Ask Miss Caro-chan: What Exactly is Casual Lolita?

Today we have an Ask Miss Caro-chan that I've been meaning to write about for a while! I've been putting this off for so long that I've actually gotten several questions about it, here are just a couple of them!

What do you think is considered casual loli? I'm still failing that balance between lolita aesthetics and casual/mainstream fashion (at least the skirt is loli; the coordination just fails miserably).

 We also have...

Hey! I'm 13 years old now,an i really love Lolita. But sweet is a little to much for me. Can you make a blog about casual lolita? And how to wear it at school? i have totally no guts. So please help me!! -XoXo- p.s. sorry for my bad english

That's right, today's topic is Casual Lolita! I've actually put off writing about this for so long because I feel that Casual Lolita is definitely a misnomer and and generally often misunderstood branch of Lolita. A lot of what people consider Casual Lolita is actually most likely either just part of, or inspired by, the Otome Kei fashion.The rest, is honestly just plain old Lolita!

There is also a lot of differences in opinion on what makes something Casual Lolita, are we talking about a regular Lolita coordinate that just so happens to include tee shirts, "toned down" Lolita, or Otome Kei coordinates? All of these things are often considered "Casual Lolita", but tend to be a bit different from each other!

The classic (With a little "c" here! Not the sort of Classic that involves Victorian Maiden & Inncent World!) idea of what constitutes a Casual Lolita coordinate looks a bit like this:

To me, these are one Gothic Lolita coordinates and 3 Sweet Lolita coordinates, the last of which sways more towards Otome. I don't really feel that the addition of a tee shirt, or slightly less amounts of poof (in some of the cases, not even all of them!) are really enough for a whole new sub-category of Lolita!

If you're looking to simply tone town your Lolita a bit, consider the following:

• Don't go heavy on the poof! Wear a very minimal poof petticoat. Very few dresses are meant to be petticoat optional, so if your skirt is very gathered, you really shouldn't skip the petti completely. However, there are some cuts of Lolita dresses that can be OK without
• Wear a cutsew or cardigan. They generally have a less stuffy, and more casual feel to them than button-up blouses or boleros.
• Go light on the accessories. Wear a simple headbow and a piece or two of jewelry. Leave giant wigs and matching everything for another day.

These three simple tips tend to be enough to make your preferred Lolita style more casual, for when you still want to wear Lolita, but you don't want to constantly be knocking stuff over with your petticoat or feeling like you're overdressed! These are also things that I tend to do when wearing Lolita on an everyday basis. They're simple and easy, as they should be if you want to tone it down a bit!

I don't really feel that Casual Lolita has enough different style elements from other Lolita sub-styles that it really stands on it's own as a distinct sub-style. Instead I feel that almost any style of Lolita can be worn in a more casual manner just by toning down the outfits a bit.

Within the Lolita fashion outside of Japan, Otome Kei brands who happen to make Lolita appropriate pieces are very often considered Casual Lolita. Of course, these brands do make the perfect dresses for wearing Lolita on a more casual basis, but to me it always seems a bit wrong to take an already well developed fashion, such as Otome Kei (which has been around just as long, if not longer than Lolita!), and to sort of diminish it's importance as a fashion by referring to it as casual wear of a different fashion.

If you are interested about pairing up Otome with Lolita (and that is the post that I've been meaning to make forever! Hopefully one day...), consider some pieces by Milk, Jane Marple, or Emily Temple Cute, as they tend to be the classic examples of Otome brands that also make Lolita appropriate piece.

These are just some of the dresses that Emily Temple Cute makes that often get lumped in with Casual Lolita!

 What do you, personally, think about Casual Lolita? Do you feel that it's a subcategory all it's own? Or do you just tend to wear Lolita on a more casual basis and just consider it part of the regular Lolita style? How do you wear Lolita when you need to tone it down a bit?

Ask Miss Caro-chan: Short Socks?

Over on my Formspring I was not-so-recently asked a little question about shorter sock-lenghs:

Hi Caro-chan ^^ I'm a newbie lolita from Hong Kong. I am wondering if it's ok for sweet lolitas to wear "short socks" (above your ankles, but way below your knees). Is it a must for sweet lolitas to wear overknees and high socks? ^^

It's definitely OK to have other options for sock length! Sock length popularity in Lolita has sort of been all over the place, way back when it was sort of anything-goes when it came to sock lengths, and then it sort of leveled out to a rather strict "knee highs, opaque tights, and over-the-knees only!" idea for a number of years, before finally returning a bit to a sense of anything-goes. That incredibly enlightening history of Lolita sock lengths aside, short socks have definitely been making a comeback in Lolita! Especially now that hotter weather is here, they're a really great way to still have some sort of leg decoration going on without the stuffiness of wearing socks or tights.

 Some crew-length socks, including a pair of the currently very popular sheer socks.

Shorter socks tend to come in two different lengths: crew (which I believe our anonymous was describing) and ankle. Crew socks hitting somewhere around the mid-calf area, while ankle socks hitting, you guessed it, at just around the ankle.

 Some ankle-length socks, in case you forgot where your ankles were located.

I'm sure you have noticed that the above socks are particularly Sweet Lolita, as that tends to be the style that works very well with this style of sock. However, it can also work well with a Classic or Country Lolita coordinate, as well as being perfectly suitable for those who are more inclined towards Otome, Dolly Kei, Mori, or even Cult Party Kei. Check out the following pictures for some inspiration, which I picked from some of the more recent volumes of Gothic & Lolita Bible and Kera. Click the picture to make them larger!

Short socks with super cute Sweet Lolita, a match made in heaven! They can make a girly frilly coordinate look even girlier and frillier!

Short socks with the not-so-extreme Sweet Lolita. Yes, you can wear them casually! I feel that they add a bit of an Otome feel to outfits sometimes.

 Short socks with some coordinates that lean towards Classic Lolita. They add a bit of girlish elegance to the more Classic Lolita inclined coordinates.

Shorter socks might not be for everyone, unfortunately, as cute as they are, if you have thicker calves, they can make your legs look stocky, because the ruffles that are almost always on them tend to hide the shape of your ankles. Many Lolitas also find them a bit too childish for their tastes, and some seem to think, because of that, they're just not supposed to be worn in the fashion, despite the overwhelming amount of ads and street snaps featuring them!

If you're on the lookout for a cute pair of shorter socks to wear with Lolita this summer, you can often find them in regular clothing stores, particularly in the kid's section! As they are something of a staple of traditional little girl's fashion. If you want your sock-shopping to be done in secret (because, let's face it, it's a little weird to go lurking around the kid's sock isle sometimes) sock dreams has several pairs on their site. I actually used to have this pair, until I lost them, that looked especially cute worn with a pair of Victorian styled short boots! It made it look like the boots had a pretty lace ruffle around the top of them!

Ask Miss Caro-chan: How to Make Aprons Work with Lolita

Art by Imai Kira

I've been neglecting my formspring, and my blog, lately! But to get things, hopefully, back to normal, I'd like to start out with an Ask Miss Caro-chan that has to do with one of my favorite old-school styles

I love aprons in Lolita, but is there anyway it could look cute or mature and not look like a maid or Alice get-up? Iv seen VM's tablier and it looks gorgeous, but that is the only good apron i've seen that doesn't look like a a costume!

Personally, I'm a big fan of aprons with Lolita, however, I'm very well aware of how tricky they can be to wear and not look like you're a very fancy maid. While I do love the look of maid or Alice aprons, I do know that it's not everyone's cup of tea. If you want to wear an apron that isn't so apron-y, the best way to do it is to simply make your apron color math the rest of your coordinate. Despite what most people think when they think of aprons in Lolita, not all aprons are stark white maid accessories. You can actually pick up a Lolita apron in almost any color that you normally can find in Lolita. If you match the color of your apron to the color of your dress, the apron adds detail and texture to the coordinate, without making it so obvious you're wearing an apron.

Sort of like this!

 There are also a few releases that are, instead of being aprons, styled after the pinafore, which is a bit more of an apron, and a bit less than a dress. Basically, a pinafore is a lot like a JSK that buttons or ties up the back, a dress that you wear over your dress. Victorian Maiden's Tablier is more of a pinafore than an apron. Despite the fact that many dresses use the word "pinafore" in their name, there are very few pinafores released by brands. Metamorphose has released a few pinafores that are very Victorian or even Natural-Kei looking in design. There are a lot of possibilities with a pinafore looking more like a dress than an apron, but because so few are made by brands, they tend to still be made in the basic apron-like style.

 Victorian Maiden's Tablier

If you're more of a print person, but still like the look of aprons, brands often release skirts with apron-like looks. From half aprons, to detachable apron tops that can make the piece go from skirt to JSK/apron hybrid. The best part about these is their versatility, some of them really do just look like JSKs, while the aprons on others are much more subtle because it's color coordinated to match the rest of the outfit.

 

Some times brands also release pieces with small aprons which, in my opinion, tend to not look very maid or Alice-like. Combined with a print, and the fact that the apron is usually smaller than a regular apron and often has some sort of cute detailing on it that ties it to the rest of the dress, these pieces feature an apron as a cute detail, rather than a maid-like aspect to the dress.

If, like me, you do happen to like the normal look of an apron with Lolita, but just don't want to look like a maid, the best you can do is to coordinate it in a way that does not make people instantly think of maids. Try wearing one with anything other than a non-black design, avoid old-school headdresses, and try to avoid any sort of "sexy" additions like shorter skirts or heels and thigh-high socks.

In addition to subtle aprons, maid-like aprons, apron-like skirts, and pinafores, some brands also release aprons that are costumey to the extreme! Baby is probably most famous for doing this, they always seem to have some sort of over the top apron in their shop from their infamous Gloomy Bear apron, to aprons with, instead of the standard heart, use all sorts of ridiculous shapes like cookies and bunnies.

I think at least one apron is a vital addition to any sizable Lolita wardrobe, not just because it's a cute way to keep your dress clean if you're doing anything that might put it in danger of getting a bit dirty, but also because I think they can be an easy way to make something a bit different out of almost any outfit, from adding an over the top costumey touch to an outfit (when you're looking for that of course!), to adding a classic old-school touch, to even making a Classic Lolita piece look more Natural-kei.

I have an older Baby the Stars Shine bright heart-shaped apron in my wardrobe, as well as a vintage crochet half-apron, but I'm always looking for more aprons to add to my wardrobe. Especially because you can often pick them up for a pretty good deal! My BtSSB one cost $40, and my vintage crochet one cost me about $13.

Ask Miss Caro-chan: Purple Lolita

In today's Ask Miss Caro-chan, we're going to take a little peek at a color that is often considered unusual within the Lolita fashion! I recently found the following question on my formspring:

Do you have an example of a lolita wearing purple coloured coordinates? And I mean dark, jewel tone purple, not pastels which are easy to find for sweet and classic styles.

Even when you're talking about pastel lavender, purple is a sometimes hard to find color within Lolita, with even Sweet Lolita brands making a rare lavender colorway option. But, there are still a few pieces that are indeed made in darker purples. Your best bet, if you're looking for purple in your Lolita wardrobe, is to try to expand your idea of what range of colors purple encompasses, or to wear it as an accent color because purple, in the world of designer Lolita clothes, is not always the same color as the crayola crayon! It's usually quite a bit less saturated and is either a bit more on the red or blue side, instead of sitting comfortably in the middle.

Finding coordinates that feature bolder and more jewel-toned outfits in the Bibles, Keras, and various other Lolita mooks is actually really difficult! You can find a lot of J-Punk coordinates featuring purple tartan, but when it comes to Lolita, all I managed to find were these three coordinates!

Purple dresses for sale, on the other hand, are a little easier to find! It's a rare color for a brand to release, but not unheard of! It seems like, more and more, purple is becoming a more common colorway to find Lolita dresses in.

 Top row: Emily Temple Cute, Metamorphose. Middle row: Baby, Atelier Pierrot. Bottom: Innocent World, Juliette et Justine.

If you want to add some purple to your wardrobe, but don't mind making it an accent color instead of the main color, there are a growing number of pieces that use purple as an accent color! Very recently it seems like purple has become to favored accent color of black colorways.

 

 

   

Top row: Baby, Putumayo. Middle row: Angelic Pretty, Putumayo. Bottom row: Baby, Metamorphose.

Bold purples do tend to get sort of a bad rap in the world of Lolita, and that's probably because they are often one of the favorite color choices of generic anime "Lolita" cosplays and questionable online shop alike. So, very often, when you come across a purple dress in Lolita, it's usually similar to one of the below dresses.

 

Not exactly the first thing you want to think of when you think "Purple Lolita"! But, of course, these kinds of dresses are more and more becoming an exception, and not the rule. As you can see at the top of this post, purple is sort of an underrated color in the world of Lolita but there are really a whole bunch of, somewhat hidden, gorgeous pieces that feature this color.

Coordinating purple

Purple can be coordinated just as easily as any other color in Lolita, my favorite color to combine with purple is good old fashioned black, as it usually really makes the purple pop and stand out more. If your purple is of one of the more desaturated varieties, then consider trying to coordinate it with cream. Personally, I am not a fan of purple and white coordinates, as I feel the colors look too primary together and sort of flat, especially if the purple is closer to a bright, jewel toned purple. Because of all the different shades of purple found within Lolita, I feel like purple is not meant for just one style of Lolita, I think it works very well with just about any of them! From the common purple tartan for punk, to deep jewel toned purples and blacks for Gothic, to a dusty amethyst and cream combo for Classic, and a bright magenta toned purple and black for Sweet Lolita.


Purple, as well as it's sister color, lavender, are relatively recent additions to the Lolita color spectrum (I remember when even a green dress would pop up it would make me do a double-take!) so who knows what future releases will bring in this sometimes odd color.

What are your favorite "odd" Lolita colors? Ones that aren't commonly fond in coordinates on in brand catalogs but you just can't help but fall in love with whenever you happen to see something made in it? I am a big fan of really deep forest green, but very few brands ever release anything in this color! I know that Baby has released a few gorgeous deep forest green velvet dresses in the past, but really, that's about the only brand I can think of off the top of my head that has even tried to give deep forest green a chance!