The Lolita's Pillow Book- Brief Musings On The Fashion

I am a little bit obsessed with The Pillow Book, which is a book written over a thousand years ago by a woman named Sei Shōnagon, who was a lady-in-waiting to the Empress of Japan. Thousand year old Japanese literature doesn't exactly sound like the most exciting read, but The Pillow Book isn't just a story, it's the personal journal of a very real woman. Despite how long ago in the past she wrote down her thoughts, catty and snarky and sincere and heartwarming thoughts, they're still resonate with us when we read them today. To compare her to a more commonly known historical figure, Marie Antoinette springs to mind.

I have a copy of The Pillow Book that I've had for a few years now, and I keep it in the bookshelf beside by bed and pick it up and skim through it periodically and it always seems like there's something new to read that I missed in previous readings.

An except from The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon

If you've never read the book (and I would really recommend you do!), it's generally set up with a brief header or an idea and then followed by a list of things related to it or a talk about an event that happened or just her opinion on the topic. You often hear The Pillow Book compared to a modern day blog because of this! Especially with how frank and even bitchy some of the topics are. While some are hauntingly romantic recollections of dreamy events, others are snarky comments such as how unfortunate it is that moonlight and snow are wasted on commoners, and lots and lots of talk about boys and gossip.

I would like to do something that I have been planning to do on this blog for a while, and take a few of Sei Shonagōn's topics and create my own list related to them. This is a bit of a silly and trivial thing to do with a very important piece of historical literature, but Sei Shōnagon has been a master of silly and trivial for over a thousand years now, so I doubt she would mind very much. Or alternatively, she would have minded an awful lot and would have snarkily added it to a list of "annoying things".

Things that make you feel nostalgic

• Bell sleeves
• Very ruffly rectangular headdresses tied under the chin
• Knee socks with a ruffle on top and little bows on the side
• Eyelet lace
• Baby the Stars Shine Bright's dress tags
• Finding an old website with a picture you used to envy when you first got into Lolita

Things that make your heart beat fast

• When you're brushing your hair and all of the sudden the brush gets caught in the lace on your dress
• Seeing the mail carrier walk towards your house carrying packages
• The last minute on an auction
• Getting lost going to a meetup that you don't know many people at
• When you run into another Lolita you've never met before when you're out and about

Awkward and embarrassing things

• Stumbling in platforms at a meetup
• Knocking things off of table tops with your petticoat
• Accidentally opening your parasol too close to a person and knocking it into them
• Misidentifying a brand
• When one sock falls down while you're walking and you don't have anywhere to stop to pull it up, even worse if it's a long OTK and you have to lift up the hem of your skirt to fix it.

Infuriating things

• Seeing the little orange "we missed you" slip in the mail box while you're waiting for a package, even though you were home all day and didn't hear a knock on the door or the doorbell ring.
• Reserves selling out withing minutes, while you're sitting around still waiting for the shopping cart to load
• Livejournal downtime
• Lectures by people who don't have any interest in wearing the fashion on why you're wearing it wrong
• When people try to tell you what the word "Lolita" means

People who seem enviable

• Seeing pictures of people's large closets
• People who live near to brand stores
• Hearing about a friend's trip to Closet Child in Japan
• When other people's perfect hair gets mistaken for a wig
• Anyone who has your dream dress, even if it's the only dress they own

Things that look fresh and pure

• The tissue paper around a dress you bought new from a store
• The deep slightly luminous black of a brand new black dress
• Unworn shoes without any scuffs still nestled in their shoebox
• A brand new curly wig still in its wig net
• A flawless Shiro Lolita coordinate

While I was searching around for how The Pillow Book has inspired other bloggers (And it has! In so many different ways!), I stumbled across this, a Twitter account for Sei Shōnagon. I was quite confused by it at first, wondering what exactly I was looking at at first, I thought it was just a totally average Twitter account that happened to be using that name, but then it dawned on me. These are exactly the sort of things, and even the same tone, that Sei Shōnagon mentions quite frequently in the book. Something like this just goes to show you how The Pillow Book's topics have translated so well over the centuries.

I would encourage anyone to pick up this book, but if you don't have the time to add a new book to your reading list, I would love to see your versions of these types of lists! If you happen to make a similar blog post with these own list topics, or even similar other ones, I'd love to see them. Who knows, in a thousand years they might still be read!

Important Foundation Pieces In A Lolita Wardrobe

Undergarments are a very important part of a Lolita's wardrobe, as they literally form the foundations for the whole wardrobe and each individual outfit. I've made a number of different posts about how to build various types of wardrobes, but I've often neglected talking about what sort of undergarments wardrobes might have. Lolita wardrobes usually need more than just a petticoat when it comes to undergarments! Keep in mind that basic good fitting, neutral colored, bras and underwear should be included as well! But hopefully those are things everyone has anyways.

Camisoles and Undershirts

Camisoles are an important part of a Lolita's underwear drawer because they're handy for wearing under chiffon blouses that you might want to pair with a skirt, or for layering under blouses that are only slightly too sheer. While cute and lacy camisoles are perfect to have, you might want to consider adding a couple very plain, breathable, undershirts as well to this collection, for when you simply need an opaque layer under your clothes. While frills and bows may be tempting for this layer, try to avoid any unnecessary decorations that might show through in an obvious way under a blouse.

A well-rounded Lolita wardrobe is going to at least 1 camisole in a matching color for every sheer or semi-sheer blouses you might have, as well as a couple plainer undershirt in at least a neutral color close to your skintone and whatever base colors your wardrobe has (black, white, or offwhite generally). Generally,  you're going to want to have enough camisoles and undershirts to be able to wear a fresh one every time you wear Lolita.

Corsets or Shapewear

Corsets are not exactly a vital item that every Lolita must have, but they're definitely something you might want to consider if you wear Lolita on a regular basis, especially a more Classic or Gothic style. Corsets are a good item for slimming down the extra bulk all the layers of Lolita might add to your silhouette, making sure you can fit into that last half an inch of a particular skirt, and for layering over coordinates for an extra luxurious look. One of the first entries I ever wrote on this blog was about how great I think corsets are in a Lolita wardrobe and features some advice (that is still relevant!) for any Lolita looking to add one to their wardrobe. You can check that post out here!

A Lolita wardrobe could easily benefit from having two different corsets, a plain one you can wear under clothes, and a fancier one you can layer on top of your clothes. If you're not really looking to spend a lot on a corset, but are still interested in smoothing out your silhouette, there are a lot of shapewear out there, that even has the added benefit of looking cute and lacy, that you can pick up for a relatively cheap price.

Socks and Tights

Does anyone get more excited to receive socks as a gift than a Lolita? While socks and tights are such a major feature of the Lolita fashion that it's hard to designate them to the underwear drawer (myself, like many Lolitas, actually have a whole drawer dedicated to just socks and tights!) I feel as if I should cover them in this post anyways. First of all, any Lolita is probably going to have an assortment of knee highs and over-the-knees and tights that they like to match with their favorite dresses, and this is fantastic, seriously, you should have as many of those as you can get your hands on, but what about the less exciting legwear? As easy as it is to overlook, you should probably have a good amount of "boring" legwear to go with your Lolita wardrobe, and honestly, most of you are probably going to have these things as part of your non-Lolita wardrobe, but they make a very useful crossover into your Lolita wardrobe as well.

One of the more important types of boring sock a Lolita can add to their closet is a few very basic pairs of  low-cut or "invisible" socks. Ideally, you should have a few pairs of these in whatever base color your socks are! They're perfect for wearing over your more expensive Lolita socks to help keep them from getting dingy or from getting holes worn in them. If you're wearing a shoe that doesn't allow you to hide an extra sock, you can always wear them under your fancy Lolita socks for some added cushioning and protection against wearing holes in them.

Plain colored opaque tights, particular in either black, white, or cream, are also a great basic addition to a Lolita's underwear drawer. Besides making an easy addition to pretty much any coordinate, they're also useful for layering under something like lace tights or sheer tights in the cooler months.

Petticoats

A petticoat is often considered the most important part of a Lolita's underwear drawer, and it's undeniable that they're a very important part of the Lolita aesthetic. Depending on your own Lolita style, different types of petticoats might be more suited for your wardrobe. If you tend to wear styles that have a lot of poof then a mega-fluffy chiffon petticoat might be your best bet, if you have a lot of tea length skirts an appropriately long petticoat would be required, etc.

Generally the most well-rounded Lolita wardrobe is going to have a number of different petticoats to choose from, or to layer as needed. If you're just starting a Lolita wardrobe a puffier petticoat and a more toned down petticoat, both in neutral colors that compliment your wardrobe, are good additions to your wardrobe. If you're curious what sort of minimal hassle petticoat I would suggest, check out this post!

Bloomers

Bloomers are sometimes considered a non-necessity for a Lolita wardrobe, but personally I think they're a very important part of a Lolita wardrobe. Their most important purpose is to prevent any up-skirt flashes that are all-too common when you're wearing a relatively short and poofy skirt. In addition to preserving your modesty, bloomers also provide warmth in the winter and an extra bit of cuteness and lace to outfit year-round.

A full Lolita wardrobe is going to have enough pairs of bloomers to wear every time you wear Lolita. Ideally they should be in a color that compliments your outfit, but as they're generally not meant to be seen (although they do end up showing most of the time anyways!) you can get away with pretty much any neutral colored pair of bloomers. Bloomers are relatively easy to make yourself if you need to add a significant number to your wardrobe, check out the tutorial section to find some bloomer how-tos!

In a pinch, or in hot weather, shorts in a breathable material are a good substitute.

Underskirts

An underskirt in the perfect length is another item, like the corset, that's not exactly necessary but is a good idea anyways. An underskirt's main thing is to add is a few extra inches to any skirt that might be slightly too short. They also can help even out any lumps and bumps in a petticoat or provide a solid base under a thin and slightly-sheer skirt so your petticoat's color doesn't show through.

Ideally a Lolita wardrobe should have a couple underskirts in complimentary or neutral colors so they don't look out of place peeking out under skirts.

These are the types of clothes that I consider to be foundation pieces in any well developed Lolita wardrobe, things that you can literally build great Lolita coordinates upon! Of course though, everyone wears Lolita in their own unique way and some people might have different types of foundation garments in their wardrobe. What sort of things do you consider necessary Lolita undergarments? What sort of pieces would you consider optional and which would you consider the most important?

7 Important Turning Points in the History of Lolita Fashion

Over the years Lolita has undergone a number of changes, some major and some minor. The minor ones are sometimes mere blips in the history of Lolita, silly trends that came and went, while some of the major ones have managed to change the course of Lolita forever.



This post is about the 7 major turning points in the fashion that I feel have changed the fashion in huge ways. As someone who's been into Lolita for a long while, I've personally seen how these things have changed the fashion and have often wondered how different Lolita would be if some of these things didn't happen!

1. 2003 Brands start selling overseas- I feel like the biggest change in the Lolita fashion happened when brands started selling overseas. This made it possible for people outside of Japan to finally get their hands on authentic (a word that was frequently used back then!) Lolita pieces without having to have gone to Japan or had a friend in Japan ship them their orders. This made it possible for us to, collectively, step out of our ita phase and get the chance to experience real Lolita.
2. 2006 The Lolita Handbook is created- The Lolita Handbook was a Livejournal that was set up to be exactly what it sounds like. It helped new Lolitas both define Lolita and learn to wear the fashion. Despite the fact that it tried to make it clear that the handbook was a set of guidelines, it unfortunately cemented the idea of "rules" into the community. The Lolita handbook was both a blessing because of how it made the fashion seem simple and accessible, and a curse because it was often misquoted as Lolita law.
3. 2006 Kamikaze Girls is released in the US- Kamikaze Girls was actually released in 2004, but that was the pre-youtube days of dial up and getting a hold of the movie, especially with the fansubs, was nearly impossible for most people. It wasn't until the movie was subbed in English and released on DVD that people could really sink their teeth into it. Not only did a lot of people get into the fashion because of this movie, but for those we were currently already in the fashion it was groundbreaking to see a Lolita, a real Lolita, in a full-length movie. Lolita clothes were still relatively hard to get a hold of at this point, despite the few shops that shipped overseas, so the movie allowed a lot of us to live vicariously through it.
4. 2007 Angelic Pretty goes Deco- This turning point is a little less of a pinpoint moment and more of a slow build up that started a year before when Angelic Pretty decided to plop down pastel wigs on the models in their Twinkle Mermaid ad. Deco Lolita happened on the tail end of the Deco trend in Japan and eventually paved the way for things like OTT and Fairy Kei Lolita crossovers as well as the Sweet Lolita prints that have become iconic of the style. The over-the-top stylings of Deco Lolita was one of the things that made Sweet Lolitas stand out from the rest and become the substyle for people to wear for several years.
5. 2008 Bodyline starts selling good clothes and ships overseas for practically nothing- Bodyline has always been around, although you used to only be able to buy them through cosmates at bloated prices. Bodyline opened up their site to overseas orders sometime before this, but it wasn't until they started selling nice clothes and had a $10 shipping sale that people really took notice of them as a legitimate place to buy Lolita. Before this, Bodyline prices were nearly as much as brand, what with the inflation and shipping, and were unapologetically ita anyways so very few people wanted them, it was in that era that Bodyline got it's reputation as being an overpriced cheap costume shop, because that's exactly what it was. Sometime in 2008 Bodyline took a turn for the better and surprisingly changed Lolita history. The first wave of cheap yet good Lolita that Bodyline started selling was incredibly cheap, skirts were between $11 and $20, JSKs were about $35. People who had previously only had a few Lolita pieces now could afford to buy a whole new wardrobe for the price of a brand dress. Lolita's closets practically burst with all the new Bodyline people could fill them with. Since then, their prices have risen and people have become disenchanted with them, but they still set a baseline for how much "cheap Lolita" should cost that has effected how a lot of people buy Lolita, for better or for worse. While cheap good Lolita is going to be in vogue no matter what, Bodyline's cheap Lolita was the precursor to the current Taobao obsession.
6. 2009 Spoonflower allows people to custom print their own fabric- As long as the West has known about Lolita there have been Western indie brands doing their own thing and supplying locals with Lolita. Up until this one point, if indie brands wanted cute fabric people tended to scour internet fabric shops for imported Japanese fabric that had that kawaii feeling that Japanese brand prints did, but that was about the extent of cute prints indie brands could manage. That is, until Spoonflower came around and allowed anyone to be able to design and print their own fabric. With this there was an explosion of indie brands who could finally create their dream print that filled a niche that brands would never in a million years be able to target. While the Spoonflower trend has died down a bit after we all came to the collective realization that the fabric Spoonflowe prints on is simply not worth the price and trouble and has a lot of drawbacks designers have to work around, it still played a pivotal roll in the Lolita fashion in the West.
7. 2011 Juliette et Justine releases their classical painting dresses- Just like that fateful day Angelic Pretty popped pastel wigs on their models, when Juliette et Justine put a classical painting across the skirts of one of their dresses, the Lolita fashion slowly began to turn in another direction. Away from saccharine Sweet Lolita, towards opulent Classic Lolita. Since then Sweet Lolita has been in decline as the Lolita fashion to wear and Classic Lolita soon started to become the style that was releasing must-have prints that people were practically climbing all over each other and throwing money at each other to own. This is a relatively new trend and it's hard to say exactly how long it will last, but looking back, Sweet Lolita was really only as big as it was for about 4 years, which is hardly the century long reign that some people make it out to be.

Of course, there are other turning points in the fashion, but sometimes it's hard to see them until after the trend has come and gone. Alternatively, some of the current things we think might be major turning points in the fashion might end up sputtering out before it really gets momentum.

In my experience with the fashion, these are some of the major turning points, but I'm aware that other people might have viewed things differently depending on how they interact with the community, what styles they focus on, and how long they've been into the fashion. What sort of events would you personally consider to be turning points in the Lolita fashion?

Lolita Blogging: Keeping Yourself Inspired

My posts have been pretty sporadic lately due to a bit of a blogging slump, as much as I hate to admit it! Most bloggers get them every now and then and I've been trying to get reinspired and remotivate myself into posting more frequently. For me, this has lead to a lot of googling around for blog posts about, well, blogging. I've found that the Lolita blogging world is quite different from the rest of niche blogs out there, we're not quite as quirky as your average fashion blog, and we're not as serious as other hobby blogs, for the most part, Lolita bloggers are somewhere in the middle. I'm not trying to sell you the brand of my particular style of cool with instagram photos of cat-themed shirts and cute food, nor am I interested in creating a site that's engineered to get the maximum amount of hits possible.

 So taking a little bit from both camps, I've decided to make my own how-to list to becoming a better blogger. Will I follow it? I hope to! 

• Read other blogs- To be honest, I feel like this was one of the large reasons why I sort of slipped off posting, I got out of the habit of checking out all but a few specific blogs. I love reading blogs an seeing people's opinions on topics and seeing someone post something really cool usually inspires me to make a blog post in response to it, or to blog about my view on the topic.
• Schedule- Ha! Hahahaha, good one! I am so bad at this. So many times I'll sit down and make a cool and easy schedule to post by and I'll be good for about one post before just totally skipping on it. And I don't know about you but I sort of feel like "Well, I already broke one rule, so now let's break them all!" so when I miss my first scheduled post, I tend to miss every single one that comes after that.
• Try something different- This is definitely something I need to do! I know I sort of fall into ruts with posts and will be afraid to try something different because I feel like people might get blog-whiplash. I would like to do some more personal posts about my own coordinates and Lolita activities (Got to remember to start bringing my camera places again!) as well as possibly start trying to do a few vlogs. 
• Stop spreading it all over the place- Usually, when I'm not blogging here it's because I'm too busy goofing off on Tumblr. Sometimes I'll make a post of useful information over there, either answering a question or just because I want to share it, then I'll realize that with very minimal work I could have made it into a pretty good blog post. But since it's been posted on Tumblr no one is ever going to be able to find it in a weeks time. Instead of making fluffy quick posts about stuff on Tumblr, I should learn to consolidate them into a single, meatier, blog post. 
• Actively search for inspiration- If I'm feeling like I'm in a slump, I'll usually google around for some sort of inspiration on what to blog about, and 9 times out of 10, I'll find something, whether or not I end up making a post about it. Personally, I absolutely love lists and finding great big lists of even generic things to blog about is usually enough to spark a chain reaction of ideas. I've actually been hoading links to Lolita memes for quick ideas on what to talk about, you can find them on the resource page linked in the header!
• Discuss something- I find that by leaving comments on other Lolita blogs or engaging in a conversation about something with other Lolitas it helps get the creative juices flowing, and sometimes once they start, it's hard to stop!
• JUST POST IT!- My number one post killer is when I just stop writing it! I have tons of posts that are practically finished laying around. They usually just need some sort of wrap-up and some pictures, but for whatever reason I stop just before I'm completely finished and they just sit around forgotten. I need to just learn to just finish these posts up and get them up!

 

  As I've mentioned, it's really easy to bring up a list of generic ideas to blog about. A quick google search will turn up dozens! While most things are generic enough that there's a Lolita version of them, wouldn't a list of Lolita specific blog post ideas be great? You can start by trying to come up with your own list. These are great because they're something you can reference at any time, and I've made a number of blog posts from pulling from my big list of ideas. Too busy to make a list? Well I'll share one of my own with you:

• Share a collection- Do you have an impressive collection of socks? Or maybe some unique brand novelties? Or perhaps you have an unusually high number of purple dresses in your closet? Whatever it is that you happen to have a Lolita collection of, share it with the rest of us!
• Give some advice- Lolita is a learning process, and even those of us who are very new to the fashion have still learned a lot! Pick something particular that you learned about, be it how to keep bloomers from bunching up, how to keep warm in the winter, or how to untangle a wig and teach someone else to do it.
• Attempt to define or pinpoint something- Maybe it's general musing on what makes an outfit spooky cute, or the differences between Old School Sweet Lolita and OTT Sweet Lolita, or perhaps try to pinpoint the exact moment in time when knee high socks went out of fashion.
• Share something personal- For many of us, Lolita is a personal fashion and we experience a big chunk of our life through the lens of Lolita in one way or another. Perhaps it was the nicest compliment you ever received while wearing Lolita, or the worst postal service mixup you ever experienced, share something personal with the Loliblogging world.
• Share something interesting- In contrast to the above, this can have nothing to do with you, just something that you happen to find interesting. It can be a tutorial you stumbled across, a post on someone else's blog, or a particularly creative photoshoot.
• Discuss a new print/release- The Lolita fashion has been releasing new pieces on a frequent basis for well over a decade now! And we have all sorts of opinions about what these brands are doing, even if you only ever blogged about new releases, you would never run out of things to talk about.
• Discuss a trend- There's always some sort of trend sweeping through Lolita fashion, I'm sure you feel one way or another, even if that feeling is "meh". Why does it make you feel that way?
• Make a prediction- Where will Lolita go in 6 months? A year? Two years? Five years? A decade?
• Solve a problem- Just as sure as there will be new releases and trends, there will be problems with the fashion. How would you solve the lack of Lolita stores outside of Japan? How would you solve the problem of internet drama? How do you keep your petticoat from deflating?

 These are the sorts of things I've been trying to do to stay inspired, and the sorts of things I think about when I'm stuck in a blogging rut. Often times I find the motivation and inspiration to get out of a rut just by going around and searching for tips, whether or not I follow through with the actual tips. I see so many people being so enthusiastic about blogging that I get myself really hyped up about it, blogging is definitely infectious!

To all the Lolita bloggers out there (and regular bloggers as well!) what sort of things do you do to get back into the habit of blogging once you find yourself in a creative rut? To those lucky few that never find themselves in a rut, what is your secret!?