Predictions for 2015!

I thought it might be fun to make some predictions about what will be trending in lolita in 2015. Every year we see trends emerging. 2014 was filler with peignoirs, religious imagery and accessories, and the emergence of OTT (over the top) classic.

One item we are already seeing come into the scene is head chains. I've seen these around the internet for a couple years; they're very popular on a shopping site I use. I was wondering if they'd ever make their way into jfashion because I think they'd work really well in lolita and dolly kei so I'm a little shocked it took this long.

Short hair! I have seen more and more acceptance of cropped hair in lolita over the past year and I predict it will become "trendy" at some point in this coming year. A lot of people are moving away from the hassle of wigs and I believe a death toll for pastel wigs has begun to ring. So, with the more natural hair options coming into the fashion, I think we will see short hair more.

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Indie brands are pretty popular right now but I predict in the next year they'll become even bigger and we'll see more starting up. A lot of people are tired of the main brands in lolita because they have such limited sizes and tend to rehash and reuse the same trends over and over. Indie brands tend to be a little more original and interesting. Some of these brands are making a real splash in the lolita scene and perhaps that splash will become a tidal wave soon. :)

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I'm going to make one last prediction, this one without much basis besides my personal feelings. I think we're going to see an outbreak of the less common substyles. I think Gothic will make a strong comeback. Country lolita is already seeming to come back slightly so I think that will continue. I also think we might see cyberpunk lolita, mori lolita, and punk lolita make small comebacks. I hope we see these being done by people who really know what they're doing since these styles are often associated with newbies and itas. I'd like to see that change and I'm hopeful in 2015 we will!

Thank you for reading! I'm very much looking forward to what the rest of this year will bring and I eagerly anticipate a new year of lolita fashion.

-Kayla

Love & Hate

Hello! I was inspired to do a post about what I love and hate about lolita. I'll be doing 5 of each. So I'll get straight to it!

Love

1. Skirts! I love how skirts look in lolita (instead of a JSK or OP). I like the other options as well but there is just something about the balance of skirts in an outfit.
2. OTT (over the top)! It doesn't matter if it is sweet, classic, gothic, etc I love when an outfit gets taken into OTT. The attention to detail and the way it all just comes together is wonderful in my opinion.

   

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       3. Indie designers are something I love about lolita. Though I'm reasonably drawn to the big      name brands I think that some of the Taobao and handmade designs are even more wonderful. I'm glad to see these gaining momentum over the past few years. 

       4. Inclusive areas of the community. Whether its feministlolita, gorgeouspluslolita, or colormelolita (and there are TONS more) these blogs are an awesome way to get inspiration and to feel included if you aren't what many consider the "ideal" lolita. So these are great.

       5. Shirring! I don't own anything with shirring right now actually but I really love it. It is great for us plus size lolitas but it also makes it so pieces have a lot wider audience. That leads to a bigger variety of coords and I think that is awesome! 

Hate

       1. No petticoat coords. I know everyone and their mother says this but I really really can't stand how an all around great coordinate gets ruined by a lack of a petti. It just looks so frumpy and it doesn't have the silhouette that is staple to the style.

       2. Hate communities. Confessions blogs, behind the bows, parts of cgl, get off egl, etc. A lot of these have thankfully been disappearing over the past year but they still exist and they promote really negative behavior and attitudes.

        3. The price! I love brand and indie brands but they are so expensive. I know the quality is worth the money and all that but it still makes me a little sad every time I relinquish a wad of cash for an item. Usually that is forgotten when I receive it though to be honest. I think most lolitas who pay for their own clothes can relate to this.

        4. Costume lolita. I will never be mean to someone because they chose to wear a cosplay type lolita coord but I just don't love them. That being said, I've seen some REALLY great ones. I've seen some that I thought were just amazing and did a spectacular job. Most of them I see though are not well thought out, cheap looking, or badly coordinated. Nothing against the people who wear them, just not my thing. Here is one I actually liked.

        5. The last and the one I hate the most is Fancy Box (and similar prints). These are popular prints and I have seen some nice coords with it but honestly I just hate it. This is my least favorite print out there. I can't even fully explain why I dislike it. It is almost an irrational distaste for it. The repetitive rows, the colors, the bears, all of it is just terrible to me. I even hate the straps. 

Thank you for reading! These are just my personal opinions and everyone is totally free to disagree with them. Have a wonderful week and a great Thanksgiving for those of you who celebrate it. See you soon. <3

Art Prize Coord!

I recently went to Art Prize in Grand Rapids. This is an annual trip for me. Coincidentally there was also a lolita meet up happening the same weekend in the same location. A great excuse to dress up and try some new ideas I've had!

We agreed to meet at this cute art gallery but unfortunately it was closed so we went to the GRAM instead. Everyone looked great! We got our picture taken several times. When we were finished at the museum we agreed to go to Spoon Lickers for Froyo since they had vegan options that catered to our mixed diet group.

It was wonderful overall and it felt great to be among a group of lolitas again since it had been a while since I've done any kind of Jfashion circle.

Here are some of the photos from the meetup!

About half of our group! We got separated for a bit.

Close up to show make up. 

This ring broke :< One of my favorite accessories though.

My full outfit!

Photo credit Alex Brand

2014 Purchase Plans!

We all know there are certain items that your wardrobe just doesn't feel complete without. I want to try and get some of the more attainable ones off my list in this coming year. Some of these have been on my want list since I first found lolita and some are to fill out my wardrobe. 

Feel free to comment below which items you want to get this year!

So here are mine:

Replica of Chess Chocolate Mint (with border print)

A white pagoda parasol similar to this.

Replica of Milky Planet in Yellow.

Pink mermaid sandals. 

Pink Loris star bag.

I'm still alive and wearing lolita!

Hello dear readers! I know I've been bad about updating. A multitude of things have led to that but I'm back and I'm going to try and update more regularly. 

I've worn lolita several times lately but the time I'm going to write about was a few weeks ago. I wore sweet lolita to a Steam Powered Giraffe concert celebrating their made up holiday Yulemas. :) There were 2 wonderful shows, a meet and greet, and a tea party. I attended all of it and wore lolita for most! The band and other fans complimented my outfit several times and I was very flattered.

So here is what I wore!

The last has some Yulemas pressents from my friend Elizabeth in it. There were a lot of fun times and great photos taken that weekend! It was really amazing. 

-Kayla

Mori Lolita

Mori (which means forest in Japanese) is a Jfashion style of its own. The style focuses on layers, creams, whites, beige, browns, crochet, ect. and basically having an over all feel of being natural, as if you just walked out of the forest. It is associated with natural kei and when searching for it you may want to try mori, mori girl, mori boy, and mori kei. Here is a translation of the "mori girl checklist" which will give you more information and some guidelines. Well some genius people decided that lolita and mori would look together. They were totally right.

So the idea here is that you take the layering, colors, and general aesthetic of mori but add a lolita silhouette and elements. It is a style I'd very much like to try myself someday. I do both lolita and mori, though I post only once in a while about my lolita outfits and never about my mori outfits (because this is a primarily lolita blog). What better way to explain the style than to show you? Here are some of my favorites:

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Personally I'd really love to see more and more of this in the future. I want to see like, 100s of mori lolita outfits. :)

-Kayla

Religious Headscarfs In Lolita

Hello dear readers! I wanted to discuss something I feel very strongly about today. Specifically in regards to Muslim lolitas, religious headscarfs obviously play a huge role. I would like to take a second to acknowledge I will be saying "headscarfs" instead of "hijab" because, contrary to popular belief by many non-Islamic people, not all Islamic headscarfs are hijabs. Also as a note to that note, I am aware that "hijabs" is not technically the plural of "hijab" but I chose to use it for simplicity/clarity with non-Islamic readers. 

I've seen many people who protest that headscarfs "don't belong in lolita" or "look bad/weird/unusual with lolita". I am here to personally show you and tell you just how wrong you are. There are not many headscarf wearing lolitas, at least not with an internet presence. The ones that are present though are tasteful and know how to work their headscarf into a coord seamlessly. 

And why wouldn't they? The majority of Islamic women coordinate their headscarfs to their outfits everyday. Lolita is a fashion, like any, and if they can make it work in everyday outfits why couldn't they do the same with lolita? 

It is important to respect religious beliefs and values, especially those that present themselves in such bold ways. The headscarfs are a choice, one these women made willingly and consciously. They are not "oppressed" or "unhappy" or whatever other nonsense people seem to believe so willingly about Islamic women. 

That all said, here are a few of my favorite coords done with headscarfs.

Sources: x (most of these outfits. I'm a bit of a fangirl.) x x x

Nails In Lolita

Hello dear readers! I am back to posting now that I have gone through and converged many of my posts together. So today I wanted to cover something that I only see mentioned here and there, and only if they're totally outrageous. What to do with your nails while wearing lolita.

Some people buy fake, pre-decorated nails and apply them. Others do intricate detailing on their natural nails. Lastly some people just put a basic color or design or just leave them untouched. If you choose to leave you nails totally natural, please make sure they are clean and presentable!

I found some examples of nails I personally like. They are not too OTT to the point you can't move your fingers or see where the nails begins and finger ends anymore. The first three are more classic and the last is sweet obviously. I tend to lean more classic myself so I'm definitely more drawn to nails like the first set, though I personally prefer just a flat color or clean unpainted nails. So here they are.

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So what are your thoughts? Do you like to wear really intricate deco nails or do you prefer something more simple? Let me know in the comments. 

-Kayla

Youmacon 2012

You can find the majority of my Youmacon experience here. I wanted to share my lolita pictures here though.
I wore loltia Saturday but didn't have time to take a picture of myself. As of now I haven't found any pictures of me floating around really either. I didn't go over the top like last year and photograph EVERY lolita I saw. I just took pictures of ones that inspired me in some way or that I thought had some element I wanted to play with. So here they are ^_^.

Dis my face though

Everyone looked lovely. Even the ones  I didn't photograph. Good con guys and I can't wait for next year. ^_^

My new loliable hobby!

So a while back I said I'd taken up a new hobby that I thought could be incorporated into lolita. Well here is that post I promised about it. ^_^ My new hobby is embroidery. I just looked up some stuff online, asked my mom for a hoop, some thread, and some cloth, and went to work. It did some practice stitches first before starting in on my first actual piece.

So here are my pictures of the first piece I finished. It took about 7 hours I believe. o_o So long. I work faster now lol.

I'm working on another piece right now and when it is finished I shall post about it. I intend to eventually integrate this into Lolita and possible Mori-girl (which is a style I've been getting into over the past couple months).

Thanks everyone who reads. ^_^
-Kayla