Sweet and Classic Elegant Lolita: Classic

Showing posts with label Classic. Show all posts

Saturday, 29 March 2014

The regimental Lolita! Frills and stripes! :)

レジメンタル

Regimental in Japanese ^^

Saturday, 22 March 2014

The Mermaid Skirt - a Classic Lolitas Everyday Fashion Alternative

Victorian Maiden "Charlotte"

The Mermaid skirt is a wonderful pencil skirt with a frilly hem.

The skirt is most often knee-length, but can be longer. I have never seen anything longer than ankle-length, floor-length means you are in ball-gown territory.

The mermaid name is because of it's shape - hip hugging at first, to gently "fan" out at the hem, just like a Mermaids' fish-tail.

It is a mature choice for those days when a poofy Lolita skirt feels to over-dressed and this skirt is great for work or school.

Fanny Rosie in her work outfit

From Fanny Rosies wardrobe: Victorian Maiden Rococo Bouquet

It is definitely not considered to be Lolita, but is sold by many Japanese Lolita brands and worn by many Classic Lolitas.

Coordinated in the right way, it may be considered Aristocrat (more dark and gothic) or Otome (more "girly" and light).

Some of the big Lolita brands that have released Mermaid Skirts are Victorian Maiden, Juliette et Justine, Metamorphose Temps de Fille and Atelier Boz.

Victorian Maiden "Beth"

Atelier Boz - Long Mermaid Skirts

Victorian Maiden "Elegant Mermaid Skirt"

Juliette et Justine "Rose de senteur jupe"

Metamorphose Temps de Fille "Victoria Princess"

Victorian Maiden "Elegant Check Skirt"

Victorian Maiden "Noble Lady Mermaid Dress"

Victorian Maiden "Victorian Lady Mermaid Dress"

Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Can you be a thrift store/ charity shop and D-I-Y Lolita and still be a "real" Lolita? A Lolita brand-analysis and debate.

A Lolita brand-analysis and debate.

Is it possible to be a Lolita, while only wearing items found at thrift stores/ charity shops and items that you have made yourself?

Is it possible to be a "real" Lolita without ever owning brand?

These questions are well worth thinking about!

What defines a "real" Lolita?

I love brand.

Without Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Moi-même-Moitié and Angelic Pretty - Lolita had never been an alternative fashion style of the magnitude it is today.

These brands have had fashion shows, beautiful photo-shoots with wonderful models, they have had fan-contests, give-aways, tea-partys - all in the name of promoting Lolita.

Aoki Misako, model for Btssb, Kera and the Gothic Lolita Bible, even became the ambassador of cuteness, to promote Lolita fashion and Kawaii to the rest of the world!

The Lolita brands made it happen, they put the fashion world in spin.

They promoted their idea of fashion and made it accessible to us, Lolitas' outside of Japan.

Without brands, you could surely say, that you would probably never have dressed in Lolita.

So, in order to be a "real" Lolita - do you have to own brand items?

I would, even after my brand-loving introduction, still want to argue for "NO".

Yes, the Lolita-concept as an alternative fashion is promoted by brands and is dependant on brands to thrive. Brands dictate the rules, changing them with tiny steps, renewing and redefining Lolita - often unremarkably - as the seasons pass, in order to create new, beautiful products that we are willing to pay the price for.

Btssb A/W 2011 (c) Macarontea

I am forever thankful to the creative think-tanks in the brands design-teams, for creating such awestriking items.

Yet, I feel as though this fashion should not only be for those who have grand monthly salaries or for those who have parents that are willing to pay 600 USD for a coord. That would be limiting the fashion, and it would back-lash upon the brands and the brand-loving-Lolita communities as well.

In order for Lolita to continue to exist, it must be more accessible! The fact that you nowadays can order brand online overseas (compared to a couple of years ago when you had to fly to Japan to get your dream items), is not the same as accessibility - because a lot of Lolita-lovers can't even afford to pay the import taxes of a brand dress!

To exclude Lolitas' that don't buy brand is pure Elitism.

You should be honest to yourself and others if you consider the following:

> A "real" Lolita always wear expensive "brand"-items <

If you agree with this statement, You are, by definition, an Elitist.

You could even be a Lolita with no money to buy brand, and still you confine to the Lolita-brand-Elitism. You perhaps always feel inferior 'cause you are not wearing the "dream-items" from the latest EGL brand-update... You are a "Wanna-be". An elitist-groupie, that upholds the hierarchy and elitist movement "That only a "real" Lolita can afford Lolita brand".

Even if you argue that you should buy brand second-hand, if you're budget doesn't cover a new coord - this doesn't finance or support brands directly (maybe indirectly, because the seller will perhaps buy a new brand dress for the money). But it is still not financing the brand per se - thus buying brand second-hand is just the same as buying from indie-brands or making the outfits yourself.

To not accept creative D-I-Y minds, think-tanks of the home-sewing machine, teams of inspiring Lolitas', dreaming of uniquely printed JSKs, would really limit Lolita in a bad way!

Lolita is an alternative fashion style with a rather strict "uniform"/silhouette, but I want to argue that you do not require to buy brand to cohere to it.

Indie-brand "Ergi by Piratessen" created a Slepneir (Nordic Viking) JSK

The runes say "Odin, Sleipner, Lolita" ^^

And ask yourself - What do you really mean with "brand"?

What counts as a Lolita-brand for you?
Do you draw the line by defining it by country of origin - as a brand founded in Japan?

Do you define it by time - as being one of the founders of Lolita in the 1980s-90s?

Or do you define it by price tag?

However you choose to define it, it will still be a slippery-slope definition, and you will probably have to redefine your thoughts as years pass.

Because the fact is, Lolita is a-changing :) As long as Lolita stayed in Japan, it was an easier task to contain it. But as Lolita becomes more global, it is filtered through the fashion of the continents, through culture (and religion!). It is blending into mainstream fashion, merging with other alternative styles and forever living and thriving on the fantasy and creativity of the styles' wearer.

Amazing Ruchkina Elizaveta D-I-Ys all her Lolita coords herself!

Lolita is dead. Long live Lolita!

To paraphrase a famous saying.

Yes, you can very well still be Lolita, even though your entire wardrobe consists of hand-made items or up-cycled thrift store dresses.

Yes, you never have to own a single "brand" item to be Lolita, you do not even have to have it as a goal.

You can honour the founders of the style by purchasing their coords, but even if you do have the money to spend - Lolita is first and foremost a certain air of style, not a price tag. It's the idea of the perfect Victorian doll with a big scoop of Kawaii :) A state of mind that can't be bought by bucks!!!

Quality, however, can be bought by bucks :) And the brands do up-hold a certain quality (compared to knock-offs), but truth-be-told - if you want REAL quality - aka exclusive materials such as pure silk, real leather, hand embroidery - you have to buy from indie-brand, thrift vintage or D-I-Y...

Hope you enjoyed this post (:

Please keep the discussion alive in the comments field!

Are you an elitist? Or just a wanna-be? ;)

Or are you a creative free-ranging Lolita?

Hugz /Mary

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

The prairie dress and pre-Lolita brands Gunne Sax, Laura Ashley and MILK. Know your roots!

10 best vintage shops in London

Before I started wearing Lolita, I have always loved to rummage thrift stores in search of the perfect Vintage find :)

Vintage is very different from simple Second-hand clothing.

Vintage is exclusive brand or hand-made items in exceptional quality.

Materials are impeccable - silk, wool, good quality cotton - and often show no sign of wear,

even though they have been around for more than 30-50 years!

So, naturally, I want to incorporate Vintage into my Lolita style, since I love the amazing

sewing and fabrics of Vintage clothing.

I call my substyle "Classic Vintage Lolita", to keep it simple ^^

For a Classic Vintage Lolita - several Vintage 1970's brands - spanning over three continents, are necessarily to know of:

Gunne Sax - USA
Laura Ashley - England

MILK - Japan

These three brands were heavily influenced by each other and together they created the romantic, modest and frilly looks of the decade.

And in time, they would inspire the Lolita designers to create todays' EGL Lolita Fashion!

Granny dresses

In the 1960's the brands made "Granny dresses" - what later came to be named the "Prairie dress" - after the break-through of the TV-show "Little house on the Prairie" in 1974.

Prairie dress

But actually "Prairie fashion" had been coming and going in fashion since the original fashionistas' of the Ol' West (USA) wore the garments in the early 19th century.

First, in the depression year of 1932, Laura Ingalls Wilder released her first book of many in the "Little House" (...in the big Woods 1932, ...on the prairie 1935, etc). The tales where almost biographic, as Laura herself as a child, travelled through the USA in a covered prairie wagon.

Prairie fashion had a huge up-swing in the 1940's, since the Cowboy-culture became popular with several movies portraying an idyllic American spirit promised-land filled with good, hard working men and women and endless adventures.

Dale Evans

Gail Davis

Gail Davis and Dale Evans where two American fashion icons of the Cowboy Culture!

Dale even had her own comic book :)

Gunne Sax 70s Prairie dress

As the hippie-movement emerged in the late 1960's, searching for a more simple and "back-to-nature" style, the prairie dress became a natural element of the fashion.

One of the earliest Gunne Sax labels 1969

Gunne Sax was founded in the 1960s in San Fransisco, and in 1969, Jessica McClintock invested in the brand and became the chief designer - creating the multimillion company it is today.

The Ingalls

When the popular TV-show "Little House on the Prairie" aired in 1974, it was actually just reflecting the style that many girls and women already where wearing!

Milk shop Japan, early 1970s

In Japan, a lot of fashion brands made the same kind of dresses: MILK (april 1970), Maggu, Mitsokoshi -creating the first Harajuku fashion scene and the - even now popular - Japanese fashion style "Natural Kei" (that later evolved to Mori Kei as well).

Mitsokoshi and Maggu

And in Europe, especially in England, Laura Ashley, was the designer to talk about!

Laura Ashley printed dresses and smocks, in the summer rain,on Cheyne Walk / Chelsea Embankment, 1970s.
Copyright: Laura Ashley Ltd

Laura Ashley Vintage

Laura Ashley at Bath Fashion Museum

All photos by Melanie Clegg

Pre-Country Lolita by Laura Ashley :)

Edwardian Wedding Dress by Gunne Sax

The three brands evolved during the 70s, bringing in Victorian and Edwardian influences to their clothes as well as a few medieval and renaissance-inspired dresses.