Name 1 Trend You Really Love(d) and 1 You Don't Really Care For

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Now, if you think that lolita fashion isn’t as prone to trends as mainstream, then you haven’t seen a lot of it. Trends come and go, some people stick with some long beyond their popularity, whilst with others they are glad to keep them buried in the past. Whilst my journey in the fashion started properly relatively recently, so most of the really cult trends have passed me by (like split wigs or decora-like OTT Sweet), I still have some trends that I adore and some that I’m glad I wasn’t around to experience myself. For this week’s Lolita Blog Carnival prompt I actually used the latest issue of Dentelles fanzine, which is all about trends, to help jog my memory and pick just one favourite and one least favourite trend.

For the most part trends don’t bother me much. Of course, I’ll adopt the ones that I like, but the rest I’m happy to ignore and let people do their own thing. Most of the times the trend itself is great, simply not something that would work with my own style.

Let me start with the trend that I really don’t care for and that is creepy cute. Eyeball bow clips, pastel and neon bone-shaped accessories, kawaii monsters – none of that stuff ever appealed to me and it still doesn’t appeal to me now. At the time this was on, I wasn’t fully into the fashion yet, but my sempai still was, so I got to see a lot of it. When I knew her, she went from sweet lolita in its princess form to creepy cute and while it worked great for her, I still wasn’t a fan of that look and I cannot imagine myself in it. What bothers me about it is the mashup of two jarring styles – and while I know that that’s the intention, I don’t find it cute or pretty or pleasing to look at, not in lolita. The historical influences, even on sweet lolita, don’t gel well to me with the neon colours and the creepy elements. The creepy cute style seems so much better suited to other alternative styles, like decora or even pastel goth, where everything has a more modern look.

Photo found on Pinterest and edited to protect the
identity of the wearer. This is actually a nice coord,
but those bone tights absolutely don't go with it. And
it's how I feel about the whole creepy cute trend: that
it spoils otherwise pretty outfits and feels misplaced.

And as for a favourite trend, there were a couple that I considered. But after making them battle to the death, one emerged victorious: peignoirs and overdresses. They were the thing to have around 2016-ish (give or take), everyone seemed to have one and every coord you saw seemed to use it. But whilst most of them were a typical trend-following outfit, i.e. the peignoir was there for the sake of being there, not because it really enriched and gave the outfit some depth, I still really like it. Between then and now the peignoirs seem to have become a little more refined – there are fewer people wearing the vintage nightwear ones (peignoir longer that skirt hem was the biggest giveaway) and more designed specifically for lolita fashion, like the Shinku Rose tulleoverdress. A carefully coorded or styled peignoir can do so much: add depth and detail, create a feeling of lightness and airiness, change up an otherwise not very versatile dress, cover your shoulders without boiling you alive… And they are beautiful pieces in their own right, especially when made with great quality materials. It’s a look that appeals to me a lot and contrary to what you may think, a peignoir is a pretty versatile piece as it can fit multiple lolita substyles: classic, gothic, hime, ero, retro, larme etc., as well as lots of other kinds of J-fashion: mori-kei, cult party-kei, shironuri, EGA etc. But I won’t lie, generally most trends from like 2016-ish, like Madonna crowns and (within reason) the underskirts, sit well with me, that’s a lolita fashion era that is closest to me (probably because that’s when my own involvement in the fashion really boomed), so I had to pick something from around that time. It’s just that peignoirs won.

Dear Celine's peignoirs and how they're styled are
one of the most inspirational out there. Shame that
by the time I decided to get one, they were sold out.

What trends do you love(d) and dislike(d)? Are there any things that you’re looking forward to catching on more and becoming a trend in the fashion? As always, don’t forget to check out what the other participating bloggers picked as their most and least liked trends!

The Bloody Tea Party
Art du Noir

Sanakanin