the fact. I just don't like sticking to other people's schedules ^__^

React to the latest news.
There's not too much to elaborate on here - if you're looking for something to blog about, post up your thoughts on the latest goings on. By news I don't necessarily mean on the tv and in the papers news [though that's certainly an option!] but news that interests you. Some examples I can think of are new fashion releases, shows and lookbooks, news about books, movies or tv shows, updates on games, fancy new technology [new camera lenses...drool...] or anything at all.

Do something big, and post about it step by step.
I have to say, I love progress posts. The first one that pops to mind at the moment is Make Lovely's wardrobe overhaul series, which I'm greatly enjoying so far. I don't know what it is, but there's something cool about people sharing their progress on a big project, whether is overhauling your wardrobe, making a costume, learning to bake, training for a marathon, anything really! So if you're stuck for a blogging topic, maybe consider sharing your progress on whatever your next project happens to be. And another great thing about posting up progress is that you can get away with doing smaller posts sometimes, just a photo and a few lines. Just something to let your readers know you're still active ^__^

Round stuff up, y'all.
Round up posts are an easy way to post something on your blog without having to come up with your own content. At the moment, I consider them a bit of a cheat, but they are still a good thing to keep your readers interested [provided, of course, you are linking to content that suits your readership] when you don't have much original content to share.

So there you have it. My current thoughts on how to keep the posts coming on your blog. Do you have any favourite methods to keep to blogging mojo strong?

And, this is kind of a unrelated but kind of related side note... try and write good [yes, that was deliberately bad writing to make my point in a humorous manner. Comment at your peril.] and by that I mean try to use normal grammar, paragraphing, spelling and the like. It makes your posts much more readable. They way I see it is that if you write well, provided you aren't using stupidly big words or super fancy sentences, anyone can read your posts. But if you keep getting your and you're confused, are inconsistent with paragraphing, and make your blog hard to read by virtue of being incorrectly written, chances are I'll unfollow you. Nothing personal, but I don't want to struggle to read someone's posts ^__^

Five super basic modelling tips.

Becoming a good model and learning how to look you best in front of the camera can be a long process for most of us. Coming up with a range of poses and facial expressions that come across well on camera takes time and practise, so I thought I'd pass on a few things I've learned from my time on both sides of the camera. These tips are mostly geared towards female models, because hey, I'm female myself, but some would be useful for the guys as well. In fact, they're all good for guys, just try to make them less effete.

So without further ado, here are some simple pointers and ideas you can use to look more at home in front of the camera.

Throw out your hip.
When written like that it sounds like something grandma did last year. But if you thrust one hip out to the side and thus shift your centre of balance, it gives a much more pleasing, curvaceous shape to you body. Obviously you need to do more to make a great pose, but throwing out the hip is a very good place to start.

Pay attention to your hands.
Often times a sign that betrays a newbie model in a photograph is awkward hand positions. Practise things to do with your hands, lots of things. Practise how to flare your fingers in a natural seeming way, how to hold your hand near your face and the most important one - learn how to hold your hand straight by your side without looking like a wooden soldier. I won't say that learning how to pose your hands well is easy, because for some people it isn't, but being able to make your hands look natural even in the most weirdly contorted positions can make a great difference to how a photo turns out.

That hand position, for the record, feel extremely odd. But it doesn't look it. Hand posing is one area where it's really important to have confidence in what your photographer is telling you to do, because if it feels weird we think it looks weird, but that really is not the case a lot of the time.

Tilt you head.
When moving your head around, don't just give the photographer your left side, right side, front on. Try tilting your chin down, turning your head to the left but then cocking your head back to the right. Tilting your head rather than simply turning it from side to side can give a whole range of different subtleties to a shot. With this tip, it's also important to remember not to tilt your head to an extreme angle, because that can look rather silly.  Practise in front of the mirror to find out what head tilts make you look cute, sexy, dark, high fashion, whatever.

Loosen it up a bit.
Relax. Really. It makes a big difference. One particular failing of mine as a model is that I tend to make my legs too rigid and in shots where my knees are bare that can make them look pretty ugly. How to fix that? Whenever I notice I'm tensing up and getting really locked into a pose I make myself relax. I bend my knees slightly and take a couple of big breaths. This is also really important to remember for facial expressions. Blink between shots, and drop whatever expression you are holding and resume it in time for the next shot. We all know how terrible a held smile can look, but holding any expression so long it goes wooden looks bad.

Know what you need.
Now this tip is a bit vaguer. Know what you need in a shoot to make you pose the best. Sometimes it may be handy to have some pose references on your phone to take a look at, maybe you like to check out the photos on the camera as you're shooting or perhaps getting very specific direction from a photographer helps you. Have a chat to your photographer before the shoot and explain that you need to check you phone poses, want to see the photos regularly, would like lots of direction, whatever.

So. There are five ways to easily improve your modelling skills. No go forth and model for awesome photographs!

Credits:
All photos in this post were taken by my lovely James man, and you can see more of both our work over on our facebook page. My make-up and hair in the top photo were by Amy.