Thursday, June 5, 2014

Five Years of Frill ~ My Lolita Timeline



Hello Everyone!

So International Lolita Day is only a few days away. This will actually be my first year actually celebrating and doing something besides staying in my house watching period dramas in my brand, lol. Also, this year marks five years since I’ve been seriously dressing in lolita fashion. Wow, time does fly, it does not seem that long since my first bodyline purchase and now my wardrobe is nearly all brand! In these past years I’ve dabbled in many different types of Japanese fashion; from himegyaru to visual kei, and most recently otome kei. But lolita has always been my first fashion love, kind of like how I love many types of sweets but red velvet cake is my favorite! XD

I made my first “lolita” purchase in 2009 and have been dressing in it ever since, even though I had been observing and researching the fashion from 2006-2008. I still have all of my English GLB’s too! My first three years were mainly experimenting with different substyles as well as trying to figure out of lolita was truly for me or maybe another fashion. By mid to late 2012 into early 2013 I finally figured out my niche. So here, pictures of my progress in lolita fashion from 2009 to now.



Otakon 2009, aka my first “lolita” dress
Yeah… I suppose all lolitas go through an ita stage in the beginning, and 2009 was more or less mine.  This dress is from, what I understand now to be, one of Milanoo’s many storefronts. It was “supposed” to look like BTSSB’s Karami babydoll jsk (based on what I know now to be a stolen BABY stock pic), however as an impressionable 17 year old I figured that this was just as good. It wasn’t until I found Bodyline’s site and got rather harsh feedback online about this coord (and Milanoo in general) that I threw this into the fire and started buying from Bodyline. A good thing too because I had decided to buy 3 more dresses 2 more blouses and 4 skirts from Milanoo and if I did not know better, I would have done so and probably would not have left my ita stage as quickly as I did.I'm not as ashamed of this pic as I used to be because I understand that this was simply the phase I had to go through before becoming a better lolita.



Anime USA 2009, aka DID I REALLY THINK IT WAS OKAY TO MEET KAYA IN THIS?!
Slightly better, not really, lol. This dress, bag and socks were my first purchase from bodyline ever, the mini hat from Hot Topic and unseen shoes from a Halloween store. I sort of fancied this as kind of “ero lolita” but honestly in some ways this might be worse than the outfit above, at least that had the proper lolita silhouette. The only thing I can see good with this is that it was when I started using wigs, long before wigs were a lolita staple.



2010 ~ Part 1, aka slowly leaving the ita phase
I received my first Bodyline haul for Xmas 2009 and in early 2010 my outfits slowly began to improve. I went to my first lolita meetup with local lolita’s in April that year.



2010 ~ Part 2, more slow improvement
Beginning to get the basics out of the way I began experimenting so see what style suited me best.



2011 ~ First pieces of brand and still trying to figure out my fav style
In this year, I suffered from a lot of insecurities regarding myself as a lolita because for a while I felt that I would never get any better. I was wrong. I started dressing in my first pieces of brand and also finally began to realize that I was indeed improving and my favorite style was gothic/classic. However I would not start dressing more in gothic/classic for a while. I also started this blog in 2011.



2012 Part 1 ~ Trying pastels
Acknowledging that sweet lolita was the most popular style in lolita and was also more accessible, most of my outfits for the first half of this year were sweet. I did like the style but not as much as gothic/classic and I was not (and still am not) much for the super OTT styles that many girls seemed to enjoy.



2012 Part 2 ~ More gothic lolita
This really is the style I feel most comfortable in. I also “attempted” punk lolita in this year as well.



2013 ~ More color
More gothic lolita, and one classic. A part of me really wanted to find a way to go back to sweet lolita, only because I really did not want to have so much black in my wardrobe. I started by not wearing much black this year at all and trying more colors in general. I also started buying from Taobao.



2014 ~ Finding a happy medium, and looking forward
I find that I look best in shades of blue, jewel tones in general and that sweet classic looks best on me along with gothic. In the future I may want to try kurohime again, as well as try more old school inspired coords. I also want to try OTT gothic!

All things considered, I believe that I have improved tremendously from my first disastrous milanoo purchase; and I believe that I will only become better. I honestly never thought that I would ever be as good a lolita as I am now and if I can improve than surely anyone can too. I hope you all enjoyed strolling down lolita memory lane with me, I did. I’m really looking forward to this weekend! ^.^

Yours Jasmine

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