What do You Believe is Important to Make a Cohesive Coordinate?
Some fashions are ok, even promote
chaotic mish-mash and putting together things that clash. Lolita isn’t one of
them – we strive for perfection and for the whole outfit to flow together, from
the smallest to the largest piece. It’s a skill, putting together things that
are so cohesive that individual items blend together to form one whole coord,
one that we learn and polish all of our Lolita lives.
Having said this, Lolita is still a
fashion, which means that there’s loads of room for individuality. Therefore,
what I consider important when putting together coords that are cohesive may be
irrelevant to another person with a different approach to the fashion.
Therefore, take these things with a bit of distance, these are personal
opinions, not facts set in stone.
1. Hair and makeup
If you’re one of those people with a
haircut that naturally works with Lolita and just needs brushing – I envy you.
If you’re one of those people who look good and feels confident in Lolita
without makeup – go for it! For me hair and makeup is an integral part of the
coord and although I don’t wear makeup on a daily basis, I wouldn’t have the
confidence to wear Lolita and not put even a minimal amount of makeup and do something to my hair. These things can
make or break a look. Imagine: you’re going for a retro-inspired coord, but
have a split twin-tail wig and pastel overload makeup – your look won’t be
realised and will feel off. Similarly, if you’re aiming for OTT Sweet and piled
on a tonne of accessories, but you just left your hair be and not done anything
in terms of makeup – this will feel unbalanced and with so many accessories you
and/or your head will just disappear. Again, especially with makeup, I’m not
saying that it’s essential or forcing anyone to wear it. I’m merely stating
that it’s important to me and that with some outfits your hair and makeup can
make the difference between a put together look and merely putting on clothes.
2. Accessories
Photo by Angela Carone |
3. Skills
Ultimately though, all that you need
to put together cohesive and well-balanced coords is practice in your skills.
If you know what you’re doing, then you’ll know exactly how to work minimum
hair and makeup effort into a coord so that it still looks great or will pick
out the right accessory for any coord without thinking twice about it. But at
the same time, if you don’t practice this and if you aren’t used to putting
Lolita clothes together into outfits, then you may struggle to make it cohesive
even with just the basic pieces (unless they’re a full set because that’s
designed to work together). The good news is, from what I’ve glimpsed, is that
the majority of Lolitas, new and those a bit more experienced, have a good idea
of what they’re doing and what clashes. They just need to get comfortable with
basic outfits before moving onto the less obvious ones and to polish it all out
around the edges. And, as most often the rough edges are down to pragmatic
reasons like money, just save up and plan your wardrobe as much as you can to
ensure that every item purchased or made will be as versatile as possible.
We could further break down what
makes coords cohesive and what’s important to achieve that, but I think at this
point we’d be getting down to individual outfits, which is that bit too
specific. After all we have our own individual styles and aesthetic, so what
one person considers cohesive may still lack something to another. What things
do you look out for when ensuring that your coords are well put together and
balanced? Any pro tips out there to share with the rest of us? Leave them in
the comments and in the meantime this is what other participating bloggers have
said:
I always for accesory. However I better like to use themed jewelry than big items like bags, shoes and headwear etc. Another thing would be having matchning basic set in your main colours. I am not matching shadenazi, but it does ease coordinating.
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