*sigh* Ok. Oh here it is! Oh no. This is gonna be a rough one.
Not for you, for me...
Hello friends!
Today on a very special episode of Lolita reacts, I'm not gonna be watching something.
I'm gonna do something that maybe hopefully I can monetize.
I feel like, in my Lolita Reacts series so far
I've talked more about filmmaking than I have about lolita fashion.
So today's episode is gonna be focusing on lolita fashion advice, and mistakes.
And I'm gonna be taking a look at my first post on Daily Lolita.
If you've watched my Lolita Evolution video, I talked about how I found lolita in 2006...
..and then I didn't really start wearing in until 2011...
...and people were like:
I don't know...how you feel about that that's your own opinion.
But to be honest, I wore things that I thought were lolita...
...but were not lolita...
...and I used to think of that as being "Oh it just didn't count" but no...that was my before* phase.
And during that time, I was a lone lolita, I didn't know about the community,
And this post is right after I discovered that there was an online community for lolitas.
And this was my first (*cries*) contribution to it...
Yeah...
We all start somewhere everybody!
I remember when I made this post. I thought that all of the comments I got were SO mean,
and so critical and just haters and "ugh this community's so mean to me! and they're all full of hate!"
But, looking at this now I'm like ***** you deserve it.
Shut the **** up.
Probably not even as bad as I thought it was, so...I'm just gonna take a look at this and read through it and react and see what I've learned.
The title is *horrified sound* I don't even wanna say it!
The title is: New steamy loli looking for advice - smiley face.
Yeah I used to say "loli" because I thought it was cute and I thought it was better than saying "lolita"
But it's actually kind of worse to say "loli" because "lolicon" is like a whole thing with anime
Which is not what lolita is, it's like young kids...so yeah, I tried to avoid saying "lolita" and I said a thing that's just equally as bad.
*crying*
So uh, I listed off everything that I wore in this coordinate
Let's go through it...
Mini top hat, [from] party city
I also took this picture in my parents' garage.
Why does that top hat even exist?! Like it just looks bad with everything,
Like what costume does that top hat look good with?!
I challenge you to find a picture of somebody dressed cool, in a cool costume
or outfit using that top hat and them looking good because it is so ******* stupid.
I didn't list where my wig was from, I'm pretty sure it was also from Party City.
It's so bad.
I later cut it up and used it for a Ramona Flowers cosplay, which was like, kind of better.
...still kind of sucked…
I really liked this colour of blue,
but yeah the quality of this wig is horrible.
Grey ruffle tee [from] H&M.
Now I remember people telling me that it was too much of a plunging neckline for lolita
and at the time I was like "How dare you?" but now I'm like...
Yeah gurl, them titties...
Why are they out?
This isn't the fashion for those titties...
Put them away...
Corset and skirt are from Bodyline...
I would love to get this corset and skirt again and like wear it nicely but I don't think it even fits my style...
Why did I think I wanted to be a steampunk lolita?
Thigh-high socks from Chinese Laundry. I think I got those from T.J Maxx, I guess Chinese Laundry's like a brand, I don't even remember.
Victorian boots from Bolo Ross - those boots are really cool.
I am not doing those boots justice.
They're...they deserve much better.
I didn't even tie up all the bows at the bottom of the skirt and like...
and I'm not wearing a petti so the shape is just kind of like bleh.
...These poses!
Now let's get into what I wrote about this.
"I'm very new to lolita"...clearly.
Also I didn't fix the capitalise on "lolita"
A lot of times autocorrect will fix "lolita" and make it capital and they're referring to the title "Lolita" for the book or the film.
So you just wanna make sure that unless it's like, at the beginning of a sentence,
that lolita is actually lowercase, so backspace that and make it lowercase "L".
"I've been told that this look is very steampunk."
***** from who?
You're wearing this in your parents' garage, I never wore this outside, this is my first time posting it
Who told me that this looks "very steampunk" - I told myself, maybe my mum also said:
"Oh you look steampunk!"
- Probably after I told her like, do I look...
"And I'm not sure if it's still considered lolita" - It's not.
You're bad. Get out.
The things that I'm saying...
are probably a lot worse than the actual comments.
"But I really love it!"
"So I thought I would share it..."
"The skirt and corset are from bodyline but I got them from a lovely gal on egl sales."
Also at this point in time my username was not "Lovely Lor" - if you look this post up now it's
under "Lovely Lor" because I actually ended up buying the username from somebody on Live Journal.
So then I took this picture, which is only mildly, slightly better where I'm wearing an actual top hat.
...That I got from a costume store...
I am planning to make a video about all the advice I gave when I was starting out in lolita that was wrong,
because, one of the things I strongly believed in was that you can get lolita pieces from costume stores.
This last picture is actually not too bad, and this is for a long time what I considered
my first lolita coordinate.
The dress was actually from a..."lolita costume"...
that I bought at Anime Expo, and it was in a bag, and it was like "lolita" - and a lot of those dresses are awful.
But this one was like, not too bad. The material was kind of like a tent.
It was like a canvas material.
And, this bolero like doesn't really work,
it's not like frilly enough, I feel like now I would add some kind of lace to it, maybe round the collars and the sides.
I still didn't own a petticoat at this point in time.
Headband: Target.
Pink shoes: Kmart.
Green sweater: Forever 21.
Dress: Anime Expo a brand called Cream Doll - gurl that's not a brand.
Now let's get into the comments.
And see if people were as savage to me as I was to me.
Lets see if people were as savage as I thought they were.
*reading*
Fair.
Yeah, I think I figured it out real quick that I was a sweet lolita and not a "steamy loli".
*Reading*
Agreed!
Oh yeah, was it wrinkly? Yeah it is pretty wrinkly.
I hate ironing, and like for the longest time have just been like "**** it, I'm gonna have wrinkly lolita I don't care".
Cuz I hate ironing.
And then I recently bough a steamer, like, last month and it has changed my life completely.
Steaming lolita is so good! It's so easy, it doesn't damage your dress, you can do like really complicated bustles and everything.
Like, so great, you can get a little hand-held one you can travel with, that's what I got, I got one off Amazon really cheap like $30.
I'm honestly gonna make a video about it because it's changed my life.
*Reading*
The hat is so bad!
You're too nice!
I need to lose that hat. It's horrible.
Surprise!
I've done a lot more coordinates since 2010 I hope you like the ones that I've done since then!
*Reading*
You're being so nice, I don't deserve this kindness that wig is awful.
*Reading*
Ooh, lets look at their links.
They linked me to better headpieces I think...ohh, I don't think these links work anymore.
*Reading*
Aw, that was nice.
Oh my god, this is mintymix!
It's Kammie, commenting on this!
Thank you Kammie.
Too nice.
*Reading*
Too nice I don't deserve this. Yeah I guess with a shirt like that, where it's low-cut,
you could get one of those like, ruffle collars...
...that ties round the neck, you could put it over it to like, cover that area.
Or even like, a big bow or something
But that's not gonna save this coordinate.
I can't believe way back then I thought that this was mean, or haters because this is all actual constructive criticism.
I think I just went into Daily Lolita expecting everyone to be super nice and not say anything constructive.
Even though I was asking for advice!
Okay I'm hoping that this one is savage because it's starts with "I'm Sorry But"
This is true, I didn't know really anything about steampunk.
That's actually not bad advice.
I think that maybe if I'd had a lot of experience with steampunk, then kind of knew my handle in steampunk,
and then changed to lolita and wanted to like bring my steampunk to lolita it would've worked better.
But the fact was that I didn't know anything about either of these genres, I'd just kind of seen them and tried to mash them together
right away without knowing anything, so that's not even savage that's good advice.
That line alone is savage I love it - "Unfortunately that wig still won't work."
I deserve it.
Agreed. It took me a long time to get an actual good petticoat.
And then the last comment is:
I think we learned a lot from this...
Daily Lolita Live Journal is not really active anymore, if you're looking for something current that is comparable I
would check out Closet of Frills on Facebook.
It's a community where you can post your coordinates and get constructive criticism and comments on it.
Thank you so much to those of you who stuck with me in the beginning and helped give me advice.
And taught me, and gave me constructive criticism.
I am really thankful for it, and I still feel I'm growing as a lolita, I'm still experimenting, I'm still learning, always learning.
I wanna just keep this fashion alive, keep pushing it forward, keep trying new things.
Remember we all start somewhere and some coordinates are winners, and others...well...there's a chance for you to learn something from them. Stay lovely!