Lockdown's Effect on How I Coord Lolita

The full question for this week’s Lolita Blog Carnival prompt is: How has quarantine affected how you put together your coordinates, with the lack of social gatherings and events? And if you’ve been reading my posts over lockdown, particularly my outfit roundup ones, then you’ll probably know most of what I’m about to say.

1. More Lolita

Despite there being no events or meetups to attend, I have been wearing lolita more often than I ever have in my life so far. This isn’t so much a result of there being no events, but more of my working from home which lockdown has brought with it. The combination of feeling safe within my own house and precisely the knowledge that all events are cancelled for the foreseeable future motivated me to create the occasion to put together some coords. Even if the occasion is literally just to sit and browse the Internet - or sit and work, as the case has often been. Sure, I could do that in other clothes, but if the clothes don’t have a tangible impact on the activity itself and help me feel better, then why shouldn’t I? It’s perfectly harmless and lifts my spirits up at times that are pretty bloody depressing. Better this than a more toxic coping mechanism.

Only the top row are pre-lockdown outfits. This is more than all of 2019's outfits. Let that sink in.

2. More extremes

As a result of wearing lolita more, I’ve started embracing both extremes of coordinating lolita: the OTT and the casual, a lot more. Last year when the majority of times I wore this fashion were for a lolita meetup, my coords tended to sit in my version of “the middle”. Most meetups aren’t big enough to warrant super OTT coords, but they also feel more special than your average weekend trip to town, which makes casual feel like a waste of an occasion for me. However, not having a ‘going out of my house’ occasion changes that perspective. Working at home is not the most exciting for me, so casual coordinates are the perfect balance of cute, comfortable and quick to throw on. Moreover, not leaving the house means not subjecting myself to stares and strangers approaching, which means that being dressed in something OTT takes less of an emotional toll on me. There still are outfits that sit in that middle, the ones I’d wear to a regular pre-pandemic meetup. And guess what? Most of them were worn to regular, in-pandemic virtual meetups that we’re having now. So that part hasn’t changed - what’s changed is the increase in casual looks and being more comfortable to do more OTT ones.

Each of these outfits was worn for working from home. The left one I'd consider more OTT, the middle is my casual, and the right one is 'regular' lolita for me. I'm ebracing them all without any differentiation between occasions.

3. More time

By which I mean specifically that it often takes me more time to get ready, if we count from when I start getting dressed to when the photo gets taken. Because as I work from home, I’m not in a rush to leave at a certain time anymore. I can put the clothes on after breakfast, then do something with my hair and maybe add some makeup during mid-morning break, then finish it off with accessories at lunchtime when I usually take the photo. That’s a total of around 3 hours for a casual coord. Of course, things haven’t changed when there is a need to be ready by a certain time, like a meetup. It’s just an interesting side note considering how casual coords are supposed to be quick, yet don’t even get completed in one sitting, so to speak.

It's weird to think that both of those looks took roughly the same amount of time to get ready, when the left one was for a virtual tea party, involved an actual wig trim and full face of makeup, while the right one was put together for working from home and had a touch of lipstick and pencil eyeliner.

4. More experimentation

The comfort of not leaving the house and only sharing my outfits on my social media platforms (this blog, Instagram and Amino) have certainly made me care less about what is considered lolita or not. If I like the result, I’ll wear it. If the silhouette and the overall styling don’t read as lolita, then I won’t tag it as such, but I’ll still share it here and on Instagram. Re-wearing outfits is completely valid and don’t be fooled, I do it too. But a big part of my excitement with lolita fashion is how it allows me to wear something that looks totally different whilst using the same pieces that I already own. Some of the outfits I’ve enjoyed the most were the more experimental ones (by lolita standards), like the 60’s inspired ones or the lolita x larme ones. It’s one way to get that kick of excitement without having to buy completely new things, it keeps the fashion fun for me and it keeps me from creative stagnation.

These three are genuinely some of my favourite coords from this year. Wearing them made me very happy!

Overall, lockdown has definitely affected my lolita wearing in the ‘more’ way. I do hope that once working at the office kind of life resumes, I’ll be able to keep this up somehow. It’s unlikely considering my laziness, and I wrote more about it earlier this week, but depending on how long this situation carries on for, I may be able to find ways to keep at what is basically being a lifestyle lolita. It would certainly make me quite happy. Although I’d also trade it in a heartbeat for going back to what my lolita wearing was like pre-pandemic if it meant getting to go to meetups and events again.

How has not having social gatherings affected how you coordinate your outfits and wear lolita? Have you been doing more of it or less? Make sure to read about the experiences of the other bloggers participating in this week’s Lolita Blog Carnival prompt!

Aini Waffles