A sustainable way to offload your clothing and make a little money is to sell them online! That way you know they aren’t directly going to a landfill and will be enjoyed by at least one more owner. Here are some tips on how to do so efficiently!
1.) Wash Your Clothes
Once you have selected the clothes that no longer serve you, please wash them before you sell them! Fortunately I have never had to deal with clothes coming to me that have been dirty but I have heard some unfortunate horror stories from some fellow lolitas before. It is always good to make sure your buyer won’t have any weird smells or stains on their clothes
2.) Pick the Right Platform
If you’re into alternative fashion different platforms tend to sell different clothes better than others. If you are a lolita I highly recommend using lacemarket, if you wear gyaru Depop seems to be the best bet. Those are the only styles I really wear so if you want to do any other styles I encourage you to do your research to find where you can sell the easiest and the fastest.
3.) Disclose All Damage
It’s important if your clothing has any stains or tears that you disclose that in your listing. If you are honest and up front with it most of the time you will still find a buyer and keep your reputation intact. Most secondhand websites have a public rating system and it will become more difficult to sell if you have a lower rating.
4.) Post about Your Cleanout on Social Media!
If you have a social media account post about your closet cleanout on social media and include links to your listings! People who follow you will often like your style and it can help get your items into a buyers hands much faster!
5.) Be Kind and Polite in All Communications
Be sure to use your platforms terms of service and common courtesy when interacting on your chosen selling platform. You may receive shipping questions or negotiation questions. It can get repetitive, so it’s important to remember when replying to people that even if it’s the 25th time you have answered a question, it’s most likely the first time that person is asking.
6.) Have Detailed Descriptions
Be sure to include as much information as possible in the descriptions of your items! This will help your buyer make informed decisions on what they want to buy and will help you not have to answer so many DMs and questions.
(This is a no cost way to support me and my channel!, you can also earn gift cards for yourself by answering surveys. If you sign up using my link I will receive some points towards gift cards myself.)
I really love how elegant and practical her coords are while still capturing the sweetlolita spirit! She posts pretty frequently on instagram.
2.) Princess Peachie
She was the first egl youtuber I watched and I still love to go back and visit her content. It’s still very influential to my more OTT styles.
3.) Momoko
I honestly don’t think there is a sweet lifestyle lolita who isn’t influenced by Momoko at least a little. I take a lot of inspiration from her on how to coord my more solid pieces without prints.
4.) Admittedly Anime
Long before I knew what lolita fashion was I was exposed to the aesthetics of it through anime, and it quite honestly still influences my style, I know lots of lolitas like to distance the style from that but for me it is still heavily influenced by anime aesthetics.
For me the meaning behind lolita fashion is the ability to express myself however I want and participate in a community of like minded people who love the same things that I do. It’s a great way to experience life and adds a touch of whimsy and escapism that a lot of people seem to lack in their adult lives. I have finally settled in with a 9-5 job in my early 20s and I love everything about the stability it brings. However it can sometimes be hard to romanticize such a mundane life. For me lolita fashion allows me to continue to live out my dreams of being a long lost princess I had as a little girl all grown up. It also allows me to connect with other members of the community in a really fun way.
For Others
I collected some statements from around the web and got a direct quote answering the above question
“♥What is Lolita?♥ Lolita is a very hard style to define, but in my opinion what really defines it is it’s childlike innocence and old-fashioned elegance. It’s distinctive style is most obviously from the Victorian and Rococo eras, but you will see a lot of influence from the Edwardian period and even some 40s and 50s American clothing styles – any time period in which fashion was elegant and beautiful. The bell-shaped skirt provides the typical silhouette, but it is neither what makes something lolita nor is it required of all lolitas. There is no one item of clothing or a color or trim that embodies all that is lolita – it is a unique aesthetic that’s hard to perfect. To some there’s a lifestyle attached – not only wearing the clothes as often as possible but also taking part in lolita activities and following a certain code of etiquette – but to others it is merely a clothing style. Lolita can be an escape from the mundane, or an attempt to return to a more innocent time in life. It’s something a little bit different to everyone, but what lolitas have in common is a shared desire to wear really awesome clothes.” – Lolita Fashion Handbook, 2006
« Lolita fashion for me is the ability to be the real me. When I am wearing full OTT sweet I feel like this is my true form. I am 39 now and I hope I keep this feel for many more years. » FluffyKawaiiJo – 2021 Email Correspondence
“I am quite a colorful person. I have a wide range of interests and various ways that I express myself. Lolita Fashion has been a part of my identity for quite some time, but I have not thought about how integral lolita fashion is in my life until now! To say lolita fashion is just an aspect of my life would be a bit of an understatement. Lolita fashion is a huge part of my life. Much of my spare time involves lolita fashion in some capacity. In addition to this blog and my YouTube channel, many of my other activities center around lolita. I draw it, dress my dolls in it, and create my own jewelry and charm pieces to compliment my wardrobe. When I have a few free minutes, I often check on the latest items being sold on ClosetChild, LaceMarket and brand name online Lolita shops. My most used smartphone application in addition to Twitter and YouTube is Amino, as I am very involved with multiple lolita groups there!” MagicalGirlMe – 2017
Being a lolita or wearing ouji, is it part of your identity? “Yeah, it really can be. I found that there are some people in my community who are genderfluid as well… They are dressing how they identify, and some people even may identify as male, but they dress in the feminine style of lolita. We all accept them no matter what. We’re all a family, we’re all here to help each other out. We’re not here to bitch at each other and brag to each other, we’re here as friends.
I lived in Burlington, Ontario from when I was like one to when I was 18. When I moved out of my parents’ place, I said like, “Screw it, you guys aren’t respecting who I am and how I want to present myself.” So I went over to Toronto, and I’ve been here for like a year and a bit… It’s been the most thrilling experience to be here. You get to be a part of different communities, and you find your family in Toronto. That’s the best part.” – Alex, Vice Interview 2017
Cassie Dai: “I first got into Lolita fashion around eighth and ninth grade. Although I’ve been exposed to the culture when I was in China, I didn’t look into it. What made it my passion now is because two large Lolita fashion companies, Angelic Pretty and BABY, the Stars Shine Bright all have stores in San Francisco. There are other Angelic Pretty stores in America, but the San Francisco BABY is the only one that is still open. So every time I went to Japantown in San Francisco, I had more contact with the culture and eventually fell in love with it.
Lolita culture is a subculture that originated in Japan around the 70s. I really enjoy getting to know other cultures, mainly the subcultures because I’m not a huge fan of mainstream pop culture. It is also a way for me to cope with Bipolar Disorder. If I’m depressed, I can dress myself up and treat myself well. It makes me feel better about myself.” Cassie Dai. 2020 The Wildcat Tribune
“For me, lolita is about the culture. The friends you can make who you would never have met. This fashion acts as an ice-breaker, a common interest to tie together complete strangers. I will cherish forever the relationships I’ve made because of lolita” – Vanilla Bear, 2016
“Lolita fashion is a youth street style originating from Japan that draws on Victorian-era children’s clothing, Rococo aesthetics, and Western Punk and Gothic subculture. It is worn by teenage girls and women of a wide range of ages, and through the flow of related media and clothing aided by the Internet, Lolita style has become a global phenomenon. Wearers of the style are known as Lolitas, and local, national, and global communities can be found around the world outside Japan from North American to Europe. This study is a cross-cultural comparison of Lolita fashion wearers in Japan and North America, examining how differences in constructions of place and space; conceptualizations about girlhood and womanhood; perceptions of beauty and aesthetics; and formation of social groups and actor-networks have bearing on how an individual experiences the fashion. This work deconstructs Lolita style by using Japanese cultural concepts like shōjo (‘girl’ as a genderless being), otome (maiden), kawaii (cuteness) to explore the underlying framework that informs Japanese Lolita’s use of the fashion as a form of subversive rebellion, creating personal spaces to celebrate their individuality and revive the affects and memories of girlhood that are distanced from gendered social expectations. English-speakers, not having the same social and cultural knowledge, attempt to recontexualize Lolita fashion along the lines of feminism, sisterhood, personal style, and escape from the ‘modern’ to give meaning and purpose to their involvement with the fashion. Lolita fashion allows wearers to travel in between the lines of becoming-girl and becoming-women by offering a way to access girl-feeling and its associated happiness object” – The abstract of a study by An Nguyen.
Nguyen, An, “Maiden’s Fashion As Eternal Becomings: Victorian Maidens and Sugar Sweet Cuties Donning Japanese Street Fashion in Japan and North America” (2012). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1042. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1042
I am still working on the basic reconstruction of my Tardis skirt in January. In january I did complete the deconstruction and my first draft reconstruction. I hated it and took it apart again. I currently fixed the shirring panels and am currently working on adding a blanket stitch edge finishing to the raw edge that will be hidden in the top of the skirt so that if I choose to realter my skirt in the future the moss crepe will not unravel, as it had already started to fray after being deconstructed twice for this project. I also plain on replacing the bronze buttons with steam punk gears
Plans for this Month
Me getting through this pile has been an incredible slow process so I think I need to start prioritizing some faster fixes in order to make more space on my craft table. So I am making a list to hopefully get through this month while I work on that big time project
1.) Reattach the bow to my gold tea parties cause I keep thinking I lost them
2.) Repair the button on my wine colored blouse since Valentine’s day is coming up and the red blouse would be ideal for those coords
3.) Repair the lace on my strawberry skirt as it requires no alterations and is a simple repair.
Back when I played hockey there was an infamously cold rink we would play at sometimes and my mom always got me these motion activated heat packs. They were usually pretty thin and if you knew you were going to be outside for a meetups you could put those packs into your boots and pockets pretty comfortably
2.) Fingerless Gloves
This is less about keeping warm and more about what’s practical for a Lolita meetup, lolitas love pictures and most devices nowadays need to have the pads of your fingers touch the screen to work. This way you won’t be having to take your gloves on and off when you’re helping out your friends with their pictures
3.) Fuzzy Bloomers
I think they’re adorable for loungewear and it’s good to get all the layers you can get to stay warm outside! Where I live right now it’s in the single digits (Fahrenheit) I think those paired with fleece lined tights or leggings and you’ll be all set
4.) Carry a Warm Drink or Soup With You
If you have a thermos it will double as a warmer for your hands and warm you up inside. If it’s not too inconvenient for your meet I think it would be a great way to be able to keep ensuring the cold.
Even though it’s February I am still getting my goals prepared for the year! For me personally I feel like my goals I really kicked off when I get into February since I take January to recover from the holidays
1.) To finally get through my repairs pile
2.) To make it to Paradiso and have a really fun time
3.) To decorate and organize my wardrobe
4.) For the world to settle enough to have regular meetups again
5.) To sell everything I feel I’ve outgrown or doesn’t match my wardrobe
Casual Lolita has to be my favorite substyle of Lolita by far as a lifestyle lolita it allows me to get the most wear out of my pieces I have spent so much money on over the years. I am a big proponent of cost per wear and for my personal lolita fashion experience I think it is a shame that some dresses may languish in my closet because I am not able to adapt them to a more casual wear. So the majority of my closet is able to be converted into more casual outfits that allow me to wear them around the house or to work. I think it’s sad that I don’t see casual lolita on the web as often as it used to be, but with the pandemic I actually think I have seen a bit of a comeback of this style seeing OTT coords swapped out for more simple and elegant coords that are easier to wear with more natural makeup and natural hair.
The more simple elegant coords that have been a trend that I really enjoy. OTT lolita will always have a place in my heart with OTT sweet being in the height of it’s popularity when I was first introduced to lolita fashion, however for me as I progress in my career into a corporate job and with student debt not being able to invest in a separate work wardrobe at this time it’s nice seeing inspiration for coords that can be passed as business formal.
Here are some of my favorite coords I found from peeps on Instagram! Go check out their feeds
Here are some wigs I have been working on! The first one I did I wanted it to be a cute but low maintenance wig with a color that complimented my skin tone
I first split the wig into to low pigtails and thoroughly brushed each side, then I crimped it for volume brushed it out and braided it together
Here’s what I looks like on
I really loved the results of the first wig so I styled a second one! It was originally a Junko wig but I have been doing a lot more Lolita then Cosplay so I chose to style it more for Lolita fashion instead, although I think it could still work really well for Junko
I first styled this base wig which can be used on its own for casual looks
Then I brushed and straightened the already crimped pig tails
Having recently cut my hair pretty short, I thought about writing a post about how I’m approaching having shorter hair! Head accessories are a key part of lolita fashion and I see a lot of places where newbies will ask about short hair, here’s my two cents!
1.) Headbands
A classic accessory very easily found that won’t overwhelm your head now that there isn’t as much hair to balance it out, you could wear flower crowns, ones with little bows, plain ones, the options are endless
2.) Ponytail Clips
You like having short hair day to day but want to still be able to be OTT sometimes? I reccommend ponytail clips! Like the kind that come with Cosplay wigs, some sellers allow you to buy them individually.
3.) Berets
A personal favorite of mine! Also it seems as if they have been growing in popularity lately, a lot of indie brands will sell them in matching prints to the dresses they sell! I adore my spooky macarons beret from Lady Sloth
4.) Ribbons
Ribbons are super versatile and amazing for casual lolita, you could tie it into a headband, or braid it into your hair.
5.) Themed hair clips
You can use this to decorate a more plain headband or by themselves to make a look more coherent.
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!
Luna By The Lake With Cake 