You Got Your Gothic In My Lolita!

My first post on building up a Gothic Lolita wardrobe is a from the ground up kind of how-to, assuming that the Gothic Lolita to be is getting into Lolita from a more "mundane" fashion, either mainstream or a jeans and tee kind of style. My previous starter set was also had a lot of style wiggle room, for the newbie who wanted to be able experiment with other Lolita styles while still maintaining a Gothic Lolita wardrobe. This post is a little bit different, it is about building a Gothic Lolita wardrobe using many pieces from a pre-existing Gothic wardrobe, for someone who knows that Gothic Lolita is the style for them. So these coordinates are all extra Gothicky and might be a bit all over the Gothic to Lolita spectrum, some being more Gothic than straight up Lolita

First up, the Lolita pieces to be introduced into the Gothic wardrobe. These are mostly very basic pieces.

• A JSK, I picked a rather fancy one from Baby, but it doesn't have to be.
• A black skirt, tiered, or with some kind of interesting detail, perhaps a bustle or even something as simple as being a velvet or brocade skirt.
• A black blouse with a Peter Pan collar
  
• A pair of over-the-knee socks
• A rather extravagant bonnet.

A different head piece could have easily been picked out, maybe a round lacy corsage? But I think an extra fancy black Victorian styled bonnet is a perfect head piece for a very Gothicky Gothic Lolita.

Next is the pre-existing Gothic wardrobe. Now, I'm talking Victorian Goth, Romatagoth, or maybe even something a bit Vampiric, something classical and elegant, not futuristic or nihilistic. These are all pieces that can easily be found in a full Gothic wardrobe, we've got:

• 2 corsets, a plain black one and something a bit more fancy
• An elegant long sleeved top (this one actually just came from Bodyline, but that's because Polyvore kind of sucks for Goth stuff)
• A bolero
• A lacy and ruffly blouse
• A fancy tank top or cami top
• 2 purses, something fancy and something very Gothic
• 3 shoes, boots, and 2 pairs of heels, one plain and one a little bit crazier
• 2 pairs of pretty tights
• 2 pairs of ladies gloves
• A faux fur shawl
• A little feathery fascinator for the hair
• An assortment of jewlery

This might seem like a lot of stuff, and I'm certainly not suggesting you rush out and buy this all, these are just all "typical" Goth pieces that a fleshed out wardrobe that has probably been added to for years would contain. Now, onward! to my silly named coordinates using both of these sets of clothes

Plain ol' Gothic Lolita

Yep, just plain ol' Gothic Lolita. Using nearly all of the Lolita pieces I've made a Gothic Lolita coordinate by only adding the boots and a few accessories such as a brooch, a long necklace, and some rings. For when you want to blend in with the other Lolitas!

Burlesque Night At The Théâtre des Vampires

This is a rather over-the-top outfit that makes me think of a night spent at an opera, time to break out all your most extravagant pieces and wear them all at once. I completely forgot to add a purse, but either one would look fantastic.

The High Cost of Living

Tank tops in Goth have reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Death :P Even though this one is covered up with a bolero, it still reminds me of Death, I think it's the coffin purse and the long silver necklace. Maybe pair this coordinate with black umbrella?

Marie Antoinette's Funeral

Maybe it's the look of that bolero's sleeves, combined with a blouseless JSK, but it reminds me of fancy 1700's dresses. Wear your hair up in lots of coifs and curls!

Memento Mori

A traditional Lolita outfit fancied up a bit with a corset, a few Gothic accessories, and a pair of lacy gloves peeking out from under your cuffs. To me, combining a Peter Pan collard blouse with a corset has a very Gothic and Victorian look, but still remains very childish looking. Providing, I think, an interesting contrast.

Memoirs of a Transylvanian Concubine

The sheer blouse, opera gloves, and boots make this coordinate a little bit Ero, don't forget to wear a cami under the blouse though! The corset is optional, I just can't help but want to add corsets over coordinates.

Our Lady Of The Broken Hearts

A simple Lolita coordinate with a corset over a JSK. I think that the addition of the big Victorian bonnet and the corset over the JSK, give the coordinate a very decadent look,  without having to over accessorize.

Now, as I said, some of these coordinates might border a bit more on Gothic than Lolita, but I hope this has perhaps inspired some people not to be afraid to mix up their wardrobes a bit, and to think up creative ways to get a bit more wearability out of the beginnings of a Lolita wardrobe. Or, even if you don't have an epically full gothic wardrobe to start mixing in a bit with your Lolita wardrobe, maybe this post will inspire you to try something a little different with your next Gothic Lolita coordinate.

Ask Miss Caro-chan: Younger Lolitas At Meetups

Todays Ask Miss Caro-chan comes from Confused Younger Lolita, and she asks

How do you feel about younger lolitas coming to meetups? I'm thirteen, and most of the lolitas in my area are at least 18. From what I can tell, not many older lolitas like younger lolitas coming to their meetups. I wouldn't want to go to one without telling everyone, then it would be awkward. So, how do you feel about it? I mean, it's not like I'm going to be "DURR HURR HURR PENIS I AM TEENAGED DURR HURR."

Okay, so maybe you're not as young as that picture XD I just really wanted an excuse to use it since it's so cute! Younger Lolitas are certainly welcome at most meetups, but it honestly all depends on your specific meetup group. Get to know your local Lolitas first, and do let them know that you are younger than they are. Let them see, by interacting with them on your local forums or communities, that you aren't of the spazzy HURFF A DURRF variety of teenager. If for some reason you think they are either judging you harshly for your age, or are simply not comfortable hanging around someone your age, then it would honestly be best to skip the meetups with them, because the day might just end up very awkward in either case.

The individual meetups should also be taken into consideration. If it is something like a dozen or more going to the movies and then to a cafe, all ages are usually welcome, but if it is something like 4 older girls going to dinner and then just hanging around town, it might be a little strange for everyone, yourself included, if a 13 year old were to go with them. Try to imagine the situation minus the ruffly clothes and headbows, do you think you would you feel like you are part of a group? Or like you are simply tagging along with an older cousin you barely know?

At most Lolita meetups the Lolita clothes are simply the excuse for the gathering, but not the real reason that brings people together. Other common interests besides "I like frills too!" are typically what keeps local meetups going strong, after all, there's only so much anyone can stand to talk about dresses. Truth be told, 13 year olds and 20-something year olds don't usually have the same interests. So if you're younger and at a meetup filled with much older girls, you might feel a bit left out once the meetup starts winding down and everyone is over the thrill of "OMG you're wearing a frilly dress too!" If you think this will be the case, you might want to consider going to only part of the meetup. Most meetups have two parts, an activity such as a movie or something interesting to do with a group followed by a more relaxed setting, usually at a cafe or restaurant. You might want to think about skipping the second half of a meet if you think that you are going to spend dinner staring at your plate and trying to look interested. If you feel that you will be welcome in the group and just want to meet some Lolitas in real life, by all means go to the movies or bowling or an art show with them! But know that not every situation is a mixed age appropriate situation, and know when it is time to say your goodbyes.

If, for one reason or another, you don't think your local meetups will workout for you, but you still want to be able to have a reason to get together with like minded people and dress up, try starting a club at your school. You might think you're the only one in town interested in Lolita, but the style is getting more and more popular, you never know who you might uncover in your own school who shares your passion for Lolita. Try broadening the clubs theme to anime, or even Japanese culture to try to get others interested. Here's a handy e-how tutorial on starting up a school club.

To anyone hosting a Lolita meetup, if you really don't feel like your meetup group would be appropriate for younger girls, don't be afraid to make the meetup age restricted. Having younger girls with you for the day is a responsibility, and if you feel like you cannot handle or even just don't want to bother with the responsibility, then it's best to have an age limit. Don't feel pressured to take on more responsibilities than you can handle. If you are hosting a meetup with younger girls in attendance, get in contact with their parents and let them know what exactly everyone will be doing for the day.

More Meta WTFery

Well Meta has come out with a few new pieces. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Well... they sure do like that fabric, they seem to be making everything out of it. There's a pink one too, but it's so pale it looks nearly identical to the white on in photos. This dress I think can be filed under "so ugly I sort of like it" for me. The more I stare at it in disbelief the more I kind of want it. Especially the black/black and red/black colorway. They would both look pretty awesome if you Gothic'd them up a bit with some accessories. What's with the migrating bows? On the red dress they are on the bodice, but on the other two dresses they are on the sleeves. I'm assuming this is Meta's subtle (Meta, subtle?!) way of telling us the bows are detachable.

Besides dresses of questionable taste, Meta has been releasing a lot of bonnets lately. I think all of these are really awesome looking, and don't seem to be the big floppy head ruffles that are sometimes released and called a bonnet. I'm especially loving the ones that match the new tacky dresses. If only I had a spare 400 bucks that I didn't mind blowing on something of completely questionable taste so I can have a set!

Just as a friendly reminder, don't forget to enter my Christmas giveaway! There are still a few days to enter!

Bodyline, The Lolita's Walmart, Part 1: Bodyline for Beginners

As most any thrifty Lolita will tell you, Bodyline just isn't what it used to be. And oooh boy are we lucky for that! Bodyline used to be known for their cheap lace monster maid cosplays, but in the past couple of years they have really turned around for the better. Bodyline is a great choice for all sorts of Lolitas, either those just getting into the fashion and want more bang for their buck, for seasoned Lolita looking to pad her wardrobe with some basics, or just because everyone can use a cute $30 skirt every now and then. I was originally going to make this into one post, but it got a little too long, so instead I'll be splitting it into a few parts, one for newbies, one for Lolitas looking to pad their wardrobe, and maybe another one or two for a few miscellaneous things.

Tips for the beginner Lolita looking to make their first purchase from Bodyline

I really wish Bodyline was as great as it is now back when I just getting into the fashion *old fogey rant*. Back in my day all we had was Fan+Friend, and their prices really aren't all that cheap, plus they always messed up the sizes. For some reason Fan+Friend seems to assume that their customers are always lying about their measurements and assume you are 7 feet tall and 50 pounds heavier than you really are. Bodyline is a much cheaper, quicker, and easier shop for new Lolitas to buy their first pieces from, but there are a few things you should keep in mind, especially if you are looking to make your first Lolita pieces something of good quality and of a design similar to what big name brands sell.

• Look for reviews of the specific piece you want. While most of their pieces now are of good quality, they still have a few pieces from the old days that are of questionable quality and might use really stiff and cheap lace, thin fabric, or a weird cheap fabric. It's better to look, or even ask, then to get something you weren't expecting.
• Keep it simple. The best pieces on Bodyline are relatively simple pieces, a solid or simple print dress with only a few decorations. Most of the Bodyline pieces that fail are filled with too much stuff, wacky hemlines, too much lace, zippers in crazy places, that kind of stuff.
  
• Stay out of the "separates" section. "Separates" in Bodyline talk means 2 or more pieces, usually a dress set of some kind such as a blouse and skirt sold together. For some reason, whenever I see new Lolitas asking about opinions on what to get for their first Bodyline purchase they always want something from the separates section, my guess is because they think they are getting more for their money since they are getting a whole bunch of different pieces. Except for the fact that things in the section are usually more expensive and not versatile pieces at all. Most of the pieces in the separates section are actually meant to be Lolita costumes not everyday Lolita.
• Don't be afraid to do a little bit of modification. I'm not suggesting that you take up sewing classes and learn out to completely change an outfit from Bodyline. I'm talking about simple and small things like removing bows. Sometimes Bodyline goes a little crazy with the weird looking bows, all it takes is a few tiny snips of thread to take them off.
  
• Use common sense. Especially when shopping in the separates section, you might think that you will be able to make 3 outfits out of one dress set, but can you really make 3 different outfits, or 3 outfits each featuring purple glittery plaid and batwing hems? Besides that does anything about the outfit seem off to you? A weird cut, kind of blah pattern, or something else about it that doesn't exactly look like something your favorite brand would do? While many Bodyline pieces are fantastic, there still are a few throwbacks from the old days.

Examples of "good" and "bad" Lolita on Bodyline

Examples of "good" dresses from Bodyline

These are all relatively simple dresses. They each have a very classical Lolita cut and shape, only a few details, and the prints are very pretty and not loud or awkward.

Examples of "bad" Lolita dresses from Bodyline

These are all very busy and Cosplay-ish pieces. The first one just has too much stuff going on, neon plaids, pearls, music notes, cat ears, bows, a sailor collar, a "gothic" cut to the jacket, you name it and this outfit has it, and honestly it just looks like a hot mess. The second outfit is actually an Angelic Pretty knockoff, a very poor Angelic Pretty knockoff. The gingham is huge and the details look half-assed and awkward. The third dress could almost be good, but it still looks just too messy with the asymmetrical hem and the lace details, like it's trying to merge a few different Lolita details but failing. The final dress is just all sorts of wrong. It's not even a proper shape, it's boxy and weird. These 4 pieces demonstrate 4 of the things Bodyline tends to fail, too much "wacky" stuff going on, bad knockoffs, something almost right but ending up awkward, and something that's just not the right shape at all.

In the end, you should buy what you like, not what other people tell you to buy, but when it comes to Bodyline, because of their hundreds of different dresses, they are sometimes hit-or-miss if you are going for genuine Lolita.

Ask Miss Caro-chan: Making OTT Sweet Work in a Classic/Gothic Wardrobe

Yay! My first edition of Ask Miss Caro-chan. I am hoping to do this one a week, maybe twice a week if I for some reason start to get too many questions. I have gotten a few, some that require a quick answer, some that require a longer answer, but I'll try to be answering them in more or less the order that I received them in. The first question comes from Wonderfinch, and she asks:

I recently snagged AP's Miracle Candy jumperskirt, and while I think it's absolutely adorable, there's one tiny problem: it's way too sweet to fit in with my normal wardrobe! I don't want to have to go out and buy all-new clothes just to wear with this one dress, but I really like the dress and I want to hang on to it. Any tips on making an insanely over-the-top sweet dress work with a wardrobe that's more classic and gothic than anything else?

I have the same problem! I always give in to OTT Sweet impulse buys, I have since padded out the Sweet Lolita areas of my wardrobe, but for a while I was pretty much stuck with two pink dresses in a sea of Gothic Clothes. There are a few things I have learned though:

• Start hunting for white in your wardrobe. Even the most hard core Gothic Lolita is bound to have a white blouse or two, maybe you just don't think things like long sleeved pirate blouses are very sweet, but try coordinating one with an over the top sweet dress, provided the blouse isn't too angular and masculine looking, it should work with a Sweet Lolita dress.
• Try coordinating the OTT dress with cream or off-white. Most Angelic Pretty dresses have a pastel rainbow of colors hiding in the print, so if your dress has a creamy yellow color in it, or even gold, try to use that as an accent color. Cream blouses and tights are usually a staple in a Classic Lolita's wardrobe.
• Make use of any detachable bows the dress has. Spread out the amount of frou frou in your coordinate by using any detachable bows from the dress in your hair or on the neck of your blouse.
• Do you hair in a very Sweet Lolita style. Try something like hyper-hairsprayed pigtails or poodle pompoms. The fancier you make your hair the more you can get away without having the dresses matching headpiece, which is usually the case with impulse buys.
  
• Do your makeup a little bit Deco. Big sweet eyelashes, a little bit of glitter eyeshadow in a coordinating color, and maybe even a rhinestone or two near your eyes will all help to add some sweetness to the outfit.
• Buy some small accessories. You don't have to go out and buy AP's matching plastic bracelets, but just a few over the top rings and bracelets from places like Claires. It will only set you back a couple bucks, but it could be just what you need to finish your look.

I think that if you have a relatively full Gothic or Classic wardrobe you could definitely pull of completing an OTT Sweet coordinate with it. The only thing that might prove difficult would be shoes and purses, if you have white shoes and a white purse (or cream/off-white if that is the color you are going for), awesome. If not, it might take a trip to PayLess or Walmart, because honestly, if all you have are black shoes, it's just not going to work out.

Christmas Giveaway

As a thank you for all the wonderful comments, links, followers, and hits that I've gotten since my blog opened 6 months ago I have decided to do a little giveaway for Christmas. I love doing a variety of Lolita related crafts, and over the past month I've been making some things specifically for this giveaway! And I've done a little clearing out of the "stuff I already made but never bother to use" box.

The winner will receive:

• A felt slice of chocolate cake. Click here for a better picture.
• The ring I made in this tutorial
• A crystal and crown cell phone charm
• 2 deco hair clips
• 2 pairs of beaded earrings
• a pink charm bracelet, which sadly, might only fit on someone with slimmer wrists.

To win this little gift package all you have to do is leave a comment on this post with some way of getting back to you, either leave an email, a link to your blog, or even your Live Journal username. There are a few other ways to get extra entries into the give away, you can have a total of 9 entries:

• +1 just for commenting on this post and including a way to contact you
• +1 for Tweeting about the giveaway, including both a URL to my blog and @fuckyeahlolita
• +1 for linking my blog on your blog or website
  
• +1 for being a follower of my blog
• +2 for making a post on your blog about my giveaway
• up to +3 for showing some old, commentless posts some love and being one of the first 3 new commenters, one point per comment.

If you plan on doing the things to get the extra entries, you MUST do them before you make a comment on this post, and your comment must include which of these you did, with some sort of proof such as a link to your blog or site, or whether or not you follow me. If you are getting the +3 for commenting on old posts, you don't have to tell me which specific posts you commented on, because I'll get notifications when you leave comments. If you are doing the twitter one, you just have to make sure you include @fuckyeahlolita and I'll see it.

Some obvious things that aren't going to get you any extra points:

• Spamming this post isn't going to get you any extra points.
• Forgetting to include a link to either my blog or this post's page in your tweet or blog post
• Spamming old posts with comments like "lulz I'm posting" or something, it has to be a comment for reals.

If all the extra entry points are leaving you a bit confused just leave a comment here to enter, you'll still get a chance! Entries close on Sunday, December 20th at 10PM. After that I will start counting up entries and use a list randomizer to pick a winner. Sadly, I might not get the gift shipped out till after Christmas, it really just depends how crazy the post office is between now and then. International entries are welcome! I am willing to mail this out to any country, provided the shipping doesn't cost over $10, which I doubt it will. But, if it does cost over $10 for international shipping, the winner must be willing to pay the difference.

As of writing this entry here are my sites stats:
32,433 hits
63 posts
246 comments
121 followers
106 Twitter followers

Thank you to all of you for being so great! I really do love writing this blog and look forward to any comments and feedback I receive. If this giveaway doesn't turn out to be some kind of complete disaster I plan on doing a few more in the future!

My New White Wig

Yesterday I got my white wig in the mail! I have been wanting a white wig for months now, and finally decided to use Christmas shopping as an excuse to buy myself one. I love it and it looks fantastic with my great big black bonnet. I am still trying to find ways to completely hide my hair underneath it, I think some hard core hairspraying is probably going to be the only way to keep the little fly-away hairs by my ears from showing.

I already own a pink wig, which I have only worn a few times. So this will be my second wig. I would honestly like to start wearing wigs more with Lolita. Maybe not my day-to-day Lolita, but certainly for things like meetups or just general Lolidays with my friends. The next couple of wigs on my wishlist are a black one and an oh so classic chestnut brown with ringlets. There is something so fun about wearing wigs, once you get past the frustration of getting all your hair pinned flat (or at least it's frustrating for me! My hair is down to my waist!). It's just so satisfying to both completely change your look, and to have every inch of you match your outfit!