Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Choosing Your Style

Another little expert from that wonderful website, very interesting. Enjoy:
Lolita is an interesting fashion, in that there is and incredible variety of styles within it: so much so that is very easy for a newbie to become overwhelmed. Normal questions of this nature are: Can I be Lolita is I don't like too much lace? Am I a 'real' Lolita if I only like Punk Lolita? Do I have to choose only one style and stick with it forever? Can I wear Sweet and Gothic style together?
First off, because there are many styles of Lolita, no style is 'more Lolita' than another. Sweet may be more popular than Classic, but there is no rule that says Sweet Lolitas are the end-all of Lolita Land.
There is also no rule which says you can't wear any or all of the styles to your heart's content. Most Lolitas do dabble in at least two styles. And of course, there is no hard-and-fast line between what defines something as Sweet and what defines it as Gothic, when both can come in black and both can have the same silhouette. The problem is (and this is why you will find that most Lolits stay close to their favorite style) the cost. Most Lolita styles have a basic color scheme. Sweet, for example, barelt deviates from the black/white/pink/blue color wheel. Lolita also looks best when it works with only two or three colors in a single outfit, and so that pink Angelic Pretty skirt you just bought will probably need entirely pink and white accessories. Consider how much you will have to buy to match with that skirt: headdress, blouse, petticoat, bloomers, socks, shoes, maybe a jacker, maybe a purse, maybe so jewelry. This is just one outfit.
Now, if you buy another pink skirt, you have all the same components to put into your outfit. You don't have yo run out and buy anything new to match it.
But now you've gone out and bought a black and blue Moitie blouse: Does the blouse go with your skirt? No, not at all. So what do you do? You buy a whole new outfit just for that blouse. You've now doubled the cost of your entire wardrobe.
Even if you had a large budget, chances are that you will end up with fewer potential coordinates that you would if you stayed close you your color and style of choice. You also have less room to mix and match. A lolita with one blouse, two skirts, two headdresses, and two pairs of socks which all match has more options than a Lolita with two complete, but entirely different, outfits.
Deciding on your style is the difficult part, especially when you can't simply walk into a store and try it on yourself. The important thing to ask is where it will look good on you, and whether you will feel good weaing it. Would you look silly in Sweet? Is Gothic too dark? Punk not girly enough? Classic too muted/old fashioned for your taste? It never hurts to experiment, but just don't let you wallet suffer for it.
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Yep, that's about it. See you next time.
You Lord[ess] and Master,
Alice

Monday, June 27, 2011

What is Lolita?



This is one thing many people wonder when they first hear about Lolita. [Also called 'Loli' for short sometimes] In the words of the interesting Lolita site http://www.lolitafashion.org/ Lolita is the following:



Lolita is a Japanese street fashion inspired promarily by the clothing and general aesthetics of Rococo and Victorian periods. This fashion movement started in Japan in this 1980's and has evolved greatly since. Nowadays Lolita Fashion has grown to be relatively popular all over the world. Relatively popular for an obscure Japanese street fashion, that is.



While it is true that most fashions are open to various interpretations, the term Lolita is used exclusively to describe a very specific [one could say narrow] look that is created by abiding by a number of strict guidelines and principles. The "rules" of Lolita fashion don't exist to limit the wearer but are rather qualifers of what makes an outfit Lolita. With there rules however there are a variety of styles.



Gothis Lolita is probably the style associated most with Lolita fashion outside of Japan. Lolita fashion is often referred to as Goth Loli and EGL. While Goth Loli can be a correct term it only applies to the specific Gothis subset and not Lolita fashion as a whole. However EGL is an abbreviation of the term Elegant Gothic Lolita, which was coined by the Japanese musician Mana to describe his specific Lolita clothing line.



The term "Lolita" may be off-putting to those who first hear about the fashion because of the connotation it holds from Vladimir Nabokov's novel, "Lolita", which changed the meaning of the name for most people in the Western world. It is generally assumed though that the name of the fashion comes from a distortion of the meaning while word-borrowing from English. In the case of the fashion the term "Lolita" only refers to the child-like nature of some of the clothes and is also used because of the beauty or cuteness of the name. Lolita fashion is emphatically not about looking sexy and is instead about looking cute or elegant.



In addition to being a fashion, some people enjoy living a "Lolita Lifestyle" in which one sees Lolita as more of a philosophy of living beautifully rather than just dressing it. Someone living a Lolita Lifestyle may try and live like a princess, surrounding themselves with things of beauty, and taking part in a number of 'proper' feminine activites such as baking, embroidery, sewing and other old-fashioned "women's" activites.



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That is a very good description of Lolita. Personally I find the side mentioned above seems very informational. Not only do I suggest that anyone reading this looks at the sight but I will also be using more passages from it to describe things in detail better than I could on my own.


Your Lord[ess] and Master,

Alice

Hello

Hi, I see you've popped up onto my little blog. Welcome. Here I will talk about, well, Lolita. And no, not the stupid book that has the word 'Lolita' forever planted in the American mind set that it's a little kid who dresses like a hooker. We're way more modest than that and of all ages. This will be my personal thoughts and feelings about the style. Personally I center around a more Gothic Lolita style. But there are many others.
The reason this blog is called 'Lolita Child' is because it centers around Lolita and in all honesty I'm still a minor. But that hardly matters.
Some random facts about me:





  1. I'm female


  2. My nickname is Alice and that is what I will go by


  3. I have a girlfriend.


  4. I have a best friend who likes to tell me things about my girlfriend that she doesn't want known.


  5. I sometimes call her 'Princess'


  6. Sometimes she calls me 'Queen'


  7. Other times she calls me 'Danna'


  8. I get along with everyone who isn't a jerk


  9. I hate stereotypes
That's it for now.
Your Lord[ess] and Master,
Alice