Why Does Lolita Have So Many Rules?

Posted on June 28, 2016 by Raine Dragon

One thing that seems to really rub some people the wrong way is the number of “rules” that you have to follow when you are just starting out as a lolita. I’ve seen a lot of people, particularly outsiders or new lolita comment that lolita is too strict, or that there are too many rules and thus it isn’t fun. People also often make comments about how there aren’t rules in fashion in general, and so all the rules in lolita are weird. I agree that the number of rules in lolita is weird, but not in the way that most people mean it.

To explain properly what I mean, I first need you to do a thought exercise with me. I want you to imagine that you have never seen a movie or sitcom where people worked in an office. I want you to imagine that your parents, nor your parents friends, nor your friends, nor yourself had ever worked in an office. So, you have never seen the inside of an office, you have never seen someone who works in an office. You had a phone interview and you start an office job tomorrow. What do you wear? How do you figure it out?

Personally, I’d start by googling it. So here is a google image search for “What do you wear in an office?”

As you can see, it seems like, as a woman, I should be wearing a pencil skirt or dress, no bangs, a jacket, yellow, grey, blue, pink and white, with an occasional evening gown or santa hat. In fact, a good 1/3 of the things shown here don’t fit into the dress code at my work place, and/or are simply not office wear. If you based an office work wardrobe off of these results, you would likely be the office version of “Ita”, especially if these clothing cuts don’t flatter your body type!And while work clothing is easy to use as an example because many places have dress codes which explain in detail what is or isn’t acceptable, there are rules for pretty much everything, here are just a few that many of you probably follow without even thinking about them!

Women’s and Men’s coat buttons have specific sides
Socks don’t go with sandals
Light socks with light shoes/pants, dark socks with dark shoes/pants
Shopping is done in casual clothing, sometimes work wear, but never a ball gown
Flipflops are not worn with slacks or evening wear
Club wear is not worn to the dentist
Jeans can be paired with teeshirts or blouses
Teeshirts can not be paired with slacks
Button up shirts are tucked into high waist pencil skirts
Hose is typically not worn with open toe shoes
Clashing colors are avoided
Your left shoe should be from the same pair as your right shoe
Skimpy clothing is not worn to church/offices/school
Men typically do not wear dresses, but both genders can wear pants
Men’s clothing typically doesn’t have lace on it, or decorative bows
Women typically shave their legs, but not their arms
Makeup is typically applied to the face, and rarely applied to the feet
False eyelashes might be worn with a serious makeup look, but false mustaches are silly/costumes
Socks can still be worn in the summer, but mittens can not
Certain areas of the body are almost always covered for modesty
Only the bride / wedding party can wear white to a wedding

Some of these are very silly, and some of them are things which some people intentionally don’t follow, and some are more likely to be ignored than others, but they are just a small handful of everyday fashion rules that most people think almost nothing about. The reason we rarely think about these things is because we know they are normal from observing other people or from being taught at a young age. I’m sure there are a lot of “rules” that are even more ubiquitous, but I’m actually having trouble thinking of examples that I can put into words because many of the “rules” are so internalized that it’s hard to express them.

So what does that have to do with lolita? Well, most people who start wearing lolita don’t spend a long time around other lolita before they put together their first outfit. They don’t have a whole childhood of seeing people in lolita, wearing it properly. They don’t observe and/or wear hundreds or thousands of coordinates put together by other people prior to dressing themselves on their own for the first time. So all those things that are intrinsic about the proper way to match a way that a specific group wears clothing has to be taught to new lolita. Things have to be spelled out explicitly so that they know what type of fabric and what skirt length and if you put on your tights or your bloomers first.

So when someone writes up the “rules for lolita” for a newbie, what they are doing is taking the essence of lolita and saying “ok, if you do all of these things like this, you should reach a point where what you are wearing is lolita”. However, the opposite isn’t always true. If you break a single rule (let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you don’t wear a blouse), you aren’t necessarily not in lolita. Likewise there are cases where a santa hat might be appropriate office wear. It’s not always, it’s not even most of the time. But on December 24th? Sure.

If you start out following the rules, as closely as you can, and you interact with other lolita, and you look at pictures of other lolita, as time goes on, slowly you will build up a sense of what lolita is, and how it should look. The longer you wear the fashion, and the more involvement you have with it, the better your sense of what is and isn’t lolita gets. After wearing it “by the rules” for a while, eventually, you start to get a feel for what rules can be broken and when. You start to understand what lolita actually is, and how to get that look by combining elements that may or may not strictly follow the rules.

Time also tends to give someone a more realistic idea of what is and isn’t possible when it comes to lolita. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people point out tiny color miss-matches on Closet of Frills as if it was a show stopper. People who are still young to lolita often critique lolita coordinates as if they are illustrations where it’s possible to exactly match every color in a dress exactly in other pieces like blouses or shoes. In reality, this is usually not the case. Heck, half of the time with brand releases the socks aren’t even exactly the same color as the dress and they go together in a set!

The socks, coat and dress in this set are all totally miss-matched shades of pink!

I think in part, because new lolita come into the fashion and adopt the “follow the rules until you make it” mind-set, many people who are semi-new to lolita, where they are just getting to the point where they can follow the rules pretty regularly, are overly concerned with making sure everyone around them follows the rules to the T. Combine that with over-enthusiasm for the rules, with unrealistic expectations and a sprinkling of newbies who do not want to be told what to do and you get a situation where some people are just very, very critical and the fashion appears to be very rule-based and strict.

At the end of the day, when giving (or receiving) concrit on coordinates, I think it’s important to consider the coordinate as a whole and what the motivation is for the concrit. If the point is to show off that you “know the rules” more than the person posting, or because you are offended that the coordinate doesn’t “follow the the rules” in your opinion, and the person isn’t new to lolita and doesn’t actually look bad, sometimes it’s best to simply accept that they may not have been trying to follow the rules in the first place, and that it’s ok; not every coordinate has to be textbook lolita. After all, fashion is personal and about self expression. If everyone wore the same textbook coordinates all the time the fashion would stagnate and not grow or change. Granted, there is a point where something divulges so much from what is typically thought of as lolita that it stops being lolita, but there are so many examples of textbook lolita out there now that policing every coordinate that is borderline does nothing but stifle innovation and reduce the wearability of the clothing. I’d rather see a creative person pull off a stunning inovative coordinate that skirts the edges of the rules, than another neutral blouse / neutral shoes / neutral socks + colored main piece and bow coordinate any day. Have fun with it! Be cute! Wear what makes you happy!

Buying and Selling Lolita Second Hand – Common Listing Mistakes and Questions

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Raine Dragon

Most people understand the basics; you make a post to egl-comm-sales, or lace market or lolita sales groups on facebook as a seller, and as a buyer you simply comment or press a button to buy the items you want.

However, western lolita secondhand sales sites have their own vocabulary which even some established lolita might be tripped up by.

Proof Photo

A proof photo is a photo of the item that shows it’s current condition and proves that you have it in your personal possession. Once you have taken your proof photos, you should not wear or use the item. If you do, you should take a new set of proof photos. If you are the seller, you should take a close-up photo of any stains, rips or other damages. You should also show any detachable parts in your photos. Proof photos sometimes contain a unique item or a slip of paper with the user’s name. It’s typically acceptable to politely request a seller take a new proof photo containing a slip of paper with their name if you have reason to doubt the authenticity of the listing (new seller with no feedback, item over $500 USD from someone with little feedback, suspected stolen photos, etc).

When looking at proof photos, if the seller has the same set up for multiple listings, it can be a fairly good indication that the photos are genuine. If a seller has little feedback, suddenly is selling lots of items at prices that are too good to be true, and/or is only selling rare and valuable items, OR all of their photos are drastically different (different lighting, quality, background) or only stock photos it can be an indication that something isn’t quite right.

If you suspect a photo might not be genuine, try using google image search or tineye.

Google Reverse Image Search:

Go to http://images.google.com
Click the camera icon
Select “Paste image URL” for images online on public sites. OR, select the “Upload an Image” option for images you have saved.
Click “Search by Image”
If google knows about the photo being elsewhere, you should see results like this:

In this case, I can see that the photo is in use on multiple egl-comm-sales posts… but they are all by the same person, and that’s the person who’s photo I took to look at, so I can determine that it’s probably not stolen. It’s important to note that many people have different usernames on EGL-Comm-Sales and Lace Market, so finding a duplicate isn’t a 100% a sure-fire way of proving the person stole the photo.In a case like this, if I was still concerned, I might ask for a proof photo with their name on it just to be sure. (In this case, I know the seller and trust her so it’s really a non-issue. I just happened to be looking for pictures of this dress today! XD)

Stock Photo

A photo provided by the manufacturer. This is useful for advertising a sales listing because it tends to be a very clear photo and people tend to recognize it, but should never be the only photo in the listing. If you see a listing with only a stock photo, you should ask for a proof photo to be safe.

EGL Sales Tags

egl2 All EGL sales tags start with a !. This was done so that they would alphabetize together in the tag list. So !WTB, !DS, !DT all have the ! first simply because it was convenient on live journal. If you are not on livejournal, omit the ! all together, unless you are using it as normal punctuation in a sentence. If your post/listing contains multiple types of sales (perhaps you want to trade something and sell something else and buy something else) you can list all the potential tags with a slash between them in the topic title. For example: !WTB/!DT/!DS

!DS

!DS stands for “Direct Sale”, and can be written as “DS” as well. This is something you want to sell. You can make a DS post on pretty much any platform.

!DT

!DT stands for “Direct Trade”, and can be written as “DT” as well. This is something you want to trade, often for a specific match. You have item A, you want item B (often the same item in another color or cut). You can make a DT listing on egl-comm-sales or most FB groups. You can not make a DT listing on lace market.

!WTB

!WTB stands for “Want to Buy”, and can be written as “WTB” as well. This is something you want someone else to sell to you. You can make a WTB listing on egl-comm-sales or most FB groups. You can not make a WTB listing on lace market.

!DA

!DA stands for “Direct Auction”, and can be written as “DA” as well. This is something you want to sell via auction. You can make a DA post on pretty much any platform, however, the terminology is not really used outside of LJ. A LJ auction is totally low tech. People comment on the listing with their bids and the seller sets some deadline for when it’s over and then calls it based on the time stamps of the posts.

!EA

!EA stands for “Ebay Auction”, and can be written as “EA” as well. This is pretty much exclusively an egl-comm-sales thing, and it’s the tag you use to indicate you are advertising an auction you are running on Ebay.

Sales Tags Not Used on EGL

WTT

WTT stands for “Want to Trade”. This is an alternate to DT.

WTS

WTS stands for “Want to Sell”. This is an alternate to DS.

Item Condition

NWT

NWT stands for “New With Tags”. This is a piece of clothing that still has the paper sales tags attached. If the tags are removed at any point other than by shop staff, it’s not “NWT”. The price portion of the tag may be torn or cut off (this is done by some shops when items are on sale to mark them as non-returnable, and by some shopping services to avoid customs).

This headbow is “NWT”. Note the dot sticker. It indicates that I bought it on sale.

If you wear an item beyond trying it on (like you would in a store dressing room) and leave the tags attached, it can NOT be listed as new with tags. Doing so is fraudulent.

If you try on an item that is new with tags, inspect it before listing it for sale for things like makeup, runs, or other small flaws. Many people will mention that they tried something on if they did, but some don’t.

Also, including the tags you removed in the package with a used dress does not make it “with tags”. Tags are only valuable as “proof” that the item hasn’t been worn.

NWOT

NWOT stands for “New WithOut Tags”. This is usually a piece of clothing that was purchased on sale or received in a lucky pack. Or something someone has had for a while, removed the tags from, and didn’t wear. It’s very common to see innocent world items that are NWOT for sale. They almost always come from lucky packs. It’s important to look at the proof photos though as some people might forget that an item came from an outlet pack, or might lie about something being NWOT when it’s really used and just in good shape.

Mint

Mint condition is typically something that is new and still packaged from the store. Never worn, never tried on, never even opened. Don’t use this if you can avoid it though. It’s confusing because mint is actually a color, and some people really miss-use it in place of “good”.

New

New means the item has never been worn. If it’s been worn, it’s not new. If you bought it on auction, and it didn’t say if it was used, and it doesn’t have tags, it’s best to list it as “like new”, not new.

Like New

Like new means the item has been worn OR you don’t know if it has been worn, but it looks new. There should be absolutely no damage, and it should be pretty much impossible to tell if the item is new or used.

Used

Anything that isn’t 100% new. Any damage should be listed. Some people break this down further, but usually just Used + the damage is enough.

Trying things on

Trying something on is typically defined as putting it on to see if it fits. If you have it on for more than 10-15 minutes, are sweating, go outside and/or get makeup, lotion, or food on the item, it’s not trying on anymore, it’s “wearing” it.

If something is too small and trying it on pulls at the seams, you MUST mention the damage when selling it.

Most items it’s up to you if you want to mention you tried it on or not (mentioning you did not try it on is a selling point, and I always mention it when I get something very small in a lucky pack to make sure people know I didn’t “stretch it out”.)

Some items, however, you should ALWAYS mention if you tried them on

Socks & Tights (foot germs + they stretch out)
Cutsews & Sweaters (they stretch to fit the wearer)
Shoes (if they were too small for you, or you didn’t wear socks)
Wigs (for hygienic reasons)
Bathing suits / undergarments (for hygienic reasons)
Bloomers (it bothers some people)
Lashes or Other Makeup (for hygienic reasons)
Contacts (for hygienic reasons)
Earrings (for hygienic reasons)

What about things that are NWT, but damaged?

So, you try something on and it tears, or gets make up on it. Or it’s new, and comes to you messed up, or you buy a B-grade item. When listing these items, it’s best to list them as “NWT – Damaged” or “NWT – Defective”.

For example, if you buy a bodyline dress and it’s printed backwards, you can list it as NWT – Defective, and then explain the damage. These items should be marked down a little from the market price.

Things you should never buy used, and why

Contacts / Circle lenses
If they are actually opened and have been used, don’t do it. Ever. Seriously. This is like just a hair safer than sharing needles or having unsafe sex with strangers. Eye fluids are body fluids and no one wants that.If they are sealed and unused, I still wouldn’t do it. Mostly because you don’t know 100% for sure where someone got them, how they stored them and when they expire. Even if they are a “brand” name, they could still be fakes from a shady taobao shop, or could have been stored wrong. It’s just not worth risking your eyes.
Eyelashes
If they are open and used, it’s just not worth it. You run the risk of an eye infection, plus there is the whole used glue thing. Buy some cheap ones at the drug store instead.
Makeup
Yes, you can pour/spray rubbing alcohol into pressed make up and yes, people do says that will sterilize it. But after paying the cost of it + shipping, how much are you really saving? And is a couple bucks worth the shorter shelf life and the possibility of a skin infection or breakout? You also don’t know how old it is. On a side note, the same thing goes for clearance makeup and makeup in those stores that advertise designer overstock; you just don’t know how long it’s been on the shelf.
Earrings
You are probably thinking “oh I’ll just wash them with (boiling water / alcohol / bleach / soap)”. Sadly, this is not enough to kill everything out there, including things like Hep C. Sadly, you have no way of knowing if the person wearing the earrings before you had any infections or if their piercing holes were fully healed or bled at all due to cuts or allergic reactions. If you absolutely have your heart set on a pair of used earrings, contact a local tattoo and piercing shop and ask if they can autoclave them for you (it should apparently be a relatively inexpensive thing if they will do it according to people online). The only thing to keep in mind is that you can’t really autoclave most plastics, so this is more of something you might have done with vintage metal stuff than, say, angelic pretty plastic things. That said, if you have dangle earrings that are plastic that you bought second hand and absolutely must have, you could have the hooks changed out by a jewelry maker (or do it yourself), but again, be careful and keep in mind that they could have some really nasty stuff on them.

Additional things I usually don’t buy used, and why

Shoes
Shoes shape themselves to your feet. Used shoes are going to be shaped to someone else’s feet, and not be as comfortable. The only exception to this in my book are shoes someone wore once. I see a lot of VW x Melissa heels people bought to wear to prom or their wedding on ebay, and that’s usually a short enough time that it’s not a big deal.
Socks/Tights
The possibility of foot fungus just skeeves me out.
Wigs that have been worn
I am one of those people that turns their head too much. I wear out wigs. I need every moment I can get. It’s not cost effective for me to buy a wig that is half way to the grave already.
Petticoats
Petticoats deflate, and used petticoats are usually partially deflated. Not worth it to me.
Bloomers
Yeah, yeah, they are shorts you wear over underwear, I know, I know, but… I don’t know man, I just don’t trust them.

Environmental things you should disclose if you are the seller

Always mention it if:

You smoke or live in a house where a smoker lives (It smells + allergies)
You have a warm-blooded pet (Allergies: pet dander gets into your house dust, which gets on everything, even when pets don’t come in contact with items.)
You have bed bugs, flees, lice or another bug infestation that can be transferred (Your buyer can isolate the item in a plastic container or put in the dryer on high heat if they know. If they don’t know, you can potentially infest their whole house. Don’t be that person.)
You have house mold (Allergies: spores get into the air and onto everything)
A stain is blood or any other body fluid (it’s a safety issue.)

Shipping & Payment

When paying / collecting payment, use paypal, it’s the most common, and it provides protection to both buyer and seller.

Ship everything with insurance by default. You can ask a seller not to insure a package for cheaper shipping, or offer a buyer the choice of not having insurance, however, if a package is shipped uninsured and is damaged in the mail, it is the buyer’s responsibility, not the sellers.

If you buy something and the package arrives with undisclosed damage, first contact the seller. Always open packages as soon as you can (within a day of delivery) and inspect the item right away. That way the seller really can’t claim that you wore the item and caused the damage yourself.

What to do:

Insured item comes with postal damage

Take a photo of the packaging before you open it if the packaging is open or otherwise very beat up
Open the item and inspect it. Take photos of any damage or missing parts (show everything in the package in a clean, clear area in one photo to document a missing item)
Contact the seller.
The seller then should file a claim with the post office.
The claim will take time to process, be sure to provide the seller with any information the post office asks them for. If an item is damaged, they may ask how much it will cost to clean / fix it instead of completely refunding it.
If the post office approves the claim, the seller will then get reimbursed.
The seller then reimburses the buyer.

Insured item never arrives

If the item has tracking, check the tracking. If too long has passed (2+ weeks on a 2 day package for example), it may be lost.
Contact the seller.
The seller then should contact the post office to do an inquiry.
The post office will investigate. After the investigation, if the package is not found, the seller will then get reimbursed.
The seller then reimburses the buyer.

Uninsured item never arrives

If the item has tracking, check the tracking. If too long has passed (2+ weeks on a 2 day package for example), it may be lost.
Contact the seller.
The seller then should contact the post office to do an inquiry.
The post office will investigate, and try to find the package.
If the package is not found, no one is reimbursed. The buyer simply takes the loss.

Item arrives with undisclosed damage

Take photos of the damage.
Decide if you are willing to have the item repaired / cleaned, or if you want to return it.
If you plan on having the item cleaned / repaired, get a quote for how much it would cost.
Contact the seller. If you would like to repair it / clean it, politely request the amount it would cost to do so as a refund.
Hello!
I just got the [item]. Unfortunately, when I was looking at it, it looks like there is a mark on the skirt. I took it in to my local dry cleaner and they said they could probably get it out, and it would cost $15. Would you be willing to cover the cost of the cleaning, as the item was not as described in the listing?
The seller may come back with a counter offer. If it’s close enough for you, then you can accept. If the seller refuses, you can then escalate to a paypal claim. If the seller won’t do a partial refund and asks you to return the item for a refund, this may be the only resolution.

When mailing, always keep the postal receipt and insurance / tracking info until after the package has safely gotten to the buyer. If you are shipping a lot of things, make a folder for them and just file them as you get them so they are all in one place.

Is there anything that ever tripped you up as a buyer or seller? Let me know in the comments!

10 Myths We Need To Stop Telling To New Lolita

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Raine Dragon

There are a lot of myths that I see tossed around, especially to newer lolita.

1. Quality lolita clothing is always made of cotton

When was the last time you bought a dress that was actually 100% cotton? Do you even know offhand? 10 years ago almost everything was cotton. Today it’s less than half for many major brands. AP made Whip Jacquard (which is a jacquard, not a typical flat cotton), Dolly Cat, Wonder Gallery, University, Classic Fairy Tales, Fantastic Carnival (which has a linen-like texture) and Melty Berry Princess in 100% cotton. The rest of the main pieces on their web shop at the time of writing (representing 16 other series)are chiffon, polyester, or polyester/cotton blends.

Many of bodyline’s nicer things today aren’t 100% cotton, and many, many experienced lolita are moving away from wrinkle-prone cotton towards lighter chiffon and polyester pieces which don’t look rumpled at the end of a hot day.

2. Handmade/Indie (not from Taobao) is the cheapest option to buy

It’s been a very long time since this was true. I’ve bought secondhand brand dresses for $30 on multiple occasions.

Bodyline’s prices have gone up in the last 5-10 years, but their quality has also gone up, and with the weak yen, their stuff has become incredibly affordable again.

With the current Yen-to-USD conversion rate, all of these Bodyline pieces are under $35USD; the solid colored skirt is less than $10 USD.

Meanwhile, handmade and indie lolita isn’t what it used to be when this was the rule of thumb. Sure, you do still have a few people on Etsy sewing quilting weight cotton into elastic waist skirts for the cost of the fabric, but that’s not common. Lolita is so easily available for so cheap, that there isn’t a market for filler indie brand items, at least not in the way there was 10-or-so years ago. Most non-Japanese and non-Chinese indie brands cater to people who are looking for custom sizing, or high quality, detailed hand work. Or they are producing their own fabric prints and operate much like smaller Japanese brands do. Indie designers who are making comparable-to-brand products actually tend to charge the same or more than brands due to the fact that they have higher out of pocket costs for materials and labor. When you are making 100 or 200 of the same thing, you can buy materials in bulk, and the price goes down a little. When you make just 1-50 of something the price for the materials is much higher.

3. It’s cheaper to make your own lolita clothing than to buy it.
So, the cheapest lolita main piece you can make is a basic skirt with an elastic waist, and a ruffle at the bottom instead of lace. Different tutorials suggest between 1.25 yards, and 2.25 yards of fabric. Let’s say, for the sake of ease of calculations, that it will take 2 yards even.

So, I hopped over to fabric.com, and it looks like the cheapest fabric they have that is suitable is some cotton broadcloth in solid colors on clearance for $2.48/yard. This purple isn’t my first choice; but it was cheap. If you shell out another 50 cents per yard you can get black. So $2.48 x 2 = $4.90 for fabric.

Now, to that you need to add some Elastic for the waist. Let’s get some 1″ White Flat No-Roll Elastic, and it’s sold by the yard, so we will get a yard. That’s $1.48 for a yard.

Lastly, we need some thread. A spool of 110 yards of purple all purpose thread is $1.75.

So, our total is $4.90 + $1.48 + $1.75 = $8.13 USD. For a no-trim, elastic waist skirt with no details at all. It’s cheap, but it’s really boring. Adding lace to just the hem pushes it way over the price of a comparable skirt from bodyline. I’d like to stop and mention that the bunny pocket skirt from bodyline above costs 1,000yen, which is $8.34 USD with today’s conversion rate.

So, yes, if you make the cheapest possible skirt by hand you can save 11 cents over the cheapest option from bodyline, but at the end of the day, handmade lolita just can’t compete with manufactured lolita on the pricing scale when it comes to things that use lace and other trims.

Where handmade is going to save you money is if you want something very specific with lots of heirloom details like pintucks. However, you have to have the time and skill to do it yourself. Really, handmade is a good option not for cost, but for people who enjoy making garments by hand. If you don’t enjoy it, or don’t have the skill and cost is you main point, this isn’t the way to go.

4. AP is all Made in China, Baby is all Made in Japan.

This is a strangely prevailing myth that would be solved in a moment if anyone who owned these brands looked at the tags. Baby no longer makes all of their garments in Japan, and AP makes their garments in many countries (including China and Japan). I hear this come up a lot in arguments about why a specific brand costs more, is replicated more, or is of a higher quality.

5. Lolita clothing made in Japan is higher quality than lolita clothing made in China.

Japan has a much smaller garment manufacturing industry than China does and higher wages. A local, Japanese factory is going to be closer to where the brand is located, so they have cheaper freight costs, no import fees and the designers are more easily able to check and make sure the production is going the way they want. That said, production in other countries, including China is not necessarily sub-par. Wages are cheap, there are far more people with higher levels skills, and there are more factories specializing in garment manufacturing. That means that outsourcing to China allows brands to pay less for better work than they would at a local sewing house. So outsourced sewing done outside of Japan can actually be better than work done inside of Japan! It all depends on what sewing house a brand contracts with, and their particular level of skill.

6. Only popular brands/prints get replicas (counterfeited).

It depends on the replica manufacturer. Some, like Oo Jia take surveys and base what they make on surveys, and borrow legitimate pieces from lolita (or get agents to buy pieces for them from brands, because the will ban replica makers from purchasing from their shops when caught). However, most counterfeiters, like Dream of Lolita and the manufacturers that the ebay shop ling_lam2008 resell from replicate whatever they can get their hands on. This results in a fair number of replicas where the real piece sells for less used than the fake does new.

The dress at left went on clearance on Innocent World’s site before it popped up as a replica on Dream of Lolita, for example. There have also been many cases of random Putumayo punk prints being stolen (beyond cat’s window which is well known).

7. Anyone can wear lolita

Ok, ok, before you get out your pitchforks and chase me out of town, hear me out on this. Not everyone can wear lolita. Some people can’t afford to buy lolita. That’s not to say that they aren’t permitted to wear it if someone lends them things, or to buy it later if their financial situation changes. What I am saying is that we have a very unhealthy mentality in this fashion where we argue with people who say they can’t afford to buy lolita / need to sell off their lolita for really sound logical financial reasons. Time and again, I see people encouraging young people to make poor financial choices. I see people offering payment plans, and arguing with people who say they can’t afford things. I see people saying they are going to leave lolita because they need the money, and people argue against it. It’s fine to find it sad that a friend is leaving lolita, or to try to be encouraging to someone, but we need to stop ignoring that lolita costs money and some people really can’t afford lolita. It’s just not healthy.

8. [Only] Black x White is [Always] Ita

Sure, cheap white lace on bad black polyester is probably the worst combo possible, but it’s gotten to the point where new lolita think old school coords are bad just because they are black and white.

And most lolita aren’t going to run into the old school maid-like black and white costumes that plagued the lolita world 5-10 years ago. We aren’t saving people from Bodyline lace monsters any more because even bodyline doesn’t sell most of their lace monsters. What people are finding is sites like lightinthebox, where they are shown monstrosities in costume satin, stolen stock photos and ballgown length abominations. Most of which aren’t black and white. Milanoo might not sell the worst of what the lolita world has to offer anymore, but similar sites like lightinthebox still do. The new lolita of 2015 should be pointed towards reputable sites, and given a list of things to look out for (satin ball gowns, for starters), but telling them to skip out on black x white isn’t enough to save them anymore.

9. Taobao Brands aren’t “Brands” / Everything in the GLB is a Brand (and only Those Things)

You know what they call the bigger taobao brands in china? Brands. Because they are. For years we have defined a brand, in short hand, as “anything in the GLB”. Chocolate Chip Cookie, and Pina Sweet Collection are in the Gothic Lolita Bible. They are tiny little indie brands. But, we call them brands. Meanwhile, there are brands on TaoBao like Krad Lanrete that have sold thousands upon thousands of pieces and operate on a much larger scale than a lot of small Japanese indie brands that aren’t considered brands. While I wouldn’t consider all taobao based brands “brands”, just like I wouldn’t consider bodyline a brand (low level of design creativity, mid-range quality), I think we need to re-evaluate what we consider to be a brand. I think the Gothic Lolita Bible has realized this as well, as they have started to feature some Chinese-based brands in their pages.

10. Just Replace the Lace On That ____ and it Won’t Be Ita!

I’ve told people this. I’ve seen people tell people this. But, how many of you have ever done this? Have you ever taken a really whatever piece of clothing that you got cheaply and replaced the lace with high quality lace? No? I surely haven’t. It’s not easy, and it’s not cheap. Let’s be real here. You can replace that blouse/skirt/dress with a better one from bodyline or with second hand brand for how much you would spend to replace the lace with quality lace from a local store. Yeah, sure, you could buy lace on taobao using a shopping service, and wait for it to come in and then use that… but the time and skill we are talking at that point is ridiculous for a thrifted blouse or a milanoo dress. (You have to know how to find lace on taobao, how to tell if lace is good, how to actually remove and replace lace, how to use a SS… it’s not a small task.) And it saves them, what, $5?
The answer to “can I save this ita thing”, unless someone really wants to use it to learn how to sew / likes the idea of sewing for the sake of sewing should be “no, you should sell it on ebay”. List it as a Halloween costume if you feel guilty about calling it lolita, but sell it off; don’t waste time and money on something that isn’t good quality, just to make it sort-of-ok.

Crimson Reflections

Because sometimes the world is too compex for black and white

Category Archives: Lolita 101