Tag: budget lolita

lolita fashion

How to enjoy Lolita Fashion even if you can’t afford the clothing right now.

A screenshot from Alice Closet! It’s free and really fun to play

For my last YouTube video I read an article from the Princess Portal “Undefining the Lolita Lifestyle” and it was filled with examples of how lolitas participated in the culture of the fashion even if they weren’t able to purchase or wear the clothing. I also have been seeing a ton of debate on replicas on Tiktok. This inspired me to write this article for aspiring Lolita’s to be for ways they can participate without supporting things that harm the creatives and artists we depend on for our fashion.

6 Free or Very Low Budget Ways to Participate in EGL culture

1.) Decorate your space to match your desired aesthetic!

Often there can be ways to make your room or your home cuter! Take inspiration from lifestyle Lolita’s and “lolify” your space! You can add lace trim, put fake skulls, or put up temporary floral wallpaper, whatever matches your desired aesthetic.

2.) Check out the music associated with your desired substyle, and Visual Kei!

Learn about the musical inspirations behind our styles. Visual Kei helped kick it off for us all but especially for gothic lolitas. If you’re into the gothic substyle, try listening to goth bands. If you’re into the Classic substyle take a look into classical music. If you’re into sweet Lolita take a look at 90s and early 2000s jpop!

3.) Follow Lolitas on social media and on their blogs!

It will go a long way once you get in the position to be able to participate in the fashion portion! You can get different perspectives, fashion inspiration, ideas and opinions all around you. You can check out older blogs to learn about the history of the fashion and look to newer ones to see what’s going on now!

4.) Decorate your electronics!

I’m a big fan of using Picsart to make cute mobile backgrounds for my phone. You can also decorate the outside too! Whatever your aesthetic is, with electronics it can be easy to create and change with your whims.

5.) Start a Fashion Journal or Inspiration Board

This can be physical or digital, take whatever inspires you and put it in a place where you can look at it all together. It can help you plan what you’ll actually want to wear and buy once you get into being in a place where you can participate in the fashion

6.) Check out cute fashion video games!

My absolute favorite for this is Alice Closet, it’s free and the fashion is clearly lolita inspired. It’s a lot of fun and even if you can’t collect physical clothing it’s really fun to collect the digital outfit sets.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to participate in the community and the culture of lolita fashion even if you are on a completely bare bones shoestring budget. Remember you need to take care of yourself first. This fashion is a luxury hobby and I have gotten myself into too much stress overextending myself. I hope you take these ideas and have lots of fun!

lolita fashion

How to Wash a lot of Lolita Fashion Clothes on a Budget

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

The cheapest way to wash and care for lolita fashion is to do it yourself! If you’re someone like me and wear lolita multiple times a week it becomes very impractical to wash every single item by itself as many guides on washing lolita fashion recommend. Here is what I do when I have a lot of clothes to wash,

A few things to note here,

  • You will need a tub or an equivalent large container that can hold water
  • This process is best begun on a morning as it takes about 24 hours to complete
  • Only use clothing you are absolutely certain won’t bleed, we are mixing colors to achieve bulk washing our clothes

Steps to Wash

1.) Gather all of the lolita clothing that you need into a hamper and bring that hamper to your bathroom

2.) Put your laundry detergent into the bathtub and start filling it with water

3.) Dump that hamper into your tub then even out the pile

4.) Finish filling the tub with water until it just covers all of your clothes

5.) Swish those clothes around and then let them sit for 30 minutes

6.) Once you come back you may notice the water will look yellowish or grayish, that’s sweat and dirt coming out of your clothes

7.) Drain and fill your tub at 30-minute intervals checking the color of the water each time you return, once you are happy with the color of the water it’s time to start the drying process

8.) Now drape your laundry all around the tub to let it drip dry, return later once it is no longer dripping and is now damp.

9.) You will either need a drying rack or a clothesline for this part, now you will take your clothing and hang it up spacing it out as much as you can.

10.) At this point you have the opportunity to save yourself some ironing time down the road, I find if you arrange your pleats and smooth out your dresses you can often prevent wrinkles at this stage.

11.) Leave your dresses to dry overnight and you can put them away in the morning.

I have used this technique multiple times and find it works really well for me! It also has the added bonus of working as a humidifier for my apartment during the dryer months.