Capricorn Season

Hello all and welcome to Capricorn Season! As a Capricorn myself, I obviously have a very vested interest in the topic, even if my own interest in and understanding of various things astrology is rudimentary at best. But when Bibliotheca agreed on zodiac as the theme for this month, I really wanted to celebrate my sign somehow - because let’s face it, we Capricorns are stuck between Christmas and post-New Year blues, we are not always getting the love that we deserve.

Image by Numerology Sign on Flickr.

How does all of that preamble link with the lolita fashion content of this blog? Tangentially, true, but also I think that astrology can be quite fun so long as it doesn’t guide one’s entire life. Just like fashion is fun and shouldn’t be one’s entire life with nothing else to fall back on to build a sense of identity. And thankfully there are plenty of things that we can do to combine the two. So using my own zodiac sign as an example, and scouring various astrology sites that seemed legitimate to collate as accurate info as I could, here are some ideas on how you could subtly incorporate your own zodiac sign into your coords whilst still keeping things tasteful and far removed from the realm of costumes. And it all boils down to the things associated with each sign.

Dominant Element

Each star sign is assigned to an element and for Capricorns this is earth. It represents us being grounded and steady, and includes the potential for growth and nurturing. Which is very fortunate if you are into classic lolita (and to some extent gothic, as sweet may be harder to tie in to this) because it makes adding nods to that so much easier. Coordinates with browns and greens, using floral pieces, any kind of nature elements (anyone up for bringing back the mori-kei nods?), all of that can be a great way to celebrate being a Capricorn – or any earth sign for that matter. In my eyes the perfect piece to encapsulate that is any Innocent World Millefeuille bolero that comes in brown. Innocent World uses a really lovely, rich shade of brown and the layers of lace do look as luscious as a flower bed – all the more so if the lace is rose-patterned. But maybe I am biased as a Millefeuille bolero collector…

Such a gorgeous earth tone, don't you think? (Aaaand I've lost all the non-classic lolitas now...)

Ruling Planet

Saturn, the second largest planet of our solar system, is also Capricorn’s ruler. Once you start reading into it, then you’ll notice the same themes cropping up with many of these attributes: stability, ambition, focus, maturity etc. for this sign, which Saturn as a planet embodies very well. And if you’re into lolita fashion, then this is surely the easiest motif to incorporate into your coord because, uh, come on, Vivienne Westwood’s orbs? Admittedly, I don’t own a real one, I’m ashamed to admit that I have a pair of knock off earrings that I bought before I became aware of it being a designer logo, but it would be lovely to one day get a real one. And for the Capricorns who are more into sweet, Angelic Pretty has you covered with the Space Lollipop pochette which is just a kawaiified Saturn. And if you want something even less obvious, just remember that Saturn’s rings doesn’t have to be literal. It’s just as acceptable to simply wear a tonne of rings and call that a day. Who’s to stop you?

It's dumb enough that I'd want it and out of my usual box enough that I'll stop myself.
Photo from Lolibrary.

Tarot Card

This was something that I didn’t know, that zodiac signs also had tarot cards corresponding to them, but since tarot cards also have links to planets, it sort of makes sense. For Capricorns the corresponding tarot card is The Devil, which as I am now learning, has a much darker and more badass meaning than the other two attributes. Not necessarily the most positive, but like anything with tarot, this is quite open to interpretation. For fashion purposes going down this route of incorporating the card’s meanings (violence, sexuality, temptation, material goods, generally representing one’s darker side) is probably a bit excessive, though for a big event I can totally see how that could lead to some incredible gothic coords. There’s nothing wrong with a more literal interpretation and I feel like this one is great for a Goth Capricorn because it means you get to wear horns. Antique Beast’s Hecate headdress is, of course, my favourite (seriously, that is an incredible piece, I will be replacing my other AB headdresses with this), though the horned bonnet from Violet Fane is also a fantastic choice here. Lean into your bad bitch side, basically.

I need this in white, this is such a great headpiece. And yes, I know that Antique Beast was taking reservations only earlier in December, but that was very poor timing for me.

Precious Stone

I admit, growing up the various ‘things’ for different zodiac signs had me feeling a bit salty because Capricorn ones weren’t always up to my taste. Except the precious stone. Garnets are incredibly chic and when you boil down to it, it’s just a more accessible ruby – the difference is mostly chemical and only slightly in colour (garnets are a little darker). And you know me, I do love red and I do love a red stone jewellery, so this Capricorn for sure would have an easy time incorporating this little zodiac nod into a coord. Whilst I don’t own any actual garnet jewellery myself (maybe one day?), the point in fashion can be to reference it instead of displaying it. So the obvious thing to use here is Puvithel’s Crystal Heart jewellery, but any kind of red stone jewellery will do. Or go down a less obvious route by creating a coordinate using some beautiful, rich shades of burgundy to evoke a sense of being a garnet. As much as I don’t miss the dress itself, BtSSB’s Full of Stars ~ Bright Starry Night ~ JSK that I had was probably the most luscious shade of wine red to work for a garnet.

This shade of red is a bit closer to a ruby than to a garnet anyway, buuuut why would you want to be this pedantic?

Flower

Last but certainly not least, having flowers associated with things is one of the most common things. Countries have their national flowers, there’s a whole language of flowers – zodiac signs have them too. And I was a little surprised to see a pansy be Capricorn’s. Not in a bad way, just unexpected until I started reading into it a little more and then it made sense. The connotation here is about being small but mighty, as well as a nod to the fact that Capricorns tend to be very thoughtful and the name pansy derives from the French word meaning “to think”. The obvious lolita item here is any sort of a pansy print, there are enough of them, just take your pick. This is something that I don’t have per se – but there are enough of them on BtSSB’s Polonaise Brillante. And I also have some pansy hair clips to match it and match it they do perfectly. Up until now this dress and most of the accessories that I buy to match it have been meaningful to me as repping my cultural heritage, so the fact that they can now double up by giving off that sweet-sweet floral Capricorn energy is extra nice.

These pansies look like the best girlies, they're the nice girls at school even if they still unwittingly end up intimidating people by being in a giggling group. Also, I am now a little nostalgic for the AYWi30C challenge...

All of this has me really excited to try something new with all of those pieces and to maybe do something special for my birthday in January. And all of these would make a great little birthday/zodiac-themed coord challenge, if anyone out there wants one.

Also, because zodiac is December’s Bibliotheca theme and we are approaching the holiday season, I’m sure that you all will have a lot more free time on your hands, so if you want to fill that time with some light reading, absolutely make sure to check out the Bibliotheca bloggers. As for me, this is the last post that I will share this calendar year, so I hope that all of you have a wonderful last few weeks of 2023 with plenty of rest and only good vibes.