Tag: egl

lolita fashion

Changing With The Seasons in Lolita Fashion

Good morning, world! I’m participating in this month’s blogging theme of change and gratitude, I really liked the prompt questions so I decided to answer each one!

What are you thankful for in J-fashion and your community?

I am grateful for all of the friends I have made and how they helped me find a sense of identity young in my life. I felt a lot of pressure to be a certain kind of person and I never knew how to navigate the pressures to be hypermasculine or treat myself as an object made for consumption, in Lolita Fashion I found a way to express my femininity in a way that gave me freedom

Have you made any friendships due to this fashion?

I most certainly have!! I joined my comm my freshman year of college and am still friends with all of them today! My comm is some of the sweetest people I’ve ever met and it radiates positivity when I’m with them. I also have been introduced to other hobbies than just lolita with them! Another girl in my comm got me into mermaiding.

Has your life been impacted for the better because of your experiences in J-fashion?

It 110% has been! My life holds so much more positivity and love due to this fashion. This fashion has helped me be able to accept myself as I am, not as what others see me as and it has been a constant journey growing and changing with the world as I have also grown and changed as a person over time my style has come to reflect that. I don’t think I would have as strong of a sense of identity or community if I had never joined the J-fashion community.

How are some ways you’ve changed from when you first started J-fashion?

Considering that I started when I was 16 and am now 23 I have changed quite a lot! When I first started I wanted to perfectly mimic the other girls I saw online and I think that helped me get a sense of the fashion but now I want to make my own look and style within the fashion. I also have grown and matured a lot! I am now a “real adult” I have a 9 to 5 and I pay bills and I rent out a small apartment. I also recently came out as bigender. I think my 16-year-old self just starting out would be really proud of me.

Will you be switching out your wardrobe for colder (or warmer) weather?

Yes, and no. I will just be adding warmer pieces to my coords but I won’t be putting anything away right now. Recently I put into storage all of the pieces that didn’t fit perfectly into storage so I would stop squeezing myself into them so at the moment I don’t have a ton to work with. I imagine I’ll be using my long sleeve blouses and fleece-lined leggings more.

Do you have any holiday plans to see friends/your community?

Yes!! Winter International Lolita Day is coming up and we are having a tea party at a local inn here soon! It will be wonderful, we went for afternoon tea there this summer and it was amazing. I cannot wait to see everyone! We are also doing an ornament exchange that I am super excited about that. My comm decided to do two different gift exchanges this year. We have a secret Santa and then a lower-pressure ornament exchange.

How has this year been different than last year? Are there changes that you are looking forward to going forward?

I think the biggest change this year was coming to terms with my gender identity literally this month. It has been on my mind for about a year now but I kept pushing it to the side because for the most part, I am happy with the body I was born in. So I figured there was no way that I could be trans. However, as I explored more and more I discovered that being called a boy made me really happy. However, I didn’t want to give up being a girl. Then I discovered that being genderfluid or bigender is a thing. That feels really right to me. In the next couple of weeks, I will be taking my first steps to visually and noticeably transitioning. I’m nervous but also excited.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this blog post! I have been really enjoying participating in the Biblioteca blogging community and I highly recommend all of the bloggers in this community! I’ll put a link to last month’s issue below

October Bibliotecha Gazette

lolita fashion

November Lifestyle Lolita Tips

🍁 Do a photoshoot in the fall leaves

🍁 Wear a seasonal coord to your family’s thanksgiving! Dress it up with festive flair

🍁 Look for Christmas lights in the hardware store to use as fairy lights, they are usually cheaper and more durable than thin wire lights

🍁 Practice glam makeup looks for the upcoming holiday season, there’s tons of fun tutorials out there for this time of year

🍁 Consider getting those cute cableknit tights to both be warm and stylish

🍁 Get some faux fur trim and make cute seasonal accessories

🍁 Experiment with the color red in some Coords

🍁 Try a new recipe to add to your hosting or bringing repertoire for the holidays!

🍁 Get yourself a giant hoodie and decorate it to match your style, for days when you just want to be comfy and cozy

lolita fashion

5 Tips for Posing for Outfit Photos

1.) Figure out what your favorite part of your outfit is then highlight it!! Above I really like the Princess sleeves on my blouse so I made sure to pose in a way that wouldn’t hide them. My shoes were the least important part of my outfit so I didn’t worry so much about getting them in the shot

2.) Have energy in all of your body. Now this doesn’t mean you have to be stiff or post as enthusiastically as I do, but be sure not to look limp or disinterested unless that is important to the concept of your photoshoot

3.) Play music that suits your mood and your outfit! I find taking self portraits in silence to be completely unbearable and it’s a lot harder for me to be creative

4.) Experiment with your poses, there will be some that don’t work but just don’t post those ones

5.) Take a test shot before you begin, use that photo to double check that your makeup shows correctly and isn’t smudged and that your clothes are sitting correctly! I have forgotten to do this in the past and would have saved myself hours of editing.

Other posts you may like!

How Makeup Can Change a Whole Look

What to Bring for Location Based Photoshoots

5 Tips for Securing a Wig Without Getting a Headache

lolita fashion

Trying to defeat my Style Pile

If you have ever watched Annika Victoria you will be aware of the term the style pile, a pile of clothes that need repairs or to be resized. A few months ago I dedicated myself to putting all clothing in need of repair or tailoring into storage to fix it, but now this pile has been haunting me. It sits and stares at me and I struggle to get to motivation to go through it!

It’s not that I don’t like the clothes in this pile, in fact if I didn’t I would have donated them away when I first cleaned out my closet. However these projects just loom at me. I think one thing that’s been keeping me from motivation, is that I know that I already struggle to keep up with laundry so adding this in would add to the laundry I already can’t keep up with, as well as many of the projects in this pile being multi step projects.

The one I have been slowly but surely making progress on is working on replacing the shirring panel in a skirt to elasticate it since the zipper broke and I hate zippers but it has been so much trial and error to go through. I’m determined to finish the project in order have my skirt back.

I also think altering some of these clothes is hard because it’s accepting that time has passed and I have changed. I have changed for the better but it’s still hard. I’m not the same person I was when I bought that skirt when I was 16, I’m 23 and I have a whole new wonderful life now. It’s weirdly nostalgic and bittersweet to think about. As I write this it’s giving me motivation to work more on this ongoing project I think it’ll be a good representation of how my journey with lolita fashion has changed

lolita fashion

5 Ways to Keep your Lolita Clothes in Good Condition

Lolita Fashion wardrobes are often made out of expensive investment pieces meant to last a long time! Here are some ways to keep those pieces lasting longer

1.) As soon as you receive your pieces reinforce any of the buttons, taobao pieces often have somewhat flimsy sewn on buttons. There is special thread specifically made for buttons you can get at seeing shops

2.) If you’re someone like me who sweats and needs to wear deodorant you may be familiar with yellow stains, getting cheap undershirts can help your especially light colored garments from staining

3.) Treat any stains you see upon purchasing or having an accident happen immediately, the sooner you act on it the higher chance you have of getting it out

4.) Keep up with regular repairs if your see a hole forming in a piece of clothing take the time to repair it as soon as you see if before it develops into something bigger

5.) Once every season take the time to go through your clothes and see what you want to keep, it’s much easier to take care of a wardrobe you love

lolita fashion

October Lifestyle Lolita Tips!

🎃 Go looking for the perfect sweater to pair with coords through the cold months, eliminating the choice between being cold or fashionable

🎃 Find cute halloween themed accessories at the store! If your fashion is on the sweet or spooky cute side I have found some surprisingly wonderful accessories at the dollar store and pharmacy this time of year.

🎃 Give orange a chance! It’s the most underrated color in egl in my opinion and instantly gives a spooky but festive vibe to any coord

🎃 Carve pumpkins to get into the Halloween spirit! Maybe carve a cute cat or an elegant design!

🎃 Try making your own pumpkin spice mix and use it to bake or make your lattes at home!

🎃 Wear as many gothic or gothic inspired coords as you can this month!

🎃 Watch Creepy Cute Movies like Coraline or anything done by Tim Burton, the Nightmare Before Christmas is my personal favorite

Uncategorized

Happy SPOOKY Season!!! My Must Do’s for this Month

Well, hello everyone! It’s been a long while. I took some time off of some parts of the web in order to recalibrate but I am very happy to be back in time for the month of Halloween! I have big plans this month, I will be participating in Vlogtober again so if you want to see daily video content from me please checkout my Tiktok (@lilianarowena) or Youtube (Liliana Rowena)

Here’s my Must Do list for this month

  • Get my nails done a spooky theme
  • Carve a pumpkin
  • Bake spooky cookies
  • Wear Bat Eyeliner as Much as Possible
  • Wear as many Gothic or Spooky Cute Coords as Possible
  • Ask my fiance to give me a pastel goth makeover
  • Have a halloween meetup with my friends
  • Go to a Halloween Party at a Bar
  • Make Sure I have my Shinobu costume to match my brother
Uncategorized

Why do lolitas burn out? 5 Tips on how to keep loving the fashion you wear

We have all seen it, the leaving lolita sales, or long winded posts about why people have to leave, but why does it happen so often in egl? To be fair I haven’t spent a lot of time in other alternative fashion spaces, and as far as gyaru goes I am a complete and total beginner. But I have been actively participating in the lolita community for around five years now and it is an amazing phenomena to me that this community seems to engender burnout in its own unique way.

Why is this? I have a few theories of what could be contributing to this. I haven’t done any studies so all that follows is merely opinion based on some observations I have made throughout the years. One of the things I think leads to members leaving so drastically is the sheer high maintenance of the fashion itself in a lot of ways. The clothing is expensive and taking care of it will either take a lot of energy or a lot of money and for a lot of people you can be pretty short on both. Most lolita fashion events in order to protect the communities integrity and safety require that you have at least one coord you can wear to go to that event, so if you run out of energy or money to care for your clothing, selling it off is a good option. However if an individual sells off all of their clothes than they no longer have a wardrobe to wear to events and if they wish to start over that is a daunting task, as wardrobes take years to build. Especially if you are on a budget

The second theory I have on why I see the burnout rate in lolita fashion being so high is because of what I will dub the “small town effect” egl is a group of extraordinarily passionate people but in the grand scheme of things and subcultures it is an amazingly small subset of the alternative fashion community as a whole. Also, egl is a very internet based subculture, we take the time to meet in person and do a lot of in person events however this means that there is eyes constantly on what’s being talked about online. This encourages lolitas to share their journeys with the world but there is always a risk of being posted to sites specifically to belittle the work they have done by people who they will never know who it is. This is a lot of pressure to be under and it can be really overwhelming especially for younger members of the community.

There are other factors that go into play here, but these are the two big pieces I see factor into people deciding to end their lolita fashion journey. There is nothing wrong with your fashion journey growing and changing with you and if one day you completely grow out of egl or you wear it to your grave there is no shame in either path. What breaks my heart is seeing people who are still so in love with the fashion still have to painfully leave it behind. Here is some of my tips I want to share to try to prevent that from happening, so that when or if it comes time for you to move on you’ll be able to leave with fond memories of this wonderful fashion you dedicated part of your life to.

My first tip is to never collect more pieces than you can maintain, regular closet cleanouts and selling what no longer fits your body or style can help you attain this to prevent yourself from having overwhelm. Remember with clothing care you will either spend money or energy maintaining it. If you don’t have a lot of disposable income on the regular you can always handwash your clothes however remember that this will cost you energy. If you don’t have a lot of disposable energy you can pay to have your clothes taken care of and maintained for you but this will cost money. Make sure that you keep within both of resources so that your wardrobe can remain a joy and not a burden

My second tip is to build egl into your budget so that you know what you can spend on it and it won’t be a financial burden on you. This isn’t something I’m an expert on but I will link a video that I find supremely helpful from someone with more experience with money than me here.

My third tip is that it’s okay to take breaks from the fashion from time to time if you need to, it will be there when you come back, your physical, mental and financial health come first.

My fourth tip is to if possible connect with your local comm and try to focus more of your energy into your irl comm than you do the online comm. Egl on the internet is a very complicated place and it can drain a lot of the passion and energy that you have for the fashion if you keep looking in places filled with negativity. People behind screens can’t see you and your reactions and the layer of anonymity means people might say things that they normally wouldn’t say. That being said, it is 100% okay to make online friends and reach out to individuals on accounts and work with those seeking to build more positive community online in egl spaces that work is important and will help combat on a community level the burnout many individuals in this fashion face.

My fifth tip is to stop seeking perfection, it is of course totally fine to want to improve your art in your coords as I see each of our outfits as wearable art that we transform into our own masterpieces with each coord that we build, but it can be easy to give into constant self critique and never really allow yourself to love what you’re wearing. Allow yourself to love your clothes and your fashion.

This is my first month participating in the bibliotecha blogging circle and I am so grateful that I was accepted to join! This months theme was self care! If you would like to check out all of the other wonderful bloggers and subscribe to a monthly newsletter click on the link down below

https://www.bayareakei.org/bibliotheca

Uncategorized

July Lifestyle Lolita Tips

Plan a day trip to somewhere beautiful and have a photoshoot in a coord you’re really proud of

Go out for ice cream and eat it in the park enjoying every bite!

Buy some sparklers and see how many shapes and sparkles you can make

Make a video/album of your adventures this month, just for your own memories with no pressure to post it anywhere

Try on a neon accessory with an outfit to reflect all the bright colors of the season!

See how many different kinds of flowers you can find in your town this month, try to identify what they are

Find some cotton candy and a fun outdoor activity and have your own mini fair