Tag: lolita fashion

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.

lolita fashion

EGL and Community

I find that being in my local comm gives me a deep sense of community that I wouldn’t have had without this fashion. I find other people who share interests and hobbies with me as well as people into things I would never have dreamed of personally. I adore getting to be part of my local in person community. I think it’s genuinely one of the biggest highlights of the Lolita fashion subculture that we have such an emphasis on going out with others and befriending those who are also in the fashion.

However, I can sometimes see the downside of this sense of community usually popping out online, with a high pressure to conform to others expectations once more but just in the same community. As well as on anonymous places where things like racism, classism, transphobia, and fat phobia that often discourage those who would be seeking to join the egl community.

I think this dichotomy is really interested because for me because to me egl is all about self expression and self love, finding a version of yourself that you can share with the world that has roots in a community. I also know that Lolita fashion isn’t the only subculture that deals with this sort of push and pull between conformity and individuality. I am not a member of the western gothic community but I see a lot of the same things going on over there.

However, there is something you can do to ensure a more positive experience in this community. You can curate the places you are, especially online. If a place is toxic and affecting you negatively, you don’t have to stay there. Especially when it comes to communities online, they will still be there but you don’t have to look at them.

If you’re someone new to the community, I hope you will enjoy your time in the greater egl community. Take your time to enjoy and focus on aspects outside of just getting new things, and enjoy this culture that had been decades in the making.

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

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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