So, You Want to Be a Lolita?
Perhaps you have admired lolita fashion for years and are ready to explore your next steps. Maybe you just recently discovered the fashion and, you are itching to experience this frilly fashion yourself.
Whatever your reason, welcome! It is always fun for me to connect with new members to the fashion. There are a few important fashion basics, principles, and the main styles of lolita that we will cover in this post. Best of all, I will provide you with some shops and resources, so you are able to buy your first lolita coordinate. Let's get started!
1. Choose Your Style
Before you can start shopping, it is best to pinpoint the style of lolita that you are the most interested in. There are many styles and sub-styles within lolita fashion. A simple Google search will have you exposed to these numerous options in a moment, and the fashion opportunities are extremely expansive. At this time, you will want to focus on the main three styles, from which most of the sub-styles originate. These three main lolita categories are Gothic Lolita, Sweet Lolita, and Classic Lolita.
©Maison de Julietta
Gothic Lolita
Gothic Lolita utilizes dark and rich color pallet and is a mature and elegant style. Gothic Lolita often features motifs of crosses, roses, and skulls. A well-known name brand for this particular style is Moi-meme-Moitie.
Classic Lolita
Classic Lolita features a jewel tone color pallet, is more mature than Sweet Lolita and is an overall romantic style. Classic Lolita often features floral and solid colors. A well-known name brand for this style is Innocent World.
Sweet Lolita
Sweet Lolita uses a light color pallet, such as pastels, and is an overall cute style. Sweet Lolita often features bold colorful prints of sweets, fruits, and flowers. A few well-known name brands for this style are Baby, the Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty.
To find your favorite style, do lots of research. Here are some great places where Lolitas post their daily coords to help you decide what you like best:
✓ Lolita, Amino
✓ Daily Lolita, Tumblr
✓ Daily Lolita, Facebook
✓ Lolita Coordinate Inspiration, Pinterest
Once you find the style that you would like to try, you can move onto the fun part - shopping!
©Maison de Julietta
For your first lolita coordinate, you will need:
✓ a dress or a skirt
✓ a blouse or cutsew
✓ hair accessories
✓ leg accessories
✓ jewelry
✓ shoes
✓ petticoat
✓ bloomers or bike shorts
All of these items are important; however, the petticoat is especially important for your lolita coordinate. The entire fashion style is based on the bell or a-line shaped silhouette. It is not a proper lolita outfit without it! A great place to purchase a full petticoat at an inexpensive price is MeLikesTea.
©Maison de Julietta
2. Where to Shop
There are multitudinous places to purchase lolita fashion. Some of the resources are better than the others. For lolita, we have access to tons of name brand stores and independent lolita brands.
Lolita Brand Names
Since lolita fashion originated in Japan, most of the lolita name brands are Japanese. There are brand names for each of the major three styles of lolita. Each designer brand has their own unique style, and they each add something special to the fashion as the whole. While you are not required to purchase pieces from a lolita name brand to be considered a Lolita, they are always an option!
©Maison de Julietta
Here are a few brands to get you started:
Sweet Lolita Brands
Angelic Pretty
Angelic Pretty USA
Baby, the Stars Shine Bright
Baby, the Stars Shine Bright San Fransisco
Haenuli
MAXICIMAM
Metamorphose temps de fille
Gothic Lolita Brands
Atelier Boz
Atelier Pierrot
Haenuli
Moi Meme Moitie
Classic Lolita Brands
Alice and the Pirates
Haenuli
Innocent World
Juliette et Justine
Mary Magdalene
Metamorphose temps de fille
Milliefleurs
Victorian Maiden
©Maison de Julietta
Where and when to buy name brands
If you buy items from the designer brand directly, you will receive the items at full cost for most of the time. The brands do release sales, particularly when they are near major holidays, and discount items. The sale items can often be found among the categories of the online shop, usually on top.
At the end of the year, lolita designer brands will often release a collection of items. These are known as a lucky pack or a Fukubukuro. A lucky pack is a great way to start your lolita wardrobe. For the price of a normal lolita brand dress, a lucky pack often contains a dress or skirt, blouse, hair accessory, bag, shoes and a leg accessory. Lucky packs often have an exclusive print or theme!
These are the best times to buy directly from your favorite designer lolita fashion brands. Many brands also reward repeat customers, so you can earn points for a future purchase as well.
Where to buy secondhand
You can buy designer name lolita fashion brands secondhand. This is a common practice in lolita fashion. Many Lolitas buy pieces secondhand to get a previous release or to grow their wardrobe. Most previous owners of the items take excellent care of their lolita items. They can resell the items to other Lolitas directly, our they can sell the items to a secondhand store, which in turn can sell it to you.
Lolita Marketplaces
EGL Community Sales
Lace Market
Lolita Sales Worldwide
Mbox*
Y!Japan*
*Requires a shopping service
Secondhand Shops
Alice+fururun
Closet Child
Kitty Carousel
Lolita Desu
Tokyo Alice
Wunderwelt
©Maison de Julietta
A shopping service is an individual who lives in the country of origin, purchases your desired items on your behalf and ships them to you directly. This shopping service will typically charge a low fee, such as 5-10% of the item(s) cost, plus the combined cost of the items and international shipping.
Each marketplace, community, and store have their own rules. It’s best to review the policies before you shop. For example, it is good to know if the shop charges extra for international shipping, or a marketplace that requires a shopping service before you complete your order.
Indie Lolita Brands
There are many independent brands for the fashion! These small groups of talented designers are often less expensive than the name brands and often offer custom sizing. I’ve included some of these brands below:
©Lady Sloth
Collective Lolita Shops
There are many shops that have many independent designers in one place! These shops often encompass many lolita fashion styles and sub-styles, among standard and custom sizing. All these shops carry each aspect of your coordinate, so you are able to get what you need in one place!
Bodyline
Clobba Online
Lolita Wardrobe
My-Lolita-Dress
The shops listed above, aside from Bodyline, are a reseller of Taobao lolita shops. Taobao is essentially the Chinese version of eBay. Unlike our eBay, there are numerous shops that produce high-quality lolita clothes and accessories! You are able to order directly from Taobao with the help of a shopping service, such as TaobaoRing, rather than purchase from the third party websites listed above. Some of the more popular indie lolita brands include Infanta, Classical Puppets, Precious Clove, Magic Tea Party, Dear Celine, Chess Story, Dream of Lolita, R-series and Strawberry Witch.
©Yolanda
3. Have Fun!
Once your items arrive, let loose, and have fun! This is the moment you have been waiting for. It is time to put your coordinate together and put on those lovely frills.
Wear your coord to a convention, to a lolita meetup, or just wear it around the house! It will take some time to adjust to all of the new layers of clothing, so it’s a good idea to get comfortable in your new style at home. This will help to build your confidence in the alternative fashion, too! I wish your first coordinate allows you to be the unique and beautiful individual that you are.
©Maison de Julietta
I hope that this was a post that was able to address some of your questions and help to get you started! If you have any particular questions about anything lolita related, feel free to leave a comment below or send me an email.