Favorite Kinds of Dresses

Years ago, Deer Alice wrote a post called "Dresses and Prints I like the Most." Since I am very much still working to develop a cohesive style, I thought that prompt would be a good way to hone in on common qualities I like in dresses. As I put together these sets of photos, I realized a lot of the categories doubled up– for example, Loyal Rosette has gold details, rosettes, and a bib collar. If I had divided the categories differently, I think there would have been even more pieces that met multiple criteria.

I considered adding a lot of other categories, like literary prints, my favorite colorways, or academic and military cuts. Instead, I decided to keep it to five categories and represent some of the other characteristics I like within my chosen categories.

1. Rosettes

Rosettes evoke the 2012-2016 era of otome influenced classic-sweet that I really love. These are the kinds of prints I have seen coordinated beautifully with Amavel, Axes Femme, and Jane Marple. I especially love when rosettes are paired with tartan, regimental stripes, and uniform inspired details like pleats and double breasted bodices. While I adore rosettes in the ever so royal navy and wine colorways, I do wonder what a dreamy, muted pastel rosette print might be like. 

The ivory Rosette Collection special set JSK was a dream dress for quite a while, and I finally got it this week! It's even more gorgeous in person. 

 2. Bib Collars

When I was a kid, maybe around seven years old, I found some lovely, high quality lace my mom had leftover from when she worked in a fabric shop. I thought it was gorgeous, and immediately envisioned a victorian inspired dress with a ruffle of lace around the collar. I found rectangular piece of green crafting felt and, without any planning, started sewing a bib front area. When my mom found what I was working on, she was like "WHAT ARE YOU DOIIIING?" Like a seasoned member of Big Sisters of Lolita Fashion trying to kindly explain that a dress from Amazon is never going to look like its stolen Mary Magdalene stock photo, she attempted to explain that my process was not exactly the way to make a dress. And, like someone getting the concrit they asked for but most certainly did not want to hear, I got so mad at her for stifling my creativity and trying to impose rules on my art!!

3. Gold Details

This is something my wardrobe and my home decor have in common. My favorite kinds of gold details are ones that look like rococo frames. I like the idea of having a capsule wardrobe with a lot of pieces I can mix and match, but even if my wardrobe becomes a lot more diverse as I build it, I think this is one feature that will remain consistent throughout. I'd love to get (or make!) more accessories that highlight this motif.

4. Tea and Teaspoon Prints

There are so many reasons I love tea prints in lolita fashion. Tea is, of course, a pretty iconic aspect of lolita culture. I have always loved tea, ever since I had my first cup of mint tisane at a knitting class when I was very little. I also take some pride in the fact that my great grandfather was a tea merchant. Beyond these things though, teaspoons are symbolic for me because of Spoon Theory. As someone with multiple chronic illnesses, having a few extra spoons on my dress feels like a metaphor for how dressing cute can boost me up on days when I feel sick and have low energy. I have also met some amazing fellow spoonies through this fashion!

5. Coats

During the entire time I have worn lolita, I have nearly always owned an equal number of main pieces and outerwear. While this is partly a practical choice to adapt to my local climate, I sincerely enjoy the opportunity to wear strikingly-tailored outerwear. AP's academy coat was one of those pieces that made me go "I will never find anything better than this" (IW's Royal Library is another). It is one of my go-to coats for work.

There is something romantic to me about cold weather, and especially snow. Maybe I'd feel differently if I lived somewhere where the ground was covered in brown slush from November until February. Still, I love the idea of bundling up in wool tights and sweaters, layers of petticoat, and a classic, faux-fur trimmed coat over it all, and enjoying a wintry walk in the park, with snow falling softly, and a cup of hot tea waiting for me somewhere cozy...

Wardrobe 2019: Main Pieces and Select Outerwear

Initially, I wasn't going to do a wardrobe post this year. I've drooled over enough gorgeously curated blog posts and videos to know what qualities I like in wardrobe presentation. This year, I felt like I just did not have the time, energy, space, or lighting to document my wardrobe well. Then, in a brief and unexpected lapse in perfectionism, I found myself thinking, "I can at least try taking a few photos and see how they turn out." 

So here they are! (Full disclosure, this is actually my first real wardrobe post.)

Solid Color Main Pieces

These are my go-to pieces for smaller meet ups or casual hangouts. If I had seven more main pieces like these I'd be well on my way to my newbie dream of being a lifestyle lolita. That's not really my goal anymore, since I've admitted to myself that there are days I'm just in a more casual mood, but I like the idea of someday being able to wear lolita daily if I wanted to. 

Casual Prints

These Peppermint Fox dresses are actually what got me to take the plunge and start finally wearing lolita after years of admiring it from afar, which is kind of funny because they really lean more otome than lolita. PF's whole aesthetic still really inspires my style though (and my lifestyle to be honest).

Then there's Rabbit Letter, my ultimate dream print. This skirt came up for sale at a reasonable price on my birthday two years ago, which was like "happy birthday to ME," but sadly it's actually really hard to coord. The regular JSK in wine is probably still my ultimate dream dress, although I'm just not at the level yet where I'm buying dresses at the price it always goes for. Sigh.

Fancy Prints

These are so fun to coord! They were also all wildly good deals. I got Royal Unicorn from a friend at a swap meet, who sold it to me at a shockingly nice price. It fits so well, is beautiful quality, and I looooove it.

Royal Library in this cut and color had been my ultimate dream dress for years, even before I started wearing the fashion. One night it came up on Yahoo Auctions JP for about half of what it usually goes for secondhand... and that's how I ended up making my first ever order with a shopping service.

Take the Crown was one of the prizes at our winter ILD meet last year. Ironically, my partner, the only ouji at the meet, won it! Lucky me– he gave it to me for Christmas. I'll still share if he ever wants to try coording it, though. Some of the people who were at ILD may be expecting this now?

Select Outerwear

This is all my outerwear from Japanese brands, though I have some other coats and jackets I wear in coords as well. AP's Academy Coat (right) is such a delight. It's one of the main coats I've been wearing for work this winter, which has convinced me to search for another AP coat in a similar cut so I'm not just wearing this one constantly.

I'm so glad I gave this a try! Photographing all my main pieces helped me learn some things about my wardrobe. 

1. It is way smaller than I thought it was?? I guess nine main pieces feels like a lot in a teeny tiny apartment, but really, I would not mind having more– as long as they're the right ones. 
2. Navy and wine are not really my main colors, though I want them to be. Conversely, I also want to add more accessories in soft beige, ivory, and brown tones to my collection. 
3. I really like my wardrobe. As I continue to build it, I'll try to keep this same feel going. Angelic Pretty and Innocent World are really competing for my affections, but I just love them BOTH!

I hope to do a follow-up post with blouses, accessories, and shoes. However, I'm mostly just happy I got this one done. 

Special thanks to Marie Kondo and her new Netflix show for inspiring me to let go of my shame and judgement about what I own and how I store it and just enjoy these belongings that make my heart make that "cute joy sound."

3 Wardrobe/Fashion Goals for 2019

I'm not really a New Year's resolution kind of person, but I have a few fashion related aspirations for the coming year.

Praising Stars and Angels of Prayer Umbrella

1. Buy a parasol

I have been wanting a parasol for years and years, but indecisiveness and high shipping costs have proved to be too much of a barrier so far. The closest I ever came to owning a parasol was in 2016 during Lolita Collective's black Friday sale. I ordered it and everything, but sadly it ended up being sold out. Every season since then I have resolved to get one, and now that I finally lost my old umbrella on public transportation I know it truly is time. Seriously. I have been walking around in the rain because I can't bring myself to get a regular umbrella. It's TIME. 

Will AP's "Praising Stars and Angels of Prayer" in ivory be the one?

A photo from my first ever meet

2. Host a meet 

I have been involved with my local community for two years, but had never been at a point in my life where I felt like I could responsibly commit to hosting a meet. Even just making it to meets has been difficult at times. This year, I finally feel like I might have the time and energy to take it on, even if it's just a small one and even if I have a cohost. I'm thinking a museum meet would be fun, either art or natural history. 

Some dream/wishlist items

3. Continue developing a cohesive wardrobe

The first step is probably further defining my vision for my wardrobe. I decided a year or so ago that navy, wine, and ivory would be my main colors. Since then, I have discovered a love for beige. Luckily it coords well with the other colors. I had hoped to sometime in the future start including dusty, muted pinks, mints, and lavenders, so when I fell in love with AP's Royal Unicorn in person, I allowed it into my wardrobe (Thanks, friend who sold it to me at a very generous price). Seeing it next to IW's Royal Library and Peppermint Fox's Tea Society made me realize my love for gold details. I have also noticed this year that all my main pieces coord well with brown, so chocolate has entered the color palette. 

I love how everything looks together, but there are so many directions I could go in from here that building my wardrobe will take some thought. I started to make a list of pieces I want to add and it quickly became clear that more planning is required. A topic for another post, perhaps. 

The overall vibe is still "librarian on an adventure," with a dash of "princess who lives in a magical forest," a perceptible "something an American Girl Doll would wear" quality, and a little bit "could be mistaken for a uniform from a fantastical academy." 

That's A Look, right? 

Blogging?? In 2019???

My big 2019 fashion goal that I have sort of been keeping a secret is that I would like to start blogging. Specifically, I would like to establish my blog enough to join the Lolita Blog Carnival (if that is even still in existence!). This is an anachronistic time to start blogging. The era of the fashion blogger is beyond dead, to the point that many of us are finding Instagram a little tired and wondering what will be next. I can't help but hope that blogs might just be getting old enough to see a nostalgia-fueled revival. People still listen to records.

The fast-paced social media environment of today has its fun aspects. I remember when I was in high school I used to pour over the same magazines and library books over and over for creative inspiration. Now, it's almost a subconscious reflex to turn on my phone and open Instagram or Closet of Frills and jump into a sea of exciting new images-- any time, and pretty much anywhere. There was a time when I could not have dreamt of this kind of access to creative content, and yet now it is commonplace.

This is not a rant about the evils of social media. However... The current popular forms of social media do foster a certain way of thinking. This became extremely clear to me when I was revisiting some EGL Fashion blogs from the early 2010s to rekindle the dreamy feeling that first got me into this fashion. I found myself wanting to click a non-existent like button. "Ooh, what a gorgeous coord." I poised my cursor to select the heart react.

The react buttons were not there, of course.

Instead, when I scrolled down, I found thoughtful comments from other bloggers who had be responding to the same prompts, and staying in touch with each others' posts for months. To get to the next post, I had to go through the laborious process of actually navigating to the next page and waiting for it to load. This was not the world of the endless scroll. There was a built-in pause.

In that pause, I had to just sit with my own reaction, instead of selecting one from a menu. Within that pause were thoughts and feelings more nuanced and ambiguous than like or dislike, yes or no. A taste of the dreamy magic that my nostalgia craves is in that pause.

Blogging in 2019 is a strange choice. So, to some people, is wearing a petticoat and carrying a parasol. In the spirit of this fashion itself, I'm going to start now.

Or in the words of Kamikaze Girls, "Lolitas do not recognize any authority. They follow only the values they have chosen for themselves, regardless of what anyone might say."