1 Dress 4 Looks Take 33

Although I had wanted to add green to my wardrobe for a substantial amount of time, as it’s not particularly common in lolita fashion, it took me a while to find the right shade. I’m glad I waited because then I was able to not only get this amazing dress, but also support a fabulous local indie brand, After Midnight. This is the dress that every Kawaii background Slytherin needs - but it’s also so much more than just that.

Look 1: First Semester

| Infanta Swan Lake blouse | Putomayo socks | BtSSB Antique Ribbon shoes | vintage hat | offbrand blazer | Innocent World Original Crown Tassel clip | Violet Fane The Apotheque brooch |

Or, as I call it in my head, Madeleine Slytherclaw. The official name of this dress is The First Semester, so why not play up those school vibes? This is probably the most experimental coord of the lot here as I wanted to see if my completely offbrand, non-lolita blazer would work. The answer is that it does on a flatlay, but might not when worn because of where the hemline actually sits. So until I get a nicer cropped blazer, this is just to give me an idea of what to expect from a Slytherclaw coord like this. And the reason I call it Madeleine is because of the hat. So you have both cute girls-only school uniform vibes and a magical school uniform ones. Though I’m sure Madeleine would excel at Hogwarts.

Look 2: Larme-inspired

| Lazy Oaf top | Primark tights | Metamorphose Triple Bow heels | Cutie Creator headbow | Claire's bow clips | Ruby Rose dangly bow clip | Star Glazed Delights ring | Promised Land Creations necklace |

The thing with this one is that I’m fairly sure I’ve worn something like this already (I’ve definitely worn this dress with pink before), but simply haven’t documented it properly. It definitely straddles the line of is it still lolita - to me it is, just a very casual variety of it. Just like green and lavender was an unexpected colour combination for this, green and pink isn’t something you’d immediately think of, yet it still works quite nicely. The bow and heart-shaped accessories add that romantic, feminine vibe that larme outfits have, which is also great for lolita fashion. And can we appreciate my ingenuity of displaying these mostly sheer tights on an iPad? Because without those tights the look really wouldn’t come together, but sheer tights like this are a nightmare to photograph for flatlays.

Look 3: Classic Lady

| offbrand cutsew | Innocent World Rose Lace Millefeuille bolero | Innocent World Fleurs Checkered OTKs | offbrand shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | Fantastic Grim Jewellery necklace | Enchantlic Enchantilly Queen Cat Secret Library ring |

Fun fact: as I was laying this one out, I did two versions of the same look. The one I didn’t pick for this post had brown shoes, offwhite x green socks, and a brown headbow. Both versions looked really good and I will keep both of them in my outfit bank, but for the purposes of this post I went with the brown socks and green headbow and shoes combo. It looks a little bit more colour balanced, but also a little bit more autumnal kind of classic. Since I went with book-shaped accessories, having more brown also plays into those elegant savant or librarian vibes very well. This is a really cute look, neither too casual nor too dressy, just right for going out to a cafe to read a book with a hot drink and some cake.

Look 4: Starry OTT

| Bodyline L581 blouse | Metamorphose Dressy OTKs | Boguta star underskirt | Irregular Choice Total Freedom shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | Chocomint star clip | Twinkle Kitty Boutique ring | offbrand necklace | vintage belt | Loris bag |

Most of the coords I’ve ever put together with this dress have been more casual. Which is fine, this is a fairly simply cut in a solid-coloured fabric with only a couple of details - it was meant to be more casual. But that opened the floor up to trying myself at creating at least one look that could be considered OTT. And while it’s certainly not perfect, I do like the look? I tried to avoid repeating too many pieces that I’ve used already, which is tricky as my collection of green items is still relatively small. But the direction this outfit is going in feels right and the coord itself definitely reads fancy. I feel like this ticks off the ‘can I dress this JSK up’ box, which is exactly the challenge that I set myself. And with a bit more work and fewer self-imposed restrictions, I have no doubts that this could be transformed into a very OTT coordinate.

As is often the case, there are many other ways to coordinate this piece. Since I end up wearing it fairly often on a daily basis, I have put it with completely non-lolita items like a navy striped top. However, because of those super casual looks I wanted to try showcasing here coords that are unquestionably lolita and that I could whip out for a meetup if I ever got stuck for an outfit idea. And often, like with look 3 here, you can then swap a few pieces out for something else to end up with yet another outfit that’s different enough. So yes, I’m very pleased with this post.