AYWi30C #13 - Inspired by a Historical Era

Let me preface this by saying that some liberties were taken, particularly with the interpretation of the word ‘historical’ in this prompt. Lolita already takes inspiration from period fashion: French Rococo and English Victorian and Edwardian. And although these would’ve been fairly easy coords to put together, I can’t say that any of these period ideas excited me. Part of me wanted to re-use my Tudor coord, although I haven’t had much time or chance to update it, so it would be something you’ve already seen. And then I had a flash of inspiration ‒ ‘historical’ simply means ‘of the past’. There’s no set frame on how far back into the past it has to be. From then it was just a small jump to making this happen. And this I am excited about!

| Metamorphose Polka Dots Shirring Pinafore JSK | Angelic Pretty Logo Embroidered Turtleneck cutsew | Haenuli Secret Garden tights | Twinkle Kitty Boutique rings | everything else is offbrand |

Welcome to my new take on retro lolita: the 1960s! I have been meaning to try (actual) 1960s fashion anyway, though with lockdown cancelling my biggest vintage fair of the year, I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to. However, as I was flicking through the dresses I own I saw this one, which is actually pretty short ‒ not quite 1960s mini, but definitely short for lolita. One rabbit hole of looking up 60s photos later to check out the style, hair and makeup, and we have retro mod-lita. The key features of the outfit itself are the dress length, the colour blocking (very popular in the 60s, though usually two bright colours rather than colour x white) and the turtleneck (also very common back then). And hair and makeup, of course, but you’ll have to check out the selfie and the lookbook further down for that.

Simple, but classy. Equally appropriate for work and for kawaii fashions.

Since it’s such a key part of the outfit, let’s have a closer look at this lovely turtleneck. I have wanted a brand turtleneck for a while at some point and was able to buy this one off whoever was running the Lolita Memes Instagram account. And I honestly love it. It’s very simple, which works perfectly for the 1960s look focusing on bold colours. The logo is subtle, just enough to add a bit of interest without screaming brand into your face. The lace at the sleeves and turtleneck is so tiny you almost forget it’s there, but it does add another subtle detail. And like you’d expect from a good turtleneck, it’s super comfortable and easy to wear. I’d love to get more one day, it is much more comfortable to wear than pretty much any of my high collar blouses.

Haenuli's tights were really great, I have some regrets about not getting more, though I don't think there were any other designs that I even considered.

As the point of this coord is to colour block, I went with these red tights from Haenuli. It’s a shame that they lose some colour saturation when worn, as it lessens the colour blocking effect a little bit, but that was the best I could do. Printed tights weren’t really a thing in the 60s, women mostly wore solid coloured ones and I wanted to honour that in the coord. Sadly, my only solid red tights are more of a purple-ish wine shade, though the pattern on these Haenuli ones is small enough to be forgiven. The dots mimic the polka dots of the dress, while the bows, well, add that lolita fashion touch. After all, this is a coord inspired by the 60s, some discrepancies are allowed.

Nothing too fancy, just simple and practical.

In an ideal world I’d go for more period-appropriate boots, at least knee high and with a lower heel. I realise that they would’ve covered up the pattern on my tights, but I think it’d look cooler. Still, I made do with what I had and I’m not mad at the result. This is definitely a more lolita version and it still allowed me to achieve a colour block, which is all I wanted.

Temporarily subscribing to the less is more mindset. Until I get more pieces, that is.

The accessories section is probably even more minimalistic than in my casual coordinate. This is partly because the 60s was a very specific look, which I don’t have the pieces for yet. In the future I’d love to add some white plastic disc earrings and maybe a funky, geometric brooch or necklace. Although for how loud the fashion was then, the actual outfits were still minimal in accessories, people allowed the brightly coloured and bold patterned clothes to do the talking. So I’m happy with what I was able to put together and it achieved the look I wanted, even if I’d love to improve upon it.

Almost the exact same fabric as the dress. As usual, best matches come from least expected places.

Now, this is so old it’s a miracle I still own it! I bought this long neckerchief/slim scarf at least 10 years ago, probably more? I can’t even remember where, quite likely Claire’s, but I can’t even be sure. Over the years I’ve worn it both on my head and on my neck, so I’m glad that I kept it because both the fabric and pattern are an almost exact match for that of the dress. Normally I would’ve pinned the scarf to my head with bobby pins, however, I recently got these trendy oversized pearl clips, so I used those instead. They might not be 100% period accurate, but have a cute and minimalistic enough feel (plus they’re mostly hidden by hair and ears when worn), so it doesn’t matter that much.

I should probably start counting how often I wear these (and the Primark rings). They surely paid for themselves like 20 times over in wear by now?

Seeing as I already have bows in my tights, bow rings at least tie that mini-theme together. Despite being a less typical shape than the geometrical stuff that dominated the 60s, since they are simple and monotone, reflecting the colour scheme of the outfit, they fit right into it. Both on the lolita and the 60s ends of the scale.

That bow is detachable, though a little floppy. Maybe I'll resew the pin from the centre to the sides instead?

GLITTER!

Still my cheapest ever lolita dress, this JSK is one that won me over as soon as I saw it has glitter. It was a bit of a “heck it, let’s get that, it’s cheap as chips” kind of purchase, I didn’t expect much besides something simple and casual enough to wear daily. But that glitter! True, to date I’ve probably worn this more in casual and non-lolita ways than I have in proper lolita ones, but it deserves to be appreciated. This right here is £15 that truly paid back for itself time and again in wear.

I am in love with 60s makeup, it's so stupidly simple! If only I could draw some upper lashes too...

Do not adjust your television set, it is me, waving at you from the rabbit hole that is Meitu.

While I hesitate to call my face a piece de resistance, without hair and makeup this isn’t a 60s retro lolita, it’s just a simple coordinate. My makeup was directly inspired by Dame Twiggy, as I found a picture of what was probably a magazine tutorial of her doing her signature look. At first I wasn’t sure about the drawn lower lashes, I almost decided to just apply some bottom lashes, but I’m glad I didn’t. Not only these were more comfortable, but they also came out so well. Overall this was a refreshingly simple look to achieve. Yes, even the hair. It’s pretty much the same method I used in the previous prompt, I simply parted my hair at the front instead of brushing it up and back, and sticking a crown on it. I am 10/10 feeling the 60s fantasy and want to look like this more often.

Olaf makes for an amazing ouji accessory. He even matched my coord!
From left to right, these are from: October 2017, December 2017, October 2018, June 2019 and December 2019 times 2.
Click to enlarge.

As I mentioned already, this dress was predominantly worn in non-lolita ways. For the heck of it, I included one photo of it being worn like that. It actually wasn’t until a few months after that photo that I finally started to wear it as the lolita dress that it is. It took me a while to figure out how to wear it well and now that I have, I am definitely not getting rid of this dress anytime soon, it’s too good and versatile for that!

I went a little crazy when filming this ‒ but it’s the 60s! That era had some truly wild energy going on, it’d be a dishonour to its memory to do something timid and poised. After all, it’s the decade that gave the world some of its biggest rock n roll stars, how could the lookbook be anything but wild?