Making Old School New Again: Priere

Chunky platforms, bloomers peeking out the bottom of a skirt, yards upon yards of lace, lacy headdresses tied under the chin—all things we tend to think of when we reminisce about what Lolita used to be. But what if it was all back again, and with an updated look that was cutting edge and even trendy? That's exactly what Japanese indie brand Priere is doing!

Taking inspiration from antique dolls, Yukarin of Priere has created an angelic vision that harkens back to what Lolita was in the 90's, as well as the Victorian revival of the 1970's that brands like Gunne Sax popularized. Japanese pop culture is experiencing some serious 90's nostalgia at the moment (perhaps all the 1980's Fairy Kei girls have grown up and the girls who grew up in the 1990's are taking their place as queens of street fashion?) and is coming up with ways to reinvent the looks of the decade in fresh new ways. 

Perhaps the best way to make coordinates like this cutting edge is the way they're styled, gone are the bare faces and simple hair of early Lolita, and in their place are the currently trendy looks that seem to borrow heavily from moe pop culture. High bright blush, berry red lips, and flawlessly natural looking hair, often with professionally dyed unnatural colors, give a finished look to the old fashioned layered dresses.

One thing I particularly love about this brand's stylings is the use of mixed off-whites, with only touches of brown or gold, and yet most of the looks are paired with darker shoes, something that was very frequently seen in old Lolita street snaps. I think that the pairing of lighter frilly dresses with dark shoes has such an endearing look, and reminds me so much of sepia toned antique photographs of little Victorian children.

While Priere is not a Lolita brand, the aesthetics are very similar and I think that anyone interested in Lolita, particularly the current Classic Lolita trends, can find a lot of inspiration from this up-and-coming designer. The bell sleeves, the peeking bloomers, the layers of sheer lace, these are all things that elicit a strong sense of nostalgia from most Lolitas who've been in the fashion for a while, or even new Lolitas who know their roots, and it's exciting to see a new designer put a fresh face on the older designs.

Priere is a very new line and currently only has an Instagram with the promise of a future webshob. But you can also follow Yukarin's personal Twitter and Instagram for more. Tokyo Fashion also features an interview with Yukarin here.

Old School Musings: How Being A Lolita Has Changed Since 2001

I've been thinking a lot about old school Lolita lately (not that that is anything out of the usual for me!) and in particular how much Lolita, and being a Lolita has changed in years since I first discovered the fashion. Lolita has changed so much since I first learned of the fashion sometime in the early 2000's! It's been so long that I honestly don't even know exactly when it was I heard about it. I am almost positive it was sometime in 2001 or 2002, because I remember asking a friend who had a non-dialup internet connection to download some music from the very shortly broken up Malice Mizer for me, and I know that I learned about Malice Mizer and Lolita at the same time (how could you not back then!). Back then Lolita, outside of Japan, was so heavily wrapped up in Goth and Jrock and Japan that it was pretty impossible to like just one of them it seemed. To be a good Goth I should be interested in Lolita and to be a good Lolita I had to like Jrock and to like Jrock I had better be interested in Japan! Or at least, these were the things I told my teenaged self.

This was all shortly before Hot Topic released their first wave of “Loli Goth” products that were so iconic of  doing it wrong. I remember how completely appalled everyone was to find out that Hot Topic was dipping in on our totally secret trend and I feel like a lot of people from back then lost interest in Lolita for fear that it was going to “go mainstream”, but that was pretty indicative of a lot of the people (but certainly not all of them!) who seemed to be into Lolita at the time in the English-speaking online communities, for many people it was just another way of expressing how different and alternative they were. You can actually read a post from this era about the horrors of Hot Topic that is so charmingly angry here in an ancient Livejournal post.

I also remember the complete rarity it was to own brand, and how if you had a brand dress, that's pretty much all it took for you to be the best Lolita you could be! But on the other hand, due to brand rarity, there was a huge interest in thrifting loliable clothes and learning to sew for yourself. I can't tell you how many people had Lolita wardrobes made up of simple handmade gathered skirts, modified grandma blouses, and the least extreme square dancing dress they could dig up on eBay! I think this is all very embarrassing to us now, to think that we used to share sissy sites as sources for cutesy shoes in non-child sizes and tips on which sorts of square dance related keywords you can search for on Ebay to get some almost Lolita clothes, but it was sort of endearing. As difficult as it was to wear Lolita back then, we were determined and willing to work with what little we had to be Lolitas.

Lolitas now have it so much easier, it's still sort of surprising to me to see people's first Lolita outfits be perfectly put together and so accurately Lolita! I'm actually very envious of these girls who are just now learning about the fashion and who can with so little ease assemble a very cute outfit for themselves if they so choose, when I had to wait literally years before I could get my first real Lolita outfit! As nostalgic as I am for old school Lolita, I definitely do not miss the hassle and near-imposibility of being a Lolita back then!

Why is Lolita called "Lolita"? Does Lolita Fashion Have Anything To Do With Nabokov?

One of the most long-running debates in Lolita fashion, and certainly one of the biggest arguments between Lolitas and people who are not Lolitas is the name. Every few years in the Western Lolita community this debate pops up, usually filled with lots of alternative suggestions and at least one person who wants to take it upon themselves to change the name of the fashion for everyone, which has lead to a few terms, such as the awkward "Little Big Girl" in the early 2000's, and the tongue twisting "Quaintrelle" of a few years back. However, it is pretty obvious that none of these have managed to stick!

For those on the other side of the argument, the ones accusing Lolitas of being up to something deviant because of the name, they often cite things like the more infamous Angelic Pretty dresses that look quite a bit like nursery room wallpaper, even though things like this are even niche within in the fashion as a whole, and definitely not your average Lolita's definitive style in the fashion. So, why is Lolita called Lolita, if it has just caused so many problems over the years? The short answer is: no one really knows! But let's look into some of the possible reasons why Lolita managed to snag such a name for themselves, and why it has less to do with the book than your average person on the street thinks, and maybe a little more than your average Lolita is willing to admit.

The roots of the fashion: What Lolita was before it was called "Lolita".

Before we can really answer this question, I think we need to take a quick look at the sort of aesthetic movements that most likely caused the Lolita fashion to eventually happen. This is a little bit of pre-history here, even going further back in time than I do in this article about very old school Lolita!

A volume of Seventeen from the 1970's, heavy on the Victorian romanticism.

As any Lolita who knows her stuff will tell you, one of the precursors to the Lolita style, probably the one where we get most of our aesthetics from, is Natural Kei. Natural Kei was, in part, a result of the romantic Victorian inspired designs that first popped up in the late 1960's and spread to popular culture from things like bohemian trends. This Victorian revival was a massively wide-spread thing, not just limited to young women's fashion trends! Men and women of all ages were all the sudden taking inspiration from a very romanticized ideal of a simpler Victorian inspired life. You can see its inspiration in every thing from music, to furniture, to clothes, to the post-hippie DIY movement.

I believe that it is from this trend, particularly the rose-tinted view of a more innocent and simpler "prairie life" and the inspired fashions that popped up in regards to that, was one of the major influences in Natural Kei. Now, what exactly does this have to do with "the other Lolita" and Nabokov? You guessed it, absolutely nothing. These things are Lolita's direct roots, roots that are still obvious from everything from the choice of fabrics, to placements of lace and details in modern day Lolita clothes, and it has nothing to do with Nabokov's Lolita novel.

Little House on the Prairie: A charming TV show loved by millions because of its romantic depiction of an innocent and simpler time? Or devious sexual fetish practiced by psychologically broken young women with the intention of tricking dirty old men into buying them expensive frilly clothes, to fuel their mentally unstable psycho-sexual consumer lust?

Like most things, especially aesthetic driven subcultures, the style came before it's name, and was already well developed before it was given the name "Lolita". I don't think I have to explain that at no time in the early 90's did anyone site down and write the word "Lolita" on a piece of paper, followed by the phrase "sexy baby fashion" and then started to list how to go about making a fashion based on that idea. However ridiculous that sounds, many outsiders to the fashion act like this was the case!

So how did the name "Lolita" stick to the fashion?

This is the real mystery here! The term "Lolita" wasn't used to describe this fashion until the early-to-mid 1990's. From everything I had ever seen, by this point Natural Kei was beginning to diverge into a separate style, less romantic and more girly. The My Fair Lady of the Victorian revival had been filtered out and slowly replaced with Laura Ingalls. Perhaps the target audience was getting younger as well. Many sources talking about the golden age of Natural Kei will include a mention that it was "housewife" fashion, fashion for the 20-30 something fashionable young woman who wanted to wear something cute and girly while tending house. Whereas Lolita is known for being fashion for the late teen to mid-20's set. It was probably sometime in the early 90's that what we now might recognize as a proto-Lolita was probably starting to branch off from Natural Kei and develop into an even more girly style adopted by a younger audience, as well as start to become influenced by other girly and youthful fashions such as Otome and even other pop culture phenomenon such as idols, manga, and musician's stage wear.

From Old Fashion. A very old styled Metamorphose outfit.

I think it’s very likely that it was an outsider to the fashion,after all, it’s usually an outside mainstream media source that ends up popularizing the names of things like this, that referred to these very girly fashions that were associated with things like Little House on the Prairie and a general care free childishness (which, again, was largely a carry over from a massively popular aesthetic trend, as well as a cultural obsession with youth) and gave it a name that was within the popular culture at the time to refer to both romanticized and fetishized childish things: Lolita.

Stop right there, so you just said that the Lolita fashion is named after the book?

To an extent, it very well might have been, in a similar way that other subcultures such as Goth and Punk were not necessarily named by the people who were part of the subculture and were maybe not intended to paint the most flattering picture. For whatever reason, it became a thing and people rolled with it and generally took the name and made it their own. This happens time and time again in alternative subcultures, and most of them manage to shake the connotations of the original definition of the term and make it their own, but for whatever reason, although possibly due to the massively widespread popularity of Nabokov's book, those within the Lolita fashion have never managed to entirely separate themselves from the book, at least in the eyes of outsiders.

However, I do feel that a look into Japan's usage of the term to mean "the other Lolita", is really needed to grasp the full extent of exactly what it meant to be labeled a Lolita, as well as the world's relation with Nabokov's novel and even Lewis Carroll

1997's film adaptation of Lolita.

First and foremost: most of the world is wrapped up in a love affair with Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, as well as the two movies that have been made of it. Lolita is a classic piece of literature, that despite the actual events that go on in it, is heavily romanticized by just about everyone. I remember being younger and reading teen magazines that featured fashion spreads inspired by the movie, shilling everything from heart-shaped sunglasses to shirts with the book cover on it. The iconic styles associated with the story are often fodder for fashion designers and magazines alike, this is nothing new, and absolutely not unique to either Japan as a whole or the Japanse Lolita fashion movement. Many copies of the book are emblazoned with an excerpt from a Vanity Fair review proclaiming "The only convincing love story of our century", people all around the world clearly love to romanticize this story, in fact, the book is so beloved because it's so expertly written that it makes you romanticize it. It seems like it would be unfair to accuse girls wearing Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty as having an unhealthy obsession with a book that everyone else in the world seems to have the exact same obsession with. When Lolita is mentioned in mainstream magazines and news articles, it's often hinted at how wrong it is for having the same name as the novel, and what sort of connotations they feel are associated with the fashion because of that. And, frankly, I think this is total bull. It's a bit like someone reprimanding you for having bad eating habits because you ate a candy bar for lunch, while they've been eating potato chips for every meal for the past 59 years.

The back of Trainer's The Lolita Complex, a faux-psycological bit of trashy reading that was piggy backing off of the then recent popular book and movie, Lolita.

It's clear the world loves this book and its movies, but what is Japan's connection to this English-language novel and how did the title of the novel end up in their Language? Why did they decide to use it as a name for the fashion? This answer is a little less clear, but from everything I've ever read: as much as Lolita has changed over the years, so has Japan's use of the term Lolita. The term "Lolita complex" was first coined by Russell Trainer in 1966 in his book by the same name. This book was something of a sensationalized, tabloid style, faux-psychological piece that was meant to titillate and was simply piggybacking off of a much more popular book. I actually collect vintage paperbacks and these types of books were incredibly common in that era (in fact, I just recently acquired one on the topic of witchcraft!), they present themselves as a serious reads, but are really just intended to be a titillating bit of R-rated reading, they're sketchy reality show of the literary world. It's not hard to imagine how some people mistakenly take them much more serious than they were intended to be taken.

Shinji Wada's Stumbling upon a Cabbage Field. An Alice-themed manga that first used the term "Lolita Complex".

Shortly after publication, this bit of trashy reading was translated into Japanese, the term was then referenced in the 1974 shoujo manga Stumbling Upon A Cabbage Field, an Alice In Wonderland parody. Already do we have Alice, the Lolita's patron saint, being mingled with the word "Lolita"! After this first usage, in the late 70's and early 80's, "lolicon", as it was then shortened to, was used in reference to fan-favorite girly characters. Many early anime characters that had the otaku term "lolita" aimed at them were often simply cute female characters, largely from shoujo series, and there seemed to be significantly less stigma against the term at the time. It seems to have had a much "tamer" definition than it is infamous for now. Although the Lolita fashion would not be named such until many years later, both of these ideals had their roots in this era.

16 year old Clarisse d'Cagliostro from Studio Ghibli's The Castle of Cagliostro (1979). One of the first characters to be considered "Lolicon". About a million degrees removed from the modern term.

But why was the term "Lolita complex" mentioned in, of all things, an Alice in Wonderland comic? Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll's other works have always been very popular in Japan and the romanticization of the supposed Carroll/Alice relationship already existed within Japan (and indeed much of the world) for decades by the time Nabokov's Lolita, and the term "Lolita complex", hit Japan. I believe that many people felt that the romanticized Humbert/Lolita relationship was a modern take on the Carroll/Alice one, this parallel between the two has actually been drawn many times. However, in contrast to the characters in Nabokov's Lolita, many argue that Carroll's youth obsession was completely non-sexual and just an aspect of the common depiction of "angelic" children in the Victorian era. With the popularity of Nabokov's Lolita at its very first peak, and the pop culture obsession with Alice already firmly cemented into place, it would almost appear that the two authors were simply muddled together to make a quirky reference in a mainstream manga of the day. It would almost seem that the original usage of "Lolita complex" is based more on a cultural and worldwide obsession with Alice in Wonderland than it is Nabokov's Lolita. It goes without saying that the Lolita fashion's connection to Alice is absolutely undeniable, perhaps if things were worded slightly differently in that apparently influential comic, we would be known as Alices instead of Lolitas.

A photo of Alice Liddell taken by Lewis Carroll.

While, as far as anyone seems to be aware, the term "Lolita" for the fashion didn't get placed on it until the early-to-mid 90's, the aesthetic connection between these cute young shoujo heroines, Alice in Wonderland, and these young women wearing romantic and childlike dresses was already there. While nowadays outsiders to the fashion like to make the connection from the extremely OTT Sweet Lolita outfits to the risque otaku term neither of these things were as extreme as they are now when the fashion first got its name.

Why did Lolita's accept the term in the first place?

This is another unknown, but Lolitas in Japan are frequently as annoyed as Lolitas in the west are for the connotation. Lolitas in Japan even adopted a different spelling to the word to differentiate themselves, at the very least online. While Lolita is normally written "ロリータ", many Lolitas choose the variation "ロリィタ", in which the usual "i" is substituted for a small "i". However, many publications and webshops use the typical "ロリータ". This practice reminds me of years ago, when in the west Lolitas would frequently refer to the fashion with the Japanese pronunciation/spelling of "rorita" for exactly the same reason.

It's clear that your average Lolita is well aware of the other meaning of the word, and will often go out of her way to make the difference between the two known. However, I feel that, ultimately, Lolita is often about disregarding the social norms and doing things because you want to. In any alternative fashion it's often difficult to get any large chunk of its members to care about what the average person thinks of them. If they cared that much about what sort of misconceptions strangers might have about them, they probably would have never ventured into the fashion in the first place.

Carroll's Alice is one of Novala's perfect "bad natured princess".

In fact, there are some Lolitas who do a bit of reveling in this lurid connection between themselves and the book. For a very long time there has been a very obvious morbid streak within Lolita fashion. This "Broken Princess" was often the opposite side of the same coin as the Pure Maiden. Novala Takemoto, perhaps our leading expert on the Broken Princess/Pure Maiden coin, specifically mentions Nabokov's Lolita in this way in an essay entitled Princesses Love Being Mean (link only functions if you're a member of EGL):

Bad nature is the fundament of a young lady. Whether Alice in Wonderland or Nabokov’s Lolita, magnificent young ladies are all bad natured.

This doesn't necessarily mean that Lolitas were going out there and actively living up to their namesake, it was simply part of an all-over aesthetic that was popular for many Lolitas for many years. Even popular Lolita publications, such as the Gothic & Lolita Bible, frequently showcased curiously morbid art by people such as Trevor Brown, Mihara Mitsukazu, and Koitsukihime.

I had once seen it mentioned that this idea of a Lolita who is not as perfect as her image might make her out to be as something akin to the Japanese idea of wabi-sabi, which is a difficult term to translate, but can largely be summed up in the idea of finding beauty in imperfect. Perhaps this idea is a bit lofty for a street fashion, or at least for the average Lolita on the street, and the acceptance, and even reveling in, of the unfortunate connotations of the name Lolita is more likely just a little bit of dark juxtaposition similar to the ones that are prevalent in so many fashion movements, not just something limited to Lolita fashion.

Art by Mihara Mitsukazu, one of the most iconic artists in Lolita fashion and subculture

When asked how Lolita got its name, there are many Lolitas who will often say it's a total mystery, or claim that the name was picked in an entirely arbitrary fashion, and without any real understanding of what the book was about. But I personally think differently. I feel that the connection between the book and the fashion is apparent, although not crystal clear. However, I do not think that the name of the fashion has any real bearing on the actual aesthetic of the fashion, and certainly not the sort of activities members of the Lolita community are up to. To assume that just because the Lolita fashion and Nabokov's Lolita have a common ancestor, several decades back, that all Lolitas are Nabokov devotees in the most deviant of ways, is to have a fundamental misunderstanding of how words work, as well as how the average interacts with both literature and fashion.

Many Lolitas have faced years of total outsiders to the fashion telling them that they know more than them about the fashion and accusing them of being up to something devious just because of the name, therefore it's understandable that many members of the Lolita fashion deny all associations with the book and the other Lolita. However, I think it's important to know the connection between the terms, and to be aware that just because some things share a common name that it doesn't necessarily mean they have any sort of solid connection to each other. People will always have their problems with fashion that's outside of the mainstream, and they're almost always going to think people who're dressing weird are up to something devious. I think we just have to remind ourselves sometimes that we're not wearing these clothes for the approval of other people, we're wearing it for ourselves.

7 Important Turning Points in the History of Lolita Fashion

Over the years Lolita has undergone a number of changes, some major and some minor. The minor ones are sometimes mere blips in the history of Lolita, silly trends that came and went, while some of the major ones have managed to change the course of Lolita forever.



This post is about the 7 major turning points in the fashion that I feel have changed the fashion in huge ways. As someone who's been into Lolita for a long while, I've personally seen how these things have changed the fashion and have often wondered how different Lolita would be if some of these things didn't happen!

1. 2003 Brands start selling overseas- I feel like the biggest change in the Lolita fashion happened when brands started selling overseas. This made it possible for people outside of Japan to finally get their hands on authentic (a word that was frequently used back then!) Lolita pieces without having to have gone to Japan or had a friend in Japan ship them their orders. This made it possible for us to, collectively, step out of our ita phase and get the chance to experience real Lolita.
2. 2006 The Lolita Handbook is created- The Lolita Handbook was a Livejournal that was set up to be exactly what it sounds like. It helped new Lolitas both define Lolita and learn to wear the fashion. Despite the fact that it tried to make it clear that the handbook was a set of guidelines, it unfortunately cemented the idea of "rules" into the community. The Lolita handbook was both a blessing because of how it made the fashion seem simple and accessible, and a curse because it was often misquoted as Lolita law.
3. 2006 Kamikaze Girls is released in the US- Kamikaze Girls was actually released in 2004, but that was the pre-youtube days of dial up and getting a hold of the movie, especially with the fansubs, was nearly impossible for most people. It wasn't until the movie was subbed in English and released on DVD that people could really sink their teeth into it. Not only did a lot of people get into the fashion because of this movie, but for those we were currently already in the fashion it was groundbreaking to see a Lolita, a real Lolita, in a full-length movie. Lolita clothes were still relatively hard to get a hold of at this point, despite the few shops that shipped overseas, so the movie allowed a lot of us to live vicariously through it.
4. 2007 Angelic Pretty goes Deco- This turning point is a little less of a pinpoint moment and more of a slow build up that started a year before when Angelic Pretty decided to plop down pastel wigs on the models in their Twinkle Mermaid ad. Deco Lolita happened on the tail end of the Deco trend in Japan and eventually paved the way for things like OTT and Fairy Kei Lolita crossovers as well as the Sweet Lolita prints that have become iconic of the style. The over-the-top stylings of Deco Lolita was one of the things that made Sweet Lolitas stand out from the rest and become the substyle for people to wear for several years.
5. 2008 Bodyline starts selling good clothes and ships overseas for practically nothing- Bodyline has always been around, although you used to only be able to buy them through cosmates at bloated prices. Bodyline opened up their site to overseas orders sometime before this, but it wasn't until they started selling nice clothes and had a $10 shipping sale that people really took notice of them as a legitimate place to buy Lolita. Before this, Bodyline prices were nearly as much as brand, what with the inflation and shipping, and were unapologetically ita anyways so very few people wanted them, it was in that era that Bodyline got it's reputation as being an overpriced cheap costume shop, because that's exactly what it was. Sometime in 2008 Bodyline took a turn for the better and surprisingly changed Lolita history. The first wave of cheap yet good Lolita that Bodyline started selling was incredibly cheap, skirts were between $11 and $20, JSKs were about $35. People who had previously only had a few Lolita pieces now could afford to buy a whole new wardrobe for the price of a brand dress. Lolita's closets practically burst with all the new Bodyline people could fill them with. Since then, their prices have risen and people have become disenchanted with them, but they still set a baseline for how much "cheap Lolita" should cost that has effected how a lot of people buy Lolita, for better or for worse. While cheap good Lolita is going to be in vogue no matter what, Bodyline's cheap Lolita was the precursor to the current Taobao obsession.
6. 2009 Spoonflower allows people to custom print their own fabric- As long as the West has known about Lolita there have been Western indie brands doing their own thing and supplying locals with Lolita. Up until this one point, if indie brands wanted cute fabric people tended to scour internet fabric shops for imported Japanese fabric that had that kawaii feeling that Japanese brand prints did, but that was about the extent of cute prints indie brands could manage. That is, until Spoonflower came around and allowed anyone to be able to design and print their own fabric. With this there was an explosion of indie brands who could finally create their dream print that filled a niche that brands would never in a million years be able to target. While the Spoonflower trend has died down a bit after we all came to the collective realization that the fabric Spoonflowe prints on is simply not worth the price and trouble and has a lot of drawbacks designers have to work around, it still played a pivotal roll in the Lolita fashion in the West.
7. 2011 Juliette et Justine releases their classical painting dresses- Just like that fateful day Angelic Pretty popped pastel wigs on their models, when Juliette et Justine put a classical painting across the skirts of one of their dresses, the Lolita fashion slowly began to turn in another direction. Away from saccharine Sweet Lolita, towards opulent Classic Lolita. Since then Sweet Lolita has been in decline as the Lolita fashion to wear and Classic Lolita soon started to become the style that was releasing must-have prints that people were practically climbing all over each other and throwing money at each other to own. This is a relatively new trend and it's hard to say exactly how long it will last, but looking back, Sweet Lolita was really only as big as it was for about 4 years, which is hardly the century long reign that some people make it out to be.

Of course, there are other turning points in the fashion, but sometimes it's hard to see them until after the trend has come and gone. Alternatively, some of the current things we think might be major turning points in the fashion might end up sputtering out before it really gets momentum.

In my experience with the fashion, these are some of the major turning points, but I'm aware that other people might have viewed things differently depending on how they interact with the community, what styles they focus on, and how long they've been into the fashion. What sort of events would you personally consider to be turning points in the Lolita fashion?

Silhouette vs. Aesthetic: What makes Lolita "Lolita"?

This post should be sub-subtitled: A continued debate on the question of whether or not petticoats are an absolute necessity within the Lolita fashion and the debate's effect on future generations of budding Lolitas. With a title like that, this post sounds positively Victorian. If this overly-long title hasn't sent you running and screaming "NO MORE!" away from your computer I hope to share my thoughts on this somewhat touchy subject that was making the rounds over on Tumblr somewhat recently. Yes, that's right, this post touches a bit on the great petticoat debate that I'm sure everyone is sick of already.

In my opinion, to answer the question "Are petticoats absolutely necessary to the Lolita fashion?" shortly and simply: No, they are not. You may now proceed to the comment section to let me know why I'm wrong if you feel the need to, or you can stay awhile and let me explain why!

Petticoats are important, but lucky for us this particular dress isn't the only one in the Lolita fashion.

Don't get me wrong, I think that a petticoat can make or break a borderline outfit Lolita, and lack of one can potentially ruin an otherwise completely fine Lolita outfit, but I think that there are a considerably large number of Lolita coordinates and dresses out there that don't necessarily need a petticoat to be considered Lolita. I feel that there's really no definitive thing you can say about petticoats being necessary throughout all of Lolita and it's definitely something that you need to take into consideration with each individual outfit.

Baby's iconic babydoll dress

For example, take the above dress, it's one of the most iconic Lolita dress designs out there, and a design that has been in production and regular wear by Lolitas, in perfectly Lolita coordinates, for well over a decade now. And yet, many people who own this dress (and the dozens of identically cut dresses) simply don't wear a petticoat with it. Myself included. And it's still, without a doubt, Lolita. A dress like this simply doesn't have enough poof to fit a regular petticoat, and if you try to wear one, it will typically look overstuffed. When I wear a dress like this, I'll just wear a plain Lolita skirt under it (which for me, is mostly to add a couple inches to the bottom of it), and that combined with the built-in lining of the skirt and the gathers gives it enough lift to not be swishy. People do sometimes argue: "but that's just because this is such an old design, if it was released now, people would call it not-Lolita!", personally I find this argument to be completely moot.  The fact of the matter is that this style of Lolita dress does exist, is still being released on a regular basis, and was a majorly influential and popular Lolita design for years and still continues to be.

 

Most iconic Lolita coordinate in Lolita history, or not Lolita at all?

Those that do own this type of dress and do wear it with a petticoat tend to wear it with a deflated tulle one, which does absolutely nothing for the poof, and functionally, looks exactly the same as wearing nothing under it. To those of you saying "But that counts because even a deflated petticoat is still a petticoat!" then what is the point at all of saying that a Lolita outfit needs a petticoat to be considered Lolita, even if that petticoat does absolutely nothing? At this point the petticoat becomes a completely arbitrary clothing item that cannot be seen and may or may not effect the look of the outfit in the slightest, you may as well say that Lolita can be defined by whether or not someone is wearing a ribbon tied around their waist under their dress. I feel that the importance of a petticoat stems not from the fact that it gives skirts a particular silhouette, especially considering Lolita skirts can come in a number of shapes and lengths and be deemed acceptable, but because it is part of a more general aesthetic that is far more important than mere shape.

If you want to see a few examples of Lolita without the poof, check out the blog No Petticoat Needed! It's more of an otome blog but there are a few Lolita outfits showcased. 

Not a cupcake.

So what makes something Lolita, if not the silhouette? There is obviously more to Lolita than just the shape of a skirt. If it was the only defining feature, Lolita wouldn't be such a tricky fashion for people to get into, filled with "Is this Lolita?" questions about every offbrand skirt with flare. The truth is that there are a lot of little things combined that make Lolita what it is. There's a certain aesthetic that Lolita undoubtedly has, in addition to the silhouette, even if that aesthetic is different throughout the different Lolita sub-styles.

The truth is, Lolita isn't something that can be enirely defined by a few quick words, or a chart pointing to different style elements, or even a single blog post, no more than any other fashion can be. The importance of the petticoat is that it is part of the elegance and opulence of the Lolita aesthetic, even interpreted through the ultra kawaii or edgy and deconstructed sub-styles of the fashion.

That being said, just like any of the other aspects of the Lolita aesthetic, I feel like petticoats are part of a sort of sliding scale of Lolitaness. Similar to how a relatively plain loliable dress devoid of common Lolita details can be perfectly Lolita if it's coordinated properly, a dress with iconic Lolita elements, and coordinated with undeniably Lolita items, can still be Lolita even if it doesn't have the traditional silhouette.
   But think of the newbies!
This is all too often what you hear when someone says they think petticoats are optional, as well as any number of other Lolita fashion "rules". The truth is, Lolita is sometimes an overwhelming fashion and sometimes newbies (and even not-so-newbies!) might make some choices that might not exactly be the best, and having a set of guidelines is a good idea for the fashion to help anyone interested in wearing the fashion. However, we have to remember to stress that these are guidelines, and not rules. As someone who's been into the fashion for a very long time, and have had the chance to see how the community changes with the years, one particularly troublesome thing I've noticed is that when you lay down rules for newbies, those newbies grow into Lolitas assuming that these rules are set in stone.

Back in about 2006/2007 there was a very strong emphasis in the community on what is and isn't Lolita. The Western Lolita communities began questioning what it was that made something Lolita and were trying to, as a community, nail down the style. This was a pretty awesome thing for the community to be finally considering, however a lot of the "rules" that came from this era of new found self-reflection have stuck for many people as being the only way to define Lolita.

How often have you heard someone say that all Lolitas must wear blouses at all time, skirts may not be more than a certain number of inches above your knee, black and white dresses are instant Ita, or any number of rules touted as a set-in-stone truth? There's a pretty good chance that people believe these things to be absolute truths because, when they were first getting started, someone tried to steer them away from Itadom, but neglected to mention that, yeah, they're not really rules at all. Personally, I've heard such silly things more times than I care to. It's all well and fine to help a newbie out, especially in such a tricky fashion like Lolita, and especially with cringe-worthy scratchy lace skeletons hanging in so many of our own closets that we would like to spare other newbies from, but we have to remember to emphasize that these are not rules, but rather "learn to crawl before you can run" guidelines.

In emphasizing the importance of the silhouette above all else, I feel that many people have disregarded the general aesthetic of the fashion, leading to a lot of really watered down ideas of what makes something Lolita. I feel that this over-emphasis is just as misleading for budding generations of Lolita as the other rules have been.

So how do you help newbies?

I recently asked EGL what people there considered the rules or defining features of Lolita to be, and one user, Carmidoll, brought up a very interesting idea: that Lolita can really only truly be learned through osmosis. This seems like a somewhat weird idea, but I realized that it's probably how we all truly learned how to define what Lolita is. By reading the Bibles, by searching for street snaps, by lurking Daily Lolita, by reading Lolita blogs, by talking about it with other Lolitas online, or by participating in our Local community. Lolita is really an immense fashion, and defined by so much more than just how high above your knees your poofy skirt lands that it's almost impossible to take in by reciting what amount to arbitrary fashion rules. It's really something we can only know after we've experienced it in some way.

If you have a friend who is interested in getting into Lolita and doesn't quite know where to start, by all means, let them know that it's a good idea to wear a petticoat, or that full-length dresses and barely-butt-covering skirts probably isn't the best choice for a Lolita outfit, remind them that some JSKs might look more put together with a blouse, but avoid trying to define the fashion by these things. Instead, share your Bibles with them, gush over newly released dresses with them, discuss trends and fads with them, even share clothes with them if you can. The best way to learn what Lolita's about is to participate in it in whatever way you can.

The funny thing about this topic is that most people can't really agree on it! I find it funny that when a bunch of perfectly well put-together Lolitas get together and talk about the defining features of Lolita, most of them have completely different opinions on the subject. How can a group of people who are all very obviously involved in the same fashion and wear it just fine all be saying contradictory things on what it is that makes an outfit Lolita? If they all simply have the wrong idea on what is and isn't Lolita, how is it they seem to have a perfectly acceptable grasp on the fashion?

What are your thoughts on the subject? Do you think petticoats are mandatory or optional providing the outfit is right? Or to go above and beyond that, do you feel that not only are petticoats mandatory, but only specific shapes and lengths are? What exactly do you personlly find the defining features of Lolita to be?

Lolita Blog Carnival: Underrated Colors

Even though I've been working with it on Facebook, I've actually taken quite a break from doing any posts from the Lolita Blog Carnival myself lately! But I put my butt in gear to get this week's done, because it looked like a fun topic, this week is all about unusual colors within Lolita!

First I want to start with just a little bit of musing about why certain colors are considered "unusual" in Lolita. Generally, Lolita tends to be a very rule oriented fashion, and there are colors that are often perceived as being not just "normal" colors for Lolita, but sometimes they're considered the only acceptable colors, although, this has lightened up a bit in recent years. "Proper colors" seem to be largely decided by what sort of things brands are releasing, and as silly as it sounds, it's usually for an understandable reason. As I'm sure you all know, a head-to-toe matching outfit and even wardrobes is not uncommon at all in Lolita, and is even something that most Lolitas prefer, so it's generally just considered easier for Lolitas to pick one of the common colors and stick with it. It's easier to match that way if all of your clothes just so happen to be pink, sax blue, lavender, red, or black! It becomes a little less easy to find exactly what you're looking for when you throw every other color into the mix! It's a bit unfortunate for those who have very specific color inclinations, but a blessing to those who don't really intend to stray very far from the limited Lolita rainbow.

However, it's true that in recent years more and more colors have mixed themselves into the Lolita norm. I remember about 6 years ago a Lolita friend of mine was in love with the color green and dreamt of one day owning all the non-mint green brand released Lolita dresses. This was a pretty easy feat at the time, theoretically, as there were only about a dozen or so of them that were commonly known (Take a look at this search for "Green" grouped by year on Lolibrary!) . For the next few years brands started releasing more and more uncommon colors, and there was always a little bit of a murmur of commotion every time a brand released something in an odd color. "Did you see that yellow dress?" one Lolita might ask another, "Yes! Did you see that one that had mint and pink on it!?".

Nowadays, there are very few colors that Lolitas would ever be shocked to see, except maybe neon, but there are indeed a few colors that are still very underrepresented and often overlooked within the fashion!

Jewel tones that aren't burgundy or royal blue

 

I figured I would lump these all into one category, because there are a few of them, from rich purple, to emerald green, to deep amber. The most common jewel tones you'll see within Lolita are red and blue, but some of the other colors will pop up every now and then. I've even written a separate post about the color purple! 

Olive Green

Olive green will either come in a light and airy pale olive, or a more traditional olive green. Innocent World probably uses this color the mos, but even they hardly use it at all. For it's desaturated nature, it's almost always seen in dresses that are more inclined towards the Classic Lolita. I consider the paler version of olive as the "pastel" for the Classic Lolita who wants to wear something light colored, but doesn't want to appear childish at all. Something about it makes it feel like a very grown up and no-nonsense color to me.

Grey

Another no-nonsense color would be grey! Also a frequently underused color in Lolita for probably just that reason. Grey is almost always reserved for woolen winter pieces, occasionally in the spring time a paler sort of slate grey might pop up in chiffon, showing grey's less sever side. Personally, I love the versatility of grey, pair it with black for a more Gothic outfit, or white for a more Sweet outfit.

Salmon Pink

This color is pretty similar to the more commonly seen dusty rose, just a few shades darker. While dusty rose isn't an uncommon color in Classic Lolita at all, this peachy salmon pink used to be a much more common color in Sweet Lolita. I think it's an incredibly cute and demure color for Sweet Lolita! If pale olive green is the Classic Lolita's ideal choice for a cute color without looking childish, salmon pink is the Sweet Lolita's ideal choice for a more toned down color without giving up the air of childishness!

"Vivid" Pastels

Can a pastel be vivid? This is another set of colors that I tend to associate with Old School Lolita. In the early 2000's, pastels weren't always as baby-soft as they are now. Pinks were often less baby and more Barbie, and blues weren't so much sax as they were Alice. The color difference is often only a shade or two more vivid, and not an obvious difference, until you try to match it with a newer piece that you thought was the same color! I feel like these colors are saved for the ideal Old School Lolita look. Even if you have to sacrifice the waist ties to have that perfect Old School headdress to match it, because good luck finding a new one that matches it!

If there's one thing you've probably noticed about these unusually colored items, it's that many of them are from brands that are typically considered Classic Lolita brands. In fact, the only items up here that aren't from Classic Lolita brands are the "outdated" colors. For whatever reason, brands that tend to cater towards the Sweet Lolita tend to stick with the usual Lolita colors, but Classic brands are often branching out into more unusual colors. Why? I have no idea. I would speculate that it has to do with Classic Lolita being more influenced by the Victorian era than Sweet Lolita, and there simply being a larger pot of color inspiration to dip from because of that.

As usual with the LBC, I'm not the only one blogging about this topic! Check out all these other blogs that talked a little bit about unusual colors in Lolita!

♔ Lemon Tree ♔ Xylia-X ♔ EGL Community ♔ Ramble Rori ♔ A Lace Jail ♔ Commercially Alternative ♔ Lets Go! ♔ Darkly Darling ♔ Angelic Nostalgia ♔ Ice Age ♔ Sun in Our Hands ♔ Swirly Purple and Green Crayons ♔

The Pure Maiden: Lifestyle Lolita to the Extreme

Lately I've been digging around old community posts, as well as archived older websites about the Lolita fashion, out of a sense of nostalgia and curiosity to see how the Western Lolita community has evolved from those dark days. When I say old, I do mean old, I'm talking posts and websites that either just passed their 10th birthday, or are soon to see one! Even back then there was still the idea of the Lifestyle Lolita, but of course, that wasn't a term coined until much later, but rather at the time the idea of the Lifestyle Lolita was a sort of nebulous half-formed idea of what it meant to be Lolita. Myself and some friends who were around at the time refer to this old school extreme Lifestyle Lolita as being a "Pure Maiden", a term inspired by the flowery musings (or ramblings, depending on your thoughts on the author) of Novala Takemoto that were published around that time.

The Pure Maiden was a far cry from today's Lifestyle Lolita, who's motto is often simply "Beautify your life!" and even quite a bit different than the Kamikaze Girls era Lifestyle Lolita, who was a self-professed Lolita princess. Rather, the Pure Maiden of times past was deeply invested in the Lolita aesthetic of the time, which had a very heavy emphasis on being doll-like and elegant, and was focused on making every aspect of her life as Lolita as possible. She wasn't exactly Lolita royalty, but instead was something more akin to a frail princess locked away in a tower, with nothing but the frills to keep her occupied.

"Traditional" Lifestyle Lolita activities were not just considered appropriate hobbies for Lolitas to take up, but were an absolute must and taken very seriously. Tea, dolls, reading, generally obsessing over Japan, and various Lolita-related creative endeavors were how the Pure Maiden whiled away her lonesome hours.

The Lolita Pure Maiden of long ago was a somewhat strange creature, I never could be sure if she was real, or an elaborate online persona adopted by many in a time where getting your hands on anything even remotely close to "authentic" Lolita was nearly impossible, so you sort of had to overcompensate in other aspects of your life to let people know you were serious about Lolita. But real or mythical, despite being the complete opposite of my daily Lolita life, she holds a special place in my heart as a symbol of the ultimate Lolita that one hoped to one day be when I was first getting into the fashion.

Pure Maiden Checklist

Are you a Pure Maiden at heart? A lonesome princess of your own heart with a lace cage wrapped around your melancholy soul? This handy check can help you tell if you are one, or set you on your way to becoming a Pure Maiden!

• Always has a parasol ready for potential strolls, to protect your delicate skin from the sun.
• Loves dolls in every way. Collects them, as well as takes beauty inspiration from them.
• Have an air of mysteriousness and fragility around you.
• A penchant for the poetic in your frequent public musings on what it means to be Lolita.
• Adores Novala Takemoto and takes his essays to heart.
• Has streak of melancholy or the morbid, often expressed through musical choices.
• Gentle in manner and quiet in speech.
• Prone to waxing nostalgic about a time long before you were born.
• Thinks tea, a book, and classical music is the perfect company for the evening.
• Has an array of flowing nightgowns, for when not in Lolita. 
• Keeps an elegant boudoir. Complete with an antique vanity with a big mirror on top.
• Sews your own Lolita accessories by hand.
• Very interested in Japan and how Lolita is done over there.

Of course, this checklist is all in good fun, a bit tongue-in-cheek, and certainly not any standard by which a Lolita must live her life! Simply meant to illustrate the somewhat stricter standards that incredibly old school Lolitas claimed to live their lives by. By today's standards the the Pure Maiden is a bit extreme, to say the least, even for the most dedicated Lifestyle Lolita!

This extreme style may have been something more of a myth than reality, and not exactly suited for Lolitas living in the real world, but I find the sort of frivolous decadence that the Pure Maiden Lolita claimed to indulge charming and nostalgic. If you're interested in reading what would have been considered a Pure Maiden's bible, even in the days before the Gothic & Lolita Bibles were published, check out this page for some linked translations of some much older Novala Takemoto essays on living a maidenly life! Check out this sample from his essay, The Illusion of a Flowering Young Lady:

In a faded pastel world, where it's absurd to believe that the hearts of children are pure, a clown is shedding tears over the lack of imagination, and it is this which we must scorn.

After reading even just a couple of Takemoto's essays, it's not difficult to understand how fans of his back in the day decided to live their lives so fancifully.

What are your thoughts on the Lifestyle Lolita in general? If you consider yourself one are you part of this modern era of Lifestyle Lolitas who simply try to enjoy Lolita as much as possible and add some beauty to your life? Or do you live your lifestyle more like one of the fabled Pure Maidens?

Some New Wardrobe Additions & Tips for Bargain Hunting

Sometime late last year I was talking about doing a wardrobe overhaul, and I'm actually very happy to say that it's been going pretty well! I have sort of been neglecting the basics, which I know is really awful of me, but I have been having too much fun adding some big pieces to my wardrobe.

I have never really been too in love with wearing popular border prints, as much as I love to drool over them in ads and on other people. To me, they're just one of those "I love it on you, but I don't really care to wear it" things, and this has lead to several purchases of prints I loved to look at, but only ever ended up wearing once. So these things were pretty much the first to go when I started my wardrobe cleanup! However, this sort of lead to a couple seasons worth of a wardrobe without a "wow" factor: full of things I can wear every day, but nothing that I felt was good enough for a special occasion, or even simply something I both loved to look at, and to wear. I finally had to come to serious terms with my wardrobe and realize that just because I liked to stare at and giggle over prints with cute unicorns on them, they could hardly be farther from my own personal style and what I find practical and comfortable in, and so I didn't exactly want to cover myself in them.

So, I started to think about what sort of "wow" pieces I actually loved and could see myself wearing. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that pretty much all of the print pieces that I really loved were pieces I had been drooling over for years. In fact, practically none of my dream pieces were recent popular border prints, but mostly all-over, or understated prints from 2007 or before! To me, these symbolize a time when I felt like the Lolita trends most intercepted with my own personal style, as well as a time when I was first seriously getting into Lolita, and therefore were sort of something like my original dream dresses.

So, with something of a dream dress checklist in hand, I started to attempt to finally accumulate pieces that I had been lusting after for half a decade or more. It's taken about a quarter of the year, but I can now honestly say I only have about 2 more dream dresses to cross off my list.

From left to right: Meta Revival Bouquet, JeJ La Robe Antique de la Poupee, BtSSB Marie Antoinette, BtSSB Stained Glass, BtSSB Border Print, and AP Secret Garden.

The above picture are the recent "wow" additions to my wardrobe, and with the exception of the beige Juliette et Justine JSK (which was just a super good deal for a gorgeous dress!) these are all pieces from series that I have been wanting for years! And the best part is they all are in a style I love to wear, and in colors that fit with my wardrobe. Is it painfully obvious that red is my new favorite wardrobe color? Even the pinks in these pieces can easily be paired with red as well.

Looking back at the post I made talking about re-doing my wardrobe, I am actually very pleased to see that in terms of Classic and Sweet Lolita, I have kept very much on track! I am only bringing in older, screen printed Sweet Lolita pieces, and the Classic Lolita pieces I am bringing in are very lush and detail oriented. Now I just seriously need to work on the Gothic Lolita part of my wardrobe! I know I talked about nixing a big chunk of the h.Naoto and going more formal with my Gothic Lolita, but, honestly, because I wear it so much, it's just really difficult to do that and have it still be practical for everyday wear. So, while I had gotten rid of some h.Naoto that I was just bored with, I've actually brought a fair amount of the brand back into my wardrobe. I seriously just can't resist! Especially when you can so easily pick up second-hand h.Naoto pieces for $20!

While I was indeed working on the more expensive part of my wardrobe with these pieces, I actually
got, what I think, are incredible deals on some of these pieces. I'm not going to go into the details of my budget, but I figured out that all of these pieces cost about 40% of retail price.

How I've learned to find bargains in Lolita

Now, it's not that I don't sometimes make rash "I don't care how much it is! Just take my money!" decisions sometimes, but I at least like to pretend that when it comes to Lolita, I'm a pretty good bargain hunter.

Oh, memes!

• Shop second-hand. You're rarely going to get a better deal than buying second-hand! I am particularly fond of shopping on the EGL Comm Sales, but there are a few other places out there you can find second-hand Lolita pieces, including ordering from various second-hand Lolita shops based in Japan.
• Know what you want to buy. Having a little list of things you would like to own, or your wardrobe is missing, is essential to finding a bargain. After all, if you start picking up stuff just because it's cheap, with no real interest in wearing it, you might as well just be throwing that money away. I should know! That's how I got into the mess of having a huge wardrobe but absolutely nothing to wear!
• Know what their typical prices are. Window shop, a lot! Search around for older sales to see how much people have bought the piece you would like for. Try not to focus how much people are attempting to sell the piece for, but instead how much people are actually spending on it. Eventually you'll learn to know when a good deal comes along, and when you should just pass and wait for it to pop up again for a cheaper price.
• Haggling, trades, and payment plans. These things can be awesome for finding something for a really good price, or with an affordable payment plan, however, you really have to respect the seller's terms of sale or you might risk offending them, I cannot stress this enough. Generally, as a rule of thumb, I try not to ask if sellers are willing to lower their price or accept trades unless they specifically say that they are interested in either. I also do not ask for any sort of massive price reduction. There's no real rule about how much you should ask for a reduction if you're haggling over Lolita clothes, but it's often considered a bit rude to ask for a reduction of more than 15% to 20%, and you should always phrase it in a polite way, such as "would you consider $____" rather than something something that sounds demanding, such as saying "I'll give you $____" It usually doesn't hurt to ask if someone will accept a payment plan, but I will let them know straight away that I would like to pay on a payment plan, and for how long, because it's rude to spring it on someone after they've agreed to sell the item to you. I also try to keep payment plans as short as possible and aim for no longer than a month. I also try not to ask for both a reduction and a payment plan, especially because a seller is most likely to just pass on your offer completely and wait to see if someone is willing to pay them their asking price in one payment. It's not a good deal if someone buys it out from under you because you were being too cheap!
• Search for older sales posts. If you are looking for a good deal, your best bet would be to find it in older sales posts, generally about 5 days to a month old. Any newer than that, and people are still probably buying stuff from the post, any older than that and the seller might have just decided to keep the items. If you want to offer a lower price on an item (again, only if it is an appropriate price and the buyer is stating that they are accepting lower prices) people tend to be more willing to lower their price after their post stops catching people's attention. I know that when I sell stuff, if someone makes me an offer a week or so later, I'm always just glad to get rid of the piece by then!
• Be willing to compromise condition. You can find good deals if you're willing to compromise the condition. Many people offer huge price cuts on second-hand items because there is a snag in the lace, a few tiny spots that may or may not come out with a hand washing, is missing a detachable bow or waist ties, or has a snapped elastic. If you know how to fix these things, or don't mind the sometimes microscopic drops of mystery stain that some items are sold with, you can usually find some great deals on some pieces. Not all of these things are defects too! It's generally considered that modifying a piece will lower the value, and I actually have gotten a few great deals on skirts that I wouldn't otherwise fit, but who's waistbands had been modified to go an inch or two bigger!
• Patience, patience, patience! Sometimes it can take months for certain items to pop up again on the sales comm! While this is sort of a downer for those that really want something now,  it's also something of a blessing in disguise. I find that the waiting and the hunting for a particular piece really makes me reconsider if I want it in the first place. If I'm totally over something after not being able to find it for a month, I just take it off my wish list. When you actually have to work for pieces (and I don't just mean saving up the money to buy them!) you really start to learn exactly what pieces you truly love and will appreciate owning, rather than which ones are just sort of a current obsession. There's absolutely no shame in realizing your latest oh-gosh-I'm-just-going-to-die-if-I-can't-own-this dream dress was just part of a month long obsession you had with pancakes or unicorns, or pancakes shaped like unicorns. We all go through those sorts of obsessions, especially in Lolita, when really cool things are constantly being released!

I have found a ton of great bargains on the sales community! From a $30 BtSSB cutsew that had a small stain that I could never even find on the back of a sleeve, to picking up new-with-tags items for amazing deals because they ended up in someone's lucky pack, to that time I got something like 30% off a brand new top at an h.Naoto booth because the button popped off as I was trying it on. What are some of the best second-hand deals you've gotten? I would love to hear them and be completely jealous over them!

Usakumya's Humble Beginnings

I was lurking around on Hello Lace, a Lolita fashion database, the other day and stumbled across something from 2002 in the Baby the Stars Shine Bright section that took me for surprise!

 

This might not be too surprising at first, as brands have released weird fuzzy animal bags in the past, but what surprised me about this was that it was labeled as an Usakumya bag! That's right, this weird little sheepy monster, that someone on Tumblr noticed an unfortunate similarly to the Nina chimera from Full Metal Alchemist that I have been unable to unsee, was the grand-bear to the iconic Usakumya bags! Someone else mentioned seeing this particularly fluffy Usakumya in the Kamikaze Girls movie, but I haven't seen the movie in so long, I don't recall exactly where in the background this fluffy little creature is lurking.

The current Usakumya!.

 It would seem there are a lot of Usakumya's lurking around! I'm sure some of you are still having haunting dreams of this particularly terrified looking knock-off. Even the BtSSB versions have a few sort of odd looking bunny-bear's lurking around. Take, for instance, this 2005 version that seems to be a combination of the old fluffy one and the newer ones, or the many odd things Baby has put Usakumya's likeness on, including this most unfortunate pen.

Over the years, I've sort of grown fond of this little chameleon of a bunny-bear, and with each new, and sometimes nightmarish, thing Baby slaps this little guy's fluffy stuffed head on, the more I sort of want one of my own. Maybe I need to get a little jar (covered in fake fur with a fluffy bunny-bear head on it? Hint hint, Baby!) and start an Usakumya fund!

What about the rest of you? Is there anything in the history of Usakumya's that you just find yourself not being able to resist? Or are you just not into these fluffy little bears in disguise?

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.