Sugar, spice, and everything nice: these are what belated Bibliotheca themes are made of.
The idea of sugar, for a lolita, inevitably brings to mind the sweet substyle. I am allegedly sweet-challenged: my coordinates, though sometimes sweet by my standards, never quite meet the expectations of the true-blue sweet lolitas in my comm. So why not create a working definition? This way, I can grade myself on sweetness and see where my performance needs improvement.
Colors
My color theory posts describe some common sweet colorways. In general, there are three main categories of sweet colorways-- light and bright pastels, bold saturated primaries, and warm toasty browns. Black is seen more in older styles, and offwhite is used more frequently than ivory.
These colors appear in other styles, classic especially, but the sweet versions are generally more intense. Pastels in sweet are less dusty, browns tend to be rich, and reds and blues have a greater intensity than their classic counterparts. Even the grays used in sweet have a certain brightness.
The colors are the basic ingredients to a sweet colorway, but there's more to baking a cake than just assembling the ingredients-- you have to actually bake the damn thing. Whereas gothic lolitas typically tend to limit coordinates to neutrals and a single accent color, sweets often work with a whole color palette in a single outfit, even with solids. This applies less to older styles and solids, but sweet lolitas will even coordinate solids with a mix of colors.
Silhouette
Sweet lolita silhouettes are the most defined and stylized among the substyles. The stereotypical cupcake skirt shape, with poof aplenty, is basically ubiquitous in sweet. Since (about) 2016, there have been more tea-length items, but they're usually still pretty poofy! Salopettes and shorter skirts are more common in sweet than the other styles as well, especially if we're going with styles designed for younger folks.
Though lolitas typically focus on the skirt portion of the silhouette, that's only the most iconic part. Sweet styles often exaggerate other parts of the silhouette, from the enormous bows and bonnets to compliment elaborate hairstyles, through oversized collars and generously puffed sleeves, all the way down to chunky-soled shoes. None of these points are common to every single coordinate, of course, but they're great indicators.
Motifs
Sweet motifs include the titular sweets, but that's not all. Sweets motifs themselves include cakes, pies, candy, marshmallows, chocolate, soda, ice cream, and a million other ways to alarm my dentist. Fruits are also pretty common, especially strawberries and cherries. Savory lolita with breads, meats, and assorted salty treats is currently on the rise, but it's thoroughly tongue-in-cheek.
Animal motifs are also popular, especially companion animals like cats, dogs, and bunnies. Slightly less popular are cute birds, farmyard animals like cows, horses and chickens, and forest critters like squirrels, foxes, wolves, bears and chipmunks. Usakumya, the bunny-bear of Baby the Stars Shine Bright legend, combines two of these popular motifs into an iconic combo.
Toys complement these critters well, especially considering that teddy bears and carousel ponies (and their extravagant unicorn cousins) could be considered both. A lot of the toys are distinctly babyish-- letter blocks, rubber ducks, and rattles aren't uncommon. Playful locations like theaters and carnivals feature prominently. Holiday prints might have traditional temari balls or Christmas nutcrackers. More recently, there's been a couple prints that work in gaming elements, including screens, controllers, and sprites. Video games are now old enough to be cute and nostalgic.
Storybook and cultural motifs fill in another important niche, with witches and princesses, unicorns and mermaids, and castles and oceans all featured prominently. Some of these stem from classic fairy tales, but some are from longer works like the Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland. These often align with some of the historical motifs seen in classic, but the illustration style is typically cutesier and more stylized. I also count the whimsical depictions of French culture in this category.
The last and most disorganized category is something I'd like to call thoughtfully tacky. This is where I mentally categorize things that lean into the unexpected or everyday, like laundry detergent or sweater knits, or sometimes a meta-view on fashion itself. Basically, you can tell the print is self aware. These motifs create cuteness in a transformative manner, and I'm always delighted and surprised to see the quirky creativity that keeps the fashion dynamic.
Details
Sweet is much heavier on prints than the other substyles tend to be, and the prints are typically busier. Fabrics are often chosen with printing in mind, so sweet dresses are often opaque chiffon or sturdy fine twill. These prints typically have vividly contrasting colors, whether it's a simple screenprinted pairing of white and pink or an elaborate combination of pastels and primaries. The upper portions of border prints are often populated with scattered patterns of stripes, lattices, lace, and dots along with elements from the border-- no space is wasted. Even legwear is seldom plain: sweet lolita has matching printed or jacquard woven tights and socks in every motif imaginable.
But the details aren't only printed-- sweet is resplendent with lace, decorative buttons, pintucks, ruffles, and bows. The density of these non-print details is greater than in other substyles, and the details themselves are typically more flamboyant-- where a classic blouse might have a slim single layer of torchon lace, a sweet blouse might have two layers of custom-embroidered tulle lace instead. Wristcuffs are fluffier, ruffles are wider, and waist bows are more voluminous than other styles.
Accessorizing and Styling
This is a major area where sweet lolita diverges from the other substyles. Classic and gothic lolitas seldom wear multiple hair accessories, but sweet lolitas often do. Sweet lolitas stack rings, layer bracelets with wristcuffs, and showcase elaborate plastic or fake food pendant necklaces. Realistic sweets jewelry is an indispensable part of the sweet lolita toolkit as well.
Hairstyles for sweet can come in bold or natural colors. Sweets have had phases of various trendy hair and wig styles, such as the sausage curls of the early 2000s, the circa-2008 split color wig craze, the long wavy mermaid wigs of Tumblr's heyday, and the perennial popularity of voluminous twintails all are common to sweet.
Sweet makeup has also had its trends, including himegyaru-inspired makeup, jirai-inspired makeup, decora-like face gems and charms, fawn spots, and a general abundance of pink blush. We've thankfully moved past the times where glasses-wearing lolitas were expected to sacrifice our vision for enormous circle lenses and exaggerated false lashes.
Nails are often decorated elaborately in sweet lolita, with more cabachons and painted details than the simpler talons associated with gothic styles.
Addressing the old school issue
A lot of what I've said applies to sweet lolita as it stands currently, and most of it holds true to about 2008. Before 2008, it breaks down, and before 2005, sweet lolita is very different. I've established my opinion on the legitimacy of old school as a substyle before-- I see continuity with older variations and current styles of sweet, and I don't think old school sweet lolita should be seen as totally different. But the sweet I wear is of such a vintage that it doesn't ring true as sweet to more current lolitas.
My Report Card
Colors: C-
Although black does sometimes appear in sweet, my adherence to a black-and-wine wardrobe is a pretty rare color combo. I do have some brighter reds (usually in tartan) and pure white, but I fail to pair these colors with the pinks and blues that sweet would complete them with.
Silhouette: B-
I do a damn good job sticking to the traditional silhouette, especially the poofy skirts, but I keep my shoes chunky and my hair accessorized. However, violent poof, head-eating bows, and satellite-dish bonnets are far beyond my purview.
Motifs: C+
I have a ton of Alice motifs, strawberries, florals, music, and crowns-- I consider these to be plausibly deniable as either sweet or as classic. However, looking at the actual depictions of the themes, they're pretty clearly not very sweet.
Details: D
My pieces are pretty detailed, but usually in a way entirely opposite from sweet styling. I almost never wear tulle lace, most of my blouses are high-necked, and my ruffles are probably slim or flat.
Accessorizing and Styling: F
This is where I truly fail. I typically wear a few rings, but the elaborate sweets jewelry, the layers of wristwear, the delicate balance of multiple dramatic hair accessories, and the harmonious combination of colors, patterns, makeup, and motifs just don't ring true to me.
Try as I might, the sweet mindset seems to escape me. I have prepared a specific sweet coordinate to prove the haters wrong, but it's a colorful sax delight that feels utterly alien to me.
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