Happy Monday! March 18th marked my official Lolita Fashion anniversary! A year of frills! In this post, I want to talk about my first full year in the fashion, my first tries, and hopes for the future.

Since the reactivation of this blog, I’ve documented 26 coordinates, enough for exactly 1 coordinate every two weeks for a year of 52 weeks. 😀

 

The motivation:

On March 18, 2017, I decided to reactivate this blog with the full intent of making a personal blog to document my time in Elegant Gothic Lolita Fashion. This was the day I decided I was going to commit to a once-a-week blog schedule as well as began to make my first real purchases in the fashion. My motivations were largely personal. I think everyone struggles to find consistency in the things they’d like to achieve so this was sort of me putting my foot down and erasing all the insecurities I had at once.

The past and first attempts:

I had originally created this blog in 2015 as a general fashion and shopping blog as I had not yet defined my tastes. I had been watching Lolita Fashion from the sidelines due to people I followed on social media or encountered in person but was not actively buying or even wearing the fashion. I had ordered from Lolita Desu in 2015 and got a nice fairy kei inspired lucky pack with an Angelic Pretty cutsew. That, coupled with some socks and a Bodyline skirt, I had my first “coordinate” at Tora Con 2015. It wasn’t a bad first attempt but I hadn’t researched the fashion at all outside of items as noted by the lack of petticoat or fully matching shoes. Sometimes, I’m not sure how much this picture has traveled considering it was on my blog during my two year hiatus when Lolita Desu featured my review on this website but past me felt very cute that day albeit missing the mark! In the time between 2015 and 2016, I acquired a Bodyline JSK & Secret Shop OTKs from a friend secondhand and wore them to a school event but unfortunately didn’t cpature any outfit pictures.

 

In 2016, after I graduated from college, I started working my first contract job where I met my co-worker. By sheer coincidence, my co-worker happened to wear Lolita Fashion and my interest and desire to pursue was resparked when she invited me to join her local comm’s tea party. I bought a few things quickly off of Lacemarket with my friend’s help to have something to attend. This was my first step into finding out what I liked.

I still have the dress and cape in this picture because I think they were great first picks towards would ultimately end up defining the direction of my wardrobe. I’ve worn mismatched legwear before again. I probably wouldn’t pair the brown cape with that dress again but I remember feeling cute and like “Wow…I really like this experience!”

March 2017 started a committed thought of attention. I would be wearing this fashion regularly, I would be buying often and planning coordinates. I would actually become a Lolita. I joined my local comm’s active Facebook group, went to my first meet-up, posted in Closet of Frills, and began actually engaging in a dialog outside of the quiet bubble I was occupying just thinking about cute clothes. This was the first start of making intentional decisions, not just wearing whatever cute stuff I had or scrambling to piece together something to wear for a one time event.

 

Final thoughts:

Because I had a really sudden “start” to the fashion, you can see how my first coordinates are sort of plain in comparison to my later coordinates. There was a lot of still figuring out silhouette and accessorizing. I’d say my turnaround point is the coordinate I wore to my first Lolita Tea Party with my comm. I think that coordinate and environment really solidified for me what style I wanted to define for myself and the type of environment I wanted to be in.

 

I think I’ve gotten a lot better at coordinating and posing but I still have a lot of unflattering moments. These old pictures of me, I don’t really like looking at but I think all hobbies and interests have to start somewhere. For this reason, I don’t like calling people “ita” or being harsh because I think everyone has to ultimately go on their own journey to figure out what they like and what suits them, if they can commit or if they even like the fashion in the first place. It’s hard to tell when someone’s Lolita Journey actually begins. Is it the time they first buy a piece or is it the time there’s a change in state of mind? When I first starting becoming interested in Japanese Fashion, I thought Decora would be it. And then I thought it would be Fairy Kei. But in the end, it was Lolita Fashion and I’ve never been so satisfied with how I dress. ^^

That’s it for this week! How was your first year in Lolita Fashion? If this is your first year, what sort of changes are you hoping to make by the end of it? Let me know in the comments!

‘Til next time!