Recently, there has been a personal attack on my taste, my style, and the very fiber of my being. This came in the form of Alice and the Pirates' 2021 wine dress Secret Adventure and the Winery of Happiness ", which has four colorways, none of which are black or wine. Furthermore, each colorway is desaturated and about the same level of brightness, falling into the category of what I am going to call "noncommittal colorways".
The Bibliotheca theme for August 2021 is self-care, which makes the perfect chance for me to talk about myself. J-fashion wasn't always my priority; in fact, like many lolitas my age, I only learned about it through anime conventions.
Last taxonomy post, I talked about themes, substyles, and lolita taxonomy, specifically with regards to nonsense-term 'bittersweet' and my beloved punk lolita. This post is about ero lolita and old school lolita, what categories they fall into, and how that might effect coordination of each. Like 'bittersweet',old school seems to be a term used primarily by anglophone lolitas.
Surprise! I've been accepted as a Bibliotheca blog circle member. Bibliotheca, created by the lovely lolitas at Bay Area Kei, is a way that bloggers can get in touch with readers and create a thriving community with meaningful, informative posts that other platforms just aren't designed for. Please be sure to check out everyone's hard work!
This month's theme is DIY, so I'm going to share some (mostly sweets-themed) polymer clay jewelry I've made recently, as well as my materials and process. First, though, let's dive into the history of sweets jewelry. Just note, a lot of my information is from Japanese Wikipedia, so it may not be perfectly accurate.
This is a mostly personal, text-only post, so I'll be putting it under a cut.
Even though I usually wear lolita these days, my first love in jfashion was ouji. Ouji is a vaguely masculine-leaning, often shorts-wearing counterpart to lolita; for more, read Stephano's Ouji Overview. But, as I grow forever older and grumpier, I've become skeptical of the 'ouji' label as an umbrella term. As any ouji can tell you, it's nearly impossible to find ouji stores or get multiple substyles in one place.
As pride month comes to a close, it's time for a super special ~pride post~. As always, these are my personal thoughts, and not representative of the communities as a whole.
Lolitas are, undoubtedly, extremely gay. But why?
Lolita taxonomy is hard. By documenting and verbalizing the styles we love, we preserve them, give ourselves bases from which to experiment, and make them easy to pass on. Even though lolita is an incredibly organized, well documented fashion, there are still major disagreements as to what deserves to be a substyle and what's just a theme. For those unfamiliar with lolita terms, a substyle is one of the major divisions (usually gothic lolita, sweet lolita, and classic lolita, the big three), while a theme is a set of motifs that coordinates can use (sailor lolita, country lolita, and military lolita, to name just a few).
Bittersweet lolita, punk lolita, ero lolita, and old school lolita are all points of contention that seem to never resolve. In this post, I'll discuss bittersweet and punk, and next post, I'll discuss ero and old school.
Idol lolita is a hot new lolita trend, especially in China amongst younger lolitas. However, it really hasn't caught on in the English speaking comms. Personally, I don't think it has staying power for three main reasons: purpose, designs, and quality.
This is a pro-BLM, pro-social justice, antifascist blog run by a nonbinary Jew. Lolita is an alternative fashion. Wearing alternative fashion while vocally supporting white supremacist power structures is a contradiction in terms: people who aren't antifascist while alternative are just cosplaying badly. Police abolition is kawaii as all hell. Donate to the SPLC. Join a union, participate in a strike, give your buddy $20 bucks. If we're not here for each other, what's even the point?
Warning: this post is very personal, and very Jewish.
I've always wanted to be the type of lolita who wears Moitie, but there's one big reason that I don't: crosses. There are Moitie pieces out there without crosses, but not many, and the iconic Moitie custom laces feature crosses prominently. Additionally, a lot of their other motifs, like coffins, draw from Christian death customs, which I don't relate to.