I asked YOU to pick out dresses for me to try wearing and styling, and you chose a cosplay and a cow print dress
In all honesty I don't think that the person who recommended this set was
thinking of it as a cosplay, and to be quite honest I'm not sure if it is a cosplay, or if it's a dress
I don't know where exactly- it's a grey area, but we're gonna explore all of that today because this
gives me a fun opportunity to talk about cosplay and lolita, and then also an opportunity to embrace
one of the motifs that I hate the most in all fashion: animal prints
Back in November, Devil Inspired gave me a budget and I asked all of you to leave comments with
links of pieces that you would want me to wear and then I would choose the ones that had the most thumbs up
I know that on youtube comments you can't see pictures, so you'd have to like go
to each link and look, and I'm sure that there were some links that were repeated or some that I may
have missed, but these two had the most thumbs up so that's what I went with. I would really
love to do this again because I love this idea of all of you choosing things for me to try, whether
I would like them, or if they're really wacky and out there. I might do this on Twitter, again
so, follow me on Twitter. Thank you so much Devil Inspired for allowing me to do this experiment and
for providing me with these outfits, so let's get started. The reason that I talked about this set as
being a cosplay is because it is from the dress-up game Love Nikki. And it is like exact to what's in
the game, it's also a collaboration between those two, so I don't know if this outfit existed in the
game first, or if it was made in real life and then they put it in the game, but it is in fact
in a game. Lolita fashion is not cosplay. This is 100% true. Some people hear this and think, "well so
then, is this okay, is this okay, is this?" and there are times where they intersect, but it's still
in its' base roots they are two different things. Lolita fashion is a street style that originated
in Japan, I've explained it many many times, and when you're wearing it you are still yourself
and you are putting together clothes, just like you would in any fashion to represent yourself, to
present yourself in a way that you enjoy. Cosplay, however, is where you are trying to replicate
a fictional character and you are presenting yourself as a fictional character so there are
definitely times where these mix because there are fictional characters who wear lolita fashion
but when you are replicating them and presenting them you're not wearing a lolita coordinate, you
are representing that character. And there are also cosplay lolita or lolita cosplay where
people create a cosplay and then will use lolita pieces to help represent that character but
they're still presenting that character. And then there's also character inspired lolita
which takes more abstract ideas to represent a character through a lolita fashion coordinate
but that person is still being themselves. I think what it ultimately comes down to is that people do
mix the two together, but you sort of need to define a more dominant thing: is this a cosplay
or is this a lolita fashion coordinate? And I think what it really comes down to is, are you
representing a character or are you representing yourself? I hope that this makes sense and I also
want to explain that this is just from what I understand from my grips of cosplay, I did do
a little bit of it before lolita fashion and then also my years of experience as a lolita
but I don't speak on behalf of the entire cosplay community or the lolita community by any means
This is just things that I've picked up and the way that I feel about it. There's the age-old
question of, if you wear the dress from Baby the Stars Shine Bright from Kamikaze Girls, is it cosplay
of Momoko? No, I think it really comes down to what your motivation is for your outfit. Like are you
trying to recreate Momoko? Then I guess technically that would be a cosplay, if you wear it the exact
same way, but if you just wear that dress, even if you wear the same headpiece, but like you know
your makeup, your hair, those are all things that contribute to you being you. I want to mention that
I don't think that the person who recommended this set actually wanted me to explore this
concept or even thought of it as anywhere near being cosplay, they just saw a cute bear set and
thought that I would enjoy it. Which I do! I very much enjoy it. But I'm also really thankful for
the opportunity to kind of dive into this subject, because I've never really talked about it before
And I think that when people hear, "lolita isn't a cosplay" they feel very very discouraged from
doing any sort of mix, and I think that there are ways to do it that are okay and there's definitely
nuances and times when it's appropriate and maybe not appropriate. The area of cosplay lolita that
is actually damaging to the community is when people cosplay as a lolita, which is not correct
It's when people will wear lolita fashion in a way where they're not directly recreating
a character, they're just making a character of our subculture, of our sub-style, of our fashion
Which is not great! We are ourselves, we're not characters and in a way it's discouraging
people from wearing it in their daily lives or feeling like they can't be themselves. And I know
a lot of people kind of start out that way because it all depends on how you discover it, some people
may not know all of these nuances and may be introduced to it as this... thing. My first lolita
"dress" was in like a plastic square bag, it was like a cosplay of a lolita. It wasn't actual lolita
fashion, but I quickly learned that that wasn't right and that I shouldn't be supporting those
like companies or buying dresses in that way, because it's not a costume it's clothing
Luckily the one that I chose wasn't actually that bad, but it still did come in like a square plastic bag
It was very much like a characterization of lolita which is wrong and weird. Alright, so where does this
dress lie in all of that? I have no idea, because it's not exactly portraying an exact character
Dress-up games are kind of a mystery to me, I don't know where this lies. I'd love to know what your
opinion is of this, because when you have just like a paper doll and you're dressing them up
they're not really a character with motivation and thoughts and feelings, they're just kind of a
blank model. I've not worn this wig with this set yet and I'm really really happy with it it's so
darling. I'm really enjoying this. Truthfully I have been wearing pieces from this set in my videos for
maybe a month or two now? I wore this hat in my Rilakkuma video with a Metamorphose dress
I've worn this apron with, um, my Miss Point dress in one of my videos, and also just the dress
This dress on its own with a different headpiece in a video. It's been secretly coming... not so secretly
I haven't worn this full set together many times yet and I really enjoy it. Is it a cosplay? I don't know
I'm curious to hear your thoughts as to where this lies since it's not a direct character recreation
it's clothes that are in a dress-up game, but what if real clothes were in a dress-up game for my
own comfort I probably wouldn't wear this entire set together to a lolita meetup, but that's more
because I don't really like to wear complete sets, in general, at all? I like to mix and match and use
that platform for creativity to make a coordinate, to make an outfit. I don't want
to wear the matching headpiece, the matching socks, the matching accessories, the matching
blouse. And there are lolitas who do enjoy doing that and that is perfectly valid but
I think just on a personal level, I like to create more and be more experimental, obviously, I feel
like most of you know that by now. But I feel like I would wear this out with friends, just
for fun on my own, or maybe to like a more casual meet, but I don't think that I would wear this
to like a high tea or really to like represent lolita fashion or to represent my style. I might
incorporate pieces of it, as I have already, but yeah, I really feel cute today. I feel cute in this!
Why do I actually like this? Noooo All my life I've just never liked animal prints,
of any kind, but I like the structure and shape of this dress so much that it's overpowering the
fact that it's an animal print and I guess the fact that it's a black and white animal print
I appreciate more? I can't really explain my hatred of animal prints, other than I don't like how it
looks and I've always found it kind of tacky. Now this is a struggle because matching exact whites
is a struggle. I don't think that this is the exact white that's in this and I also was contemplating
wearing white shoes with it, but I don't think they're exactly right, and I think that this
piece is challenging for that reason. If you try to mix other things into it that are white they
might look off. I feel like it might be easier to pair this with black or, even, I was contemplating
bringing in another colour like pink, and just having pink accessories and see how maybe that
would work. I love the sleeves of this dress, I love the wrist area, I love that it's mixed with gingham
I love gingham, I love the collar- my hat fell off! The thing about wearing wigs and hats is that you
can't really tell when your hat or headpiece is going to come off. I really hated this dress when
I saw it on their site and I thought that it was so dumb, but now wearing it I kind of love it
This dress is extremely comfy and I consulted Holly on what it is made of and she thinks that it is
micro fleece, which is also sometimes called minky Feels like a plushie, like I want to hug everyone
in this dress because I feel like a plushie. It's incredible. I have never had a lolita dress
that feels this way and I'm kind of obsessed with it It is very warm, which is fine in Canada, but may
struggle in warmer climates. When I first opened this I was really astonished and amazed by the
collar. I just thought it looked really clowny and I really wish that it was removable but it is not
because I would love to wear this in a clowny way I guess I could do some sort of rodeo clown look
in the future. I know everyone wanted to choose this to make me suffer but I actually love it
I'm so surprised, I can't believe it, I just- I feel so cute. Yeah, I feel like this is the one exception
that I'm going to make to wear animal print I think that this would also look cute with a black
and white rectangle headdress, and maybe having the base of it be black and then little hints
of white, even if the white doesn't totally match, it could work with it because it's less surface
area covered in white. I unfortunately could not find my rectangle headpiece before filming this
but I will definitely try it out in the future. I think I am definitely going to really enjoy this
dress and it's not just going to sit around. I am really excited about it there's also the word milk
all over it, which makes me think about my best friend who uses 'milk' in his username all the time
and was often nicknamed Milk because he just loves milk. So in a nice way it also reminds me
of him because it's like milk themed, milk themed coordinate. There is this like fuzzy milk bottle
on the dress which is also a really adorable detail. There was a brooch that came with this
and I'm going to try to style it with another bow and figure out kind of with black and silver
accessories, if I can style this in a different way. I think my idea is going to be like a milk
queen. We'll see how that goes. And I like to try using my black hair, and white and black
makeup instead, let's see how that goes. I ended up really loving both of the dresses you chose for me
Would you wear either of these dresses? And let me know your thoughts about lolita and cosplay
in the comments below. Also let me know if you have any ideas of more ways to style these pieces
I'd love to try more looks with them in future videos and on instagram