15 Jun 2018

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

Before anything else: no, you’re not lost. Welcome to the new, refreshed blog! This has been in the works for a while now and I’m so glad the new look is finally live. It feels so much cleaner now, so while there’s still some stuff to do, the bulk of it is done. Massive, massive shoutout to Mimi Jamora (@mimisaurus on Instagram) who did the amazing chibi you see featured at the top, its an absolute masterpiece! Do follow her on her social media, she’s an amazing artist. And I also set up a Ko-fi page, so if you are able and willing to support this blog with a symbolic monetary gesture, please, do. But I always accept support in the form of comments here too - that’s a priceless currency that I will never say no to!

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!



8 comments:

  1. A trend I am not into?
    It must be hime, the stereotype hime looks with pink dress, lace, crowns and drowned in pearls/rhineatones looks like wearing a child's princess costume. The hair is fine, but make up and fake nails is just no no. It is more like the trucker version of princess, than elegance. I am also ok with the mules, they are cute. I think as single elements they are ok, but together, I am not fan of it. It is just too much.
    A trend I am into: Religious Image/mythology prints(not so big fan of crosses), I think it is extension of the folkloral theme, it is also a fun type of prints to coordinate, because that is so many layers of the story to pick from(minus those Daisy and milky cat crosses AP make, you know I am talking about), so it is really can range from simple on it's own, to ott.

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    1. I see were you're coming from with hime. While I personally quite like that style, it definitely takes an eye for detail to do it well to avoid looking tacky or childish. There are a few people who do hime lolita really well, Myrelli on Instagram is my personal favourite - her hime looks very rococo rather than 'trucker version of princess' (love that description btw).
      Haha, Angelic Pretty should be forbidden from doing weirdo crosses, that stuff is just big ole NOPE. But I do wish that there were more prints inspired by mythologies. All the Wa and Qi prints are kind of exploring that, but I want more! It can be tricky teritory though, as in we generally agree that ancient culture's mythologies are ok to use and won't hurt anyone's religious feelings (even though there are still people worshipping e.g. Ancient Greek gods), but for example the Hindu pantheon of gods, whilst incredibly beautiful and rich in stories to depict in prints, might not sit well with practicing Hindus. :?

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  2. I LOVE your new blog layout! And that chibi of you is so perfectly sassy, I love it!

    I'm with you on not being a massive fan of creepy cute, but I loved the sister style of bittersweet, darker and punkier but without the icky motifs (I'm totally not a skeleton person).

    I actually skipped this topic because I had a LOT of trouble figuring out things I particularly liked and didn't like. I just float along like a neutral jellyfish lol.

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    1. Thank you! Mimisaurus did the best job, as soon as she sent me the sketch I was in love and then it kept getting better! ToT

      See, I've absolutely no qualm with bittersweet. It's not something that I'd wear, but at least it makes sense (i.e. the themes are still cohesive) and regardless of whether people accept it as a thing that actually exists, plenty of people have done it really well. But I'm not sure if I saw even one creepy cute *lolita* coordinate that I'd be like "this is well done" - other J-fashion styles yes, but not lolita.

      Haha, I get that. I literally was like: Madonna crowns or peignoirs? And then instantly remembering other trends like scepters and sashes and OTT Sweet and all that. Trends I like could probably be a prompt on its own :P

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  3. I absolutely love peignoirs but think I only have one and it's not really a flowy piece like many others have, I should get on changing that. There are definitely so many to choose from in all sorts of colors and styles.
    As for creepy cute, I do like it but I feel it has to be really well put together, it can't just be slapped with things that don't make sense.
    If I were to pick a trend I'd like to try to incorporate more (going off topic here) is more gemstones and pearl stickers applied in make up. I think for tea parties and OTT coords they do make a look more dreamy. What about you?

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    1. I don't have one either, to be honest. I'm thinking of getting the one from Shinku Rose, but I can't stop overthinking this decision at the moment, so I end up not doing anything. Still have time to decide, I guess, before she closes her pre-order window...

      See, I'm yet to see a creepy cute lolita coordinate that would make sense to me and that'd I'd really like. The majority of creepy cute things slapped together at random is so overwhelming that it must be drowning out those genuinely good coords.


      Oooh, I forgot that they were a thing (a thing that I've done myself as well lol)! They're definitely great for tea parties and it's such an easy way to spice up even simple makeup, which can make such a massive difference when you might feel that your makeup skills aren't that amazing. I guess I'd really like to adopt the larme-kei style coordinates a little bit more. I'm in love with mesh blouses in lolita, but the rest of the styling needs to match as well. Oh, and I'm in love with the whole sleepy-kei trend that's been going on, so I'd love to do something like that too! (Haha, I guess this last one just cleared my mind about whether to get a peignoir or not :P)

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  4. The new layout is really cute! :D

    The new trend of short, lolita-specific peignoirs are adorable! They look so delicate however, I worry that they'll snag on something. While shortening peignoirs is a permanent mod, fairy kei is not really a thing anymore </3 maybe it's not a bad thing to shorten it to wear with lolita exclusively.

    About creepy-cute, I understand why it strikes you as off, since there's such a huge contrast in the elements. I love the pops of color in the coord you used as an example, but I do agree that the tights are a little bit jarring. I feel like it could work, if everything was similarly detailed (maybe with more gothic prints and elements like the Muchacha or Morun x Muuna Stoik tights?

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    1. I have the same fear, it's a big reason why I don't have many chiffon pieces. But I did brave it and ordered a peignoir from Shinku Rose - here comes taking being careful to the next level lol!

      Definitely! I can totally imagine a simple (i.e. non-print) gothic coord working with creepy cute because then the cute would be coming from that Victorian doll influences and the ruffles etc, rather than from jarring two different print themes like it is in like sweet lolita creepy cute attempts.

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