I'm pretty curious about the Baby lucky pack. I loved last year but took too long contemplating the purchase (as usual haha). You can ever so slightly make out the prints that are edited out. Maybe if you're savvy enough you can guess what print it is (or maybe it's a special one just for the lucky pack? hmmm)
So will you be ordering one of the LPs?
I've never ordered one, and can't afford one at the moment, but if I had the money I'd wait for an Angelic Pretty lucky pack!
Disclaimer: Let me start off by saying that I have no intention of scaring off people new to the fashion! We are always happy to help new people out. We just get tired of answering the same questions being asked every single day.
Welcome to the second installment of Newbie Lolita FAQ! I've decided to make this a series that will be posted weekly. I think it'll be great for new lolitas to have most of their basic questions asked in one place. Today I'll be talking about the negative rumors surrounding Bodyline and wigs: necessary or optional?
3. Will people hate me for just wearing Bodyline or Offbrand?
Pretty much only new lolitas seem to spread this rumor about how all lolitas look down on Bodyline and offbrand clothing. How you can only be a "true" lolita by wearing brand and all these other silly remarks. Honestly, nobody cares where your clothes come from as long as they're styled nicely! Granted there are exceptions. Some elitist lolitas might judge you and look down on you, but those girls aren't nice and aren't worth befriending. Ignore them, the good news is that they're in the minority!
Also, look at Peachie! She's my lolita idol and dresses in 99.99% offbrand.
Short answer: No, nobody will hate you or really judge you for not wearing brand.
4. Do I need to wear a wig?
Wigs became extremely popular in the fashion once OTT (over the top) lolita came to life. They're worn in most of girls' coords today in both bright colors and natural styles. But before this became a thing, girls just wore their natural hair with their coordinates (outfits).
If you don't want to wear a wig, that's completely ok! Nobody will tell you that you need one. Just keep in mind when you're wearing your natural hair with lolita to style it nicely. Lolita is about being dressed up, cute, and sometimes elegant. Frizzy, uncombed hair just thrown into a messy ponytail just won't look good and can ruin an otherwise perfect coord! Remember, lolita is all in the details.
Need further assurance? Remember Misako pretty much always uses her natural hair!
Short answer: No, just style your natural hair nicely and you'll be fine.
Although sometimes answers aren't found by simply researching, it's always best to try to do it before asking someone for help. Lolita's all about research, trial, and error. So go out there and discover lolita the fun way, by figuring it all out yourself. You'll feel very good about yourself further down the road!
Disclaimer: Let me start off by saying that I have no intention of scaring off people new to the fashion! We are always happy to help new people out. We just get tired of seeing the same questions being asked every single day.
Day in and day out, lolitas spend time online. It's just part of the hobby! You go online to look at sales, to check out so-and-so's new coord and to interact with the lolita community. Unfortunately we almost always also encounter that horrid question that's been answered at least 1,000 times and could have been answered with a quick Google search or by taking a look in the EGL memories. Although lolita is a fashion to have fun in, and no there aren't any strict rules, research is key to clearing up your doubts and familiarizing yourself with the fashion.
If you're new and want to avoid being that person, here are some of the questions you might want to avoid asking (and their answers!)
1. Do I really need a petticoat under this JSK, skirt, OP?
Ok, granted this one can sometimes be tricky with the new silhouettes that have been popping up. I will say that 9/10 times, yes you do need a petticoat. In fact, sometimes you need to wear more than one to achieve the desired silhouette! A great way to tell by yourself if you need one or not is to compare how your dress looks on you [without a petti on] to how the dress looks in the stock picture.
See how poofy the dress looks in the stock picture and see how flat the dress looks on the girl? The stock pictures tend to show how the dress will look its best. I also recommend you invest in a good petti, because a bad quality petti will deflate quickly and make it look like you not wearing one at all
Short answer: 9/10 times, yes you do need a petticoat.
2. Is Bodyline a reliable seller? Is this dress from Bodyline good?
This is one of those questions that a 2 second google search can answer for you. In the time it took you to post this question to Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, you could have had your answer! If you want to know if a seller is reliable, look up some reviews. Type in "[seller name] review" into Google or if you want to know about a particular dress or pair of shoes, type "[item name] reviews". Want video reviews? Type the same thing into Youtube! Pay attention to reviews made in the past year.
Example: "Bodyline Review" retrieves 682,000 results in 0.42 seconds.
Example: "Bodyline Dress L328 Review" retreives about 2,130 results in 0.57 seconds. (My review is second here)
And here's a video of Peachie talking all about Bodyline! (Her wardrobe is 99.99% Bodyline and she always looks great so she knows her stuff)
Also a quick tip: If you have the money to afford it, ship your items through EMS. Your items will arrive quicker and you get e-mail support from Bodyline. If you choose Airmail it's cheaper, but you get absolutely no support from Bodyline if something happens to the package. If you can't afford it, don't worry! I've been ordering for years using Airmail and so far none of my packages have been lost or stolen.
Short answer: Yes, it's reliable. Many lolitas shop from Bodyline all the time.
These are 2 questions I constantly see being asked to the popular lolitas. They are super nice and will often answer, but don't be offended if they tell you to check their archives or to Google it. Lolita's all about research, trial, and error. So go out there and discover lolita the fun way, by figuring it all out yourself. You'll feel very good about yourself further down the road!
Although I live in NYC and most people tend to ignore flamboyantly-dresses people, it's a city notorious for its tourists. Whenever I walk anywhere iconic in the city, I get bombarded with stares, whispers and sometimes even a direct comment. Sometimes they're funny like "Were you in a Broadway show?" and sometimes I get nice compliments like "Your dress is so cute!" but then there are people that just have no manners. Here are a few comments I often get and how I respond to them.
"Why are you wearing that?" I'm fairly ok with these questions when they come from a state of curiosity, but when you can hear the edge of sass in their voice... ohhhhh nooooo you did not just come over here to ask that.
Sassy Response: "I'm wearing this because I like it." or "Because I can." and proceed to put on your headphones. Sometimes a rude comment illicit a rude response. Polite Response: "Oh this is just my style. I dress like this all the time." then smile, nod and go on with your day.
"How old are you?" For some reason, dressing like this makes people think that it's ok to ask you anything about yourself. I get it, I'm dressed in an outfit that stands out but it doesn't really make me an open book either. If you wouldn't ask a regular old stranger, why on earth are you asking me?
Sassy Response: "Old enough to tell you that the question you just asked is inappropriate." Polite Response: [answer with your age if comfortable] or "I'm sorry but I don't feel comfortable with this question"
"Why would you dress up just to do [insert mundane activity]?" You know, this one still confuses me when I get it. We're in NYC; everyone tends to dress up and show off the latest fashion trends regardless of whether they are out partying or grabbing groceries. Dressing up to do daily activities is not something that is specific to people who choose to dress differently. I'm sure you dress up sometimes to run errands so why are you asking me to justify doing it myself?
Sassy Response: "Dressed up??? I just threw on whatever was lying around!" Polite Response: "Oh same reason as any other person, I just felt like it!"
The past few years at NYC have definitely toughened me up a bit with all the remarks that I've gotten, but I don't let them influence what I think about my style and neither should you! Our fashion is lovely, beautiful and interesting! As long as we know that and keep that in mind, nothing can put a damper on my opinion of lolita.
One thing, that I think not many people know, about me is that I love seasonal things! I love seasonal decor, food, accessories and clothing! It's why I love October-February: Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day. This is one of the biggest reasons I love this print! It's so wintery and cute. The print is very reminiscent of the infamous Day Dream Carnival, but that print style really was gorgeous. My favorite colorway, surprisingly enough, is not the pink one but the sax (light blue) colorway! And my favorite cut is the faux fur-lined jsk. It screams "winter wonderland" to me, which is great because I've been singing Let it Snow for the past few days...
I decided to try and coord it in a way that makes me feel super wintery and warm and fuzzy and this is what I came up with!
The holidays are sneaking up on us. There are 46 days until Christmas and 38 days until Hanukkah. I know, It seems like a long time from now, but it's best to get shopping done early (especially when you order things online)! Lolita fashion tends to be pretty expensive but getting a nice gift doesn't have to be. Inspired by an old post on ParfaitDoll, I'm here to provide you with 20 gift ideas for the lolita in your life!
So there's been a lot of buzz happening on Facebook's Ruffle Chat group about the direction Angelic Pretty is taking. They are the it brand for sweet lolitas everywhere. Lately they've been toning down their prints to feature more subdued colors and prints, a stark change from their usual sugary explosions.
2014 Prints
From left to right: Cream Cookie, Victorian Letter, Dramatic Rose
As most people in the fashion know, sweet lolita fashion has been all about girly pastels and youthful themes such as carnivals, candy, and toys since the release of Angelic Pretty's Sugary Carnival in 2009. It changed the look of lolita fashion! It went from simple, solid-colored dresses to a boom of crazy, cute, colorful border prints. It's been the trend for the past 5 or so years. But is this changing?
From left to right: Back Ribbon OP (2002), Sugary Carnival (2009), Loyal Rosette (2014)
As a marketing student that focuses on fashion, I've studied a lot on brands, their changes, and their reasons. From my observations, it seems that Angelic Pretty is trying to grow its style along with its target market. I suspect they've made this style change to adapt to the growing age of their customers. It has been pretty evident in the latest years that sweet lolitas are aging and are wanting more "age-appropriate" prints. When I say this, don't take it the wrong way!I don't mean we are too old to dress colorfully. What I mean is that a large number of lolitas want the fashion to grow with them so they can dress in a more mature light.
Another thing is that designers themselves are artists. Artists' styles change over time and it is inevitable. It's possible that the artists were tired of sticking to that style for so long and wanted to experiment with a new style. It's common for designers to have an experimental phase! Sometimes the phase determines a new style direction for a brand and other times they go back to the old style.
A lot of sweet lolitas are happy with the change. They think it's fresh and a welcome change to the OTT Sweet overload of the past few years. Others feel that Angelic Pretty should stick to what had been working for so long and bring back their cute, pastel designs. People are even starting to think that they're doomed to buying secondhand sweet prints from here on out.
So what do you think of the new direction Angelic Pretty is taking? Do you like it or do you think they should go back to how they were?
I had been eyeing this JSK for such a looooong time! After trying several black pieces and just not feeling 100% right, I took the plunge and bought myself a piece in pink (my favorite color). I am so happy I did!
Last year, for the Lolita Blog Carnival, I wrote about my lolita fashion new year's resolutions. I had been thinking recently about how cool it'd be to re-visit that post and see if I actually came through with the resolutions I made (which I usually don't haha). So let's see how I did!
I surprisingly achieved (half) of this! I recently bought a white blouse since Bodyline had a free shipping offer. Funnily enough, I got the first short-sleeved blouse I featured in the post last year. It really convinced me that I do still love lolita! I just needed to see my JSKs worn with a white blouse. I didn't buy white shoes, I still really want those shoes I featured! I ordered deep pink shoes but they're stuck in customs (for the past 9 days). I hope they get here! If not I'll re-order them for Christmas.
2. Complete a full coord without using any black (Fail!)
I totally failed here. I just couldn't do this since I didn't own a white blouse until the very end and my pink shoes just haven't gotten here either and bleh! I was kind of sad I couldn't do this :( I'm hoping to definitely do this next year!
Hahha this post is just looking good for me. No I didn't get a cute little apron either (which would've been such an easy, inexpensive addition) I still like aprons with lolita so I will try next year to get one! I'm thinking though that I want a half apron instead of a full one. They seem more toned down and versatile for lolita.
I literally only posted 2 coords this year. 2! That's so bad hhahah. It's almost like I posted less after I made the resolution! And I hate the coord I wore to see Misako. My coat had smooshed my petti so it got all flat and the black and pink coord was just too harsh and the blazer looked atrocious with the outfit ughhhh. But I'm learning... And that's a good reason to take more pictures, it lets me look back at my progress and figure out what worked and didn't work.
So it looks like 2014 was a lolita resolution FAIL. Hahahaa not too shocked, but it was fun going back to see what 2013 Aleks wanted me to accomplish this year. Sorry to disappoint you 2013 Aleks!!
So were you able to keep any of your fashion-related resolutions this year?
Short answer: No, nobody will hate you or really judge you for not wearing brand.
