3.) Buy extra princessy bedding, whatever that means to you
4.) Get really cute stationary and notebooks so you can feel aesthetic even while studying
5.) Have a daily tea time break for yourself even if you aren’t able to pull of the whole thing. Just sit for 5 minutes when you get home and enjoy a nice warm cup of tea
6.) Thrift Vintage Pajamas
7.) Thrift Vintage House dresses for days you want to be comfortable but still aesthetic
8.) Experiment with hairstyles for when you have to go to your part time job, try bow clips in already work appropriate hairstyles
9.) Create a Lolita Blog, Insta, or a simple photo album for yourself
10.) Read books from your schools library on whatever interests you, the older looking the cover the better! (Also for classic lolitas out there, libraries make great photo backgrounds near the collections of old books)
11.) If you have elective requirements try to take classes you think a victorian lady or a princess would have taken, for example next semester I’m taking a drawing course, french and am getting flute lessons from a friend
12.) Have a go to comfy outfit that doesn’t make you feel frumpy, college is hard and wearing lolita every single day isn’t realistic no matter how much you love it but it’s important to be able to be comfortable every once in awhile without taking a hit to how you feel
13.) Get colorful/fun string lights for your dorm room
14.) Invest in some cute matching hangers
15.) Get a cheap outfit mirror and decorate it with fake flowers for pretty outfit shots
16.) Listen to classical/cute/spooky music when you study, (also I know its pretty stereotypical but tea out of a fancy tea cup while studying is a ten out of ten)
17.) Follow along with intro to ballet youtube videos (just please don’t try pointe at home)
18.) Practice piano in the practice rooms in the music department
19.) Sketch things daily
20.) Go to free art events in your area or even on campus, take advantage of concerts, museums, and art galleries
So yesterday was international lolita day! Unfortunately due to finals and money things I stayed home and studied. But it doesn’t mean I didn’t dress up!
I even had a little tea party with myself studying and tried out livestreaming on youtube for the first time. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on my blog yet; I have a youtube channel! I can be found at Liliana Rowena and post a lot more than just lolita fashion on that channel. But I do have Lolita Fashion videos as well and some of the content here turned into video form. Yesterday I did experience some feelings of having missed out seeing all of the lovely members of my comm chatting about logistics and seeing their posts but seeing their posts brought me some joy whenever I saw them on my study breaks.
Here’s some tea my roommate made me when I had a spell of feeling down
I also had some fun hanging with friends, later on that day. One of my close friends is graduating early so all of us as roommates have been making an effort to hang out with her more. Winding down this semester feels so weird since I’ll be in my final semester of undergrad. I plan on going to graduate school but not right away.
The best dress I own!
Here’s what my coord for yesterday looked like! Since I didn’t really leave the house I didn’t wear shoes so I felt like the protagonist of a Gothic novel, wandering about a grand drafty castle about to discover a mystery late at night. For now, that will be all I have to say since I just wanted to post a quick little update on yesterday and look forward to more posts in the future!
I feel like the ethereal majesty of lolita fashion is an inspiration to us all. The girls we see on closet of frills with all of their metals matched, coords perfectly planned, and their praises being sung. I am an avid lover of Lolita and have been for years, but I still don’t seem to have this effortless grace all of these other girls do. In fact, I’m still building much of my wardrobe, and struggle to the tow the line between fun and costume-y. I don’t believe that these things stop us from being lolitas though! Especially since I consider myself to be a lifestyler, albeit more of a princess in training. So here’s a list, a loving ode to myself and to anyone else, who could be considered chaotic floof.
1.) You have a lot of mismatching in your aesthetic not because it’s your style but because you couldn’t find the other sock
2.) Aprons at restaurant meets are a must for you because if not, food is getting on your one nice piece no matter how hard you try for it not to
3.) You buy your wardrobe like a magpie selecting a collection of shiny things of of lacemarket with the advanced price tool on typically set to 100$ or less with no regard to if it matches anything you own.
4.) You have been seen pouring concerning things into your fancy tea cups. Like that time I poured Monster into my porcelain.
5.) You have about 3 or more different aesthetics going on in your wardrobe yet none feel like you have quite enough
6.) You straight up forget that accessories are a thing you need to buy so before meets you scramble through your closet pulling anything that could remotely match your coord, so at least there’s something on your head, darn it!
7.) You’ve been collecting Lolita for 3 years or more but still are somehow missing quite a few wardrobe basics. (Oh boy I need some blouses)
8.) You have a very cute aesthetic to your room, yet it’s almost never clean enough to put pictures of it online
9.) Putting makeup on takes way longer than it needs to, because it takes 15 min to find the single eyeliner you own
10.) You get home from meets and throw your coord on the floor like everyone else, but somehow forget about it until a week later
I hope you all enjoyed my list! These are honestly things that I mostly do that I find are hilariously mismatched to the aesthetic, and I hope you can relate to one or two.
If you can relate to all, then the chaotic floof brigade unite!
This was inspired by Princess Peachie’s video on Sweet Lolita Gift Ideas, I may not have gotten to the impressive number she did, but I wanted to acknowledge the inspiration
The snow has fallen and although it is still only november I’m still very much feeling the winter spirit! Here’s some Winter Meetup Ideas! They’ll be a range of prices and accessibility in this list. Also, quite a few of these things my comm has done!
1.) Go Ice Skating!
it’s a classic winter activity and is perfect to get lovely wintery pictures, and learning something new with friends is always fun
2.) Cozy Movie Day
Have a more casual clothes meet! Have some coco and settle in with a lolita themed movie! Or a holiday wintery one!
3.) Snow Sculpture Building Contest
If the people in your comm have the snow gear, this could be a ton of fun! Make it as casual or as serious as you want. Also, be sure to have some hot cocoa and a good place to warm up
4.) Yarn Snowball Fight!
Don’t live where there is snow/you don’t have the gear. Buy a big ball of white yarn, make diy snowballs and have at! I personally love doing this with my siblings and see it possibly being a great deal of fun.
5.) Knitting/Crocheting Party
Cozy knits always remind me of winter and it’s always good to learn new skills. Get your friends together with some supplies, listen to some music and chat while people make cozy crafts! Simple scarves are a great choice for beginners.
6.) Holiday Baking Party
Make cute cookies, gingerbread houses or whatever else you would like! With the cold weather the heat of the oven won’t be so overbearing to all of those petticoats! It will also help get you in the holiday mood
7.) Cafe Hopping
Does your area have lots of lovely little cafes? Spend an afternoon giving a few a try! You could also do just one but it is really fun to go from cafe to cafe if you have the money and time
8.) Snowflake Party!
Make lots of lovely paper snowflakes and decorate a friends place or your own!
9.) Take a Photo Op trip to the Mall!
You know all of those lovely Christmas trees in the mall? They’re perfect for creating a fun photo op for taking fun holiday coord shops! Plus there’s lots of fun things to do in the mall
10.) Take a Photography Walk/Photo Scavenger Hunt
Just like with the mall, grab your winter prints and head outside and pretend you’re all models! Get as many cute shots as you can, go for group shots, try to find things that match the prints on your dress or compliment what you’re wearing
Well, I’ve started a few Lolita blogs that never really took off, I have a hard time figuring out what to write and doing it consistently so I’ve decided this time that I’ll start from the beginning. My love affair with Lolita Fashion began when I first started looking for a prom dress, I remember being on the computer in the family living room late at night after my family had long gone to bed. I was looking through so many dresses that I didn’t like and so many with bizarre cut outs and silhouettes that I didn’t love, and then I laid my eyes upon it. A single simple black dress on ebay, it had an a-line shape with a ruffle on the hem, puffed sleeves a sweetheart neckline and a bow on the waistline. It was cheap and satiny and I have to admit I absolutely loved it! The style was so simple and elegant and touched some feeling within me that clothing had never elicited from me before. For me, Lolita Fashion all of a sudden transformed into a way I could form an identity for myself. Yes, the clothes were beautiful but for me it was never purely about clothes even in the beginning. When I looked at those clothes I saw a version of myself I could love. I saw the beautiful princess that I could transform into. An elegant lady who was feminine, kind, competent, and a leader. I saw in these clothes everything I wanted to be.
When I was younger, I always felt torn in my identity. I grew up in a split family, and in some ways it made my life difficult. In others it’s been fantastic, I mean I have 4 parents and all of the pros and cons that go with that. I got lots of extra love and lots of conflicting expectations, and as I began to grow into a young lady these expectations were put into sharp relief with one another, especially in the examples of what womanhood should be. For one mother it was putting me in makeup far outstripping my age and making me look far too sexual for a 14 year old in my opinion, in the other it was an intense revulsion to makeup or anything too feminine and it led me to a lot of confusion. I didn’t truly identify with the more masculine presenting femininity which is very common today. I respected it and loved that many women in my family found self love within that but for me I couldn’t. I also didn’t identify with the hypersexualized feminity that was presented to me at my other home, so when I looked at lolita fashion it almost felt like a salvation, an answer to the things I had been questioning and longing for for such a long time. Finally, I thought to myself. I can feel like a woman and have no shame feeling that.
I’m grateful for my discovery of lolita fashion for many reasons. In many ways I believe it taught me how to be a woman. I learned to put makeup on that didn’t look like a clown had done it from the lovely ladies I learned from and looked up to. I finally learned how to match colors in an outfit. (As a child I believed neon green and purple went together because I wanted to look like a Decepticon.) I also learned the things I did and didn’t want to be. In Lolita I idolize the fairy tale type of Princess, the type that is kind, beautiful, and brave and I strive to be that. It’s an inspiration I take to heart. Fashion wise, the road has been a bit bumpy and I’m still learning, as I have been a student this whole time some of my resources have been limited. So, I wasn’t nearly as pic happy then but I’ll show you some of my first coords I have pics of.
So my very first coord wasn’t too bad! I was super proud to show off my first piece of lolita clothing, a FanPlusFriend Tardis skirt. As I am a huge fan of Doctor Who and it seemed a good way to introduce the clothes to my family
I was so proud of that tiny top hat I made! It’s not the best quality because I made it out of cardboard and scrap velvet. However, because of that hat, I am still a huge fan of those tiny hats and you all can fight me on it. 😛 I suppose they hold such a huge place in my heart because that hat was made the night I found out that my grandmothers cancer was untreatable and going on livejournal and finding that old tutorial and busily working on it till the wee hours of the morning was all I could do to keep from breaking down.
This picture was just not lolita at all! I only owned one outfit and this was my best attempt at a second outfit. Although this pic isn’t the most flattering of me, this outfit actually helped me get the majority of my wardrobe! A lovely girl in my comm was selling a large chunk of her wardrobe and she custom selected a lot of my current wardrobe from the colors I used! This is now the pallette of my gothic wardrobe!
Ever since I started Lolita it has been close to my heart, it may fade a bit at times, however when times get tough it is always something I can lean on and look to to get through it. In fact I have been looking to it recently as my mental health has been suffering a bit. That aspiration to transform into the person I know I can be. Thank you all for reading the first post on this blog and I hope you’ll come back to read more
Luna By The Lake With Cake 