Ever since I was little, I have dreamed of wearing a floofy dress in the snow. In fact, the first time I went out in the snow when I was old enough to dress myself, I insisted on wearing a pink tutu, and got mad when my parents made me wear a parka and snow pants instead. This month I got to live my dreams as I tried wearing casual lolita in the snow.
Here’s what I learned.
1) Know whether your priority is form or function. While the ideal would be a perfect balance between these, my wardrobe doesn’t contain the perfect piece for every occasion (if yours does, go you though!). Knowing your priorities will help you ascertain whether you’re trying to make snow gear work with lolita or make lolita pieces work in the snow. For this coord, I focused on being functional for walking around in the snow and going to a delicious soup place.
2) Balance is key. If you’re shoehorning snow gear into your coord, paying attention to balance will help your outfit stay cohesive looking. Do that repeating colors in each third of your coord thing. Beyond color, balance applies to proportions as well. Adequate poof helps to balance out bulky coats and boots, plus frolicking in the snow in a floofy dress is delightful.
3) Obviously wool or fleece tights make the cold a lot more tolerable. I wear these every day of my life October through March. My favorites are the Nara Socks Classic Rib Tights, although they are sadly about as size inclusive as unshirred Angelic Pretty. For a better size selection, I highly recommend Sock Dreams.
4) Wear a few different layers suitable for the different spaces you’ll be visiting. I find a lot of resources on wearing lolita in the cold suggest a warm base underneath everything, but I only dress that way if I’ll be outside the whole time I’m wearing my coord. You don’t want to be sweating when you get to an indoor destination. I think of my layers as different variations of the coord that are wearable on their own all the way down to a base layer that will still be comfy in a warm cafe or sitting beside a cozy fireplace (and hopefully not on too many crowded, stuffy bus rides).
5) Finally and perhaps most importantly, wear comfy undergarments. Continuing the subject of layering, lolita fashion already has a lot of layers, and when you add dressing for the snow, it’s suddenly so many garments on top of each other. Constantly adjusting millions of layers that are all sliding exactly where you don't want them to be is a pain, literally! I'll take this chance to say to all of you-- May your tights never do that dreaded slipping down while you're walking thing where you have to awkwardly try to shimmy them up from beneath your petticoat. You know the thing.
With these ideas in mind, I stayed warm and felt like a winter princess! I still want to keep improving at putting together wearable, comfy, and cute coords. What's your best advice for wearing lolita in wintry conditions?
Another tip to add to your list: get snow grips. They're essentially shoe attachments with little spikes, so that even if your boots/shoes aren't the best for walking in snow, you won't slip quite so easily. They're really cheap on eBay and other than two straps across your toes and heels, remain underneath the shoe, so won't even ruin your coord shot (unless your shoes are light/pastel, since I've only ever seen the grips made in black). Also, good bloomers will keep your tights from falling down, so invest in bloomers or shorts with a slightly stronger elastic, especially across your thighs,for extra support.
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