Ash's 45 Lolita Questions
Jul. 1st, 2022 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nosoiiHello! I'm new around here. You may know me as Ash, or nosoi from discord, or iomedae on instagram. Excited to join this community and share my lolita fashion journey. I'm going to start with the 45 questions from this month's event.
Here's the original question set.
1. Please tell us your Hand Name (name that’s used ONLY in internet.) and hometown. As mentioned, my main online handle is "nosoi". It is a reference to the pathfinder creature (I'm a huge D&D nerd). I'm from Portland, Oregon in the United States.
2. About how long is your history as a Lolita? I still consider myself new to the fashion. I put together my first coord in September of 2020, so coming up on 2 years soon.
3. What first motivated you to do Lolita fashion? I learned about Lolita fashion from local anime conventions. I have been aware of it maybe since 2013-ish? Especially in 2016 I started doing a bit more research on it, but at the time I was super into cosplay and couldn't afford another expensive hobby. In 2019 and early 2020 I started getting into jfashion a bit more through menhera and I wanted to expand into Lolita, so I finally took the plunge!
4. After knowing Lolita fashion, have you had any time-gap or resistance till you actually started to be Lolita? Loooong. I guess based on what I stated, 7 years.
5. Please define your Lolita style as much as possible. (eg. gothic Lolita, sweet Lolita, white Lolita…. Etc). I wear sweet lolita the most, but I do wear gothic lolita as well, I'm trying to balance out my wardrobe so they are a bit more even. I also have started wearing Ouji more recently, and have really enjoyed it!
6. About how many Lolita friends do you have? IRL I have a couple of people in my comm that I am friendly with, and two pretty close friends that I hangout with outside of events! Online I have the vetted server which has a bunch of kind folks in it!
7. What is the best thing about doing Lolita? Looking and feeling cute and sharing that love and feeling with other lolitas.
8. Conversely, what's the worst thing? Lolita is expensive, and I aparently have no impulse control.
9. Which Lolita Brands do you like? Baby the Stars Shine Bright/Alice and the Pirates is probably my favorite. I also have and love pieces from Angelic Pretty, Meta, Moitie, Boz, and Miho Matsuda.
10. What was the first Lolita item that you’ve owned? My first item was a Strawberry JSK from Alice Girl.
-750x1000.jpeg)
I actually just sold it on Lace Market earlier this week. While I still love it, I don't see myself opting to wear it again and there are many other strawberry pieces that I would prefer to have.
11. What is the “must have!” Lolita item? Probably a petticoat? Obviously you need many things for a first coord, but I feel like a petti is an essential item you will use across all your coords, and it cannot be forgotten.
12. Do you wear drawers? It depends on the coord. I do have and wear bloomers sometimes, but other times I'll wear bike shorts or something underneath my dress.
13. Do you have any favourite Japanese music? I'm not as into Visual Kei and other Japanese music as I was when I was younger. But I will say I've been rewatching Nana recently and man is it a fun series with good music. I am a sucker for female lead singers.
14. Where do you particularly visit as Lolita? Picnics at any of our local rose gardens are probably my favorite.
15. About how many times per week do you dress as Lolita? This has really ramped up for me recently. I usually wear lolita at least once a week on the weekends, sometimes twice if I am really feeling the itch. It's been an important component of my mental health to be honest. Dressing up gives me that much-needed serotonin.
16. Please tell us about one embarrassing episode from the time when you were
just beginning Lolita. I definitely fell into the devilinspired/reseller trap when I first got started and paid way too much for my pieces. I was like: "Oh, I'll mostly buy taobao pieces to save money". Little did I know I was overpaying for my taobao, and nowadays I am a bit of a brand whore.
17. What's hairstyle and color that you think Lolita would suit the most? I am a wig wearer so I pick my wig to suit my coord. But in general I think you can never go wrong with natural hair color such as brown, blonde, or black hair. I would go wigless a lot more if it weren't for the fact that I split dye my hair black and pink.
18. Have you ever thought of stopping Lolita? The reason? Not yet!
19. Please tell us your heart's bible as a Lolita. (anything like a book, magazine, CD, idol...) I have some GLBs which I love to look at, but honestly I've gained so much knowledge and feel so much love from my felow lolitas, but from my comm and online!
20. Do you own a doll? Tell us your feelings about her intensely! Perhaps an unpopular opinion among Lolitas, but I find dolls creepy. But for that reason, I like them, as I like creepy things. I do not own any dolls currently.
21. What kind of make-up do you wear when you wear Lolita clothes? All kinds! I try to tailor my makeup to my coord. I will go heavy and dark on my eyeshadow for gothic looks, or try to do minimal makeup with just eyeliner for old school coords. Usually, I try to color match my eyeshadow colors to my dress. For Ouji I do some contouring to make my face look a bit more masculine.
22. Have you ever secretly changed clothes in a train station bathroom on Lolita day-out? Nope, I usually suffer through whatever I need to so I can change at home.
23. Are you composed when doing Lolita all by yourself? I'm going to assume this means are you "comfortable" wearing lolita alone. In which case I will say yes, absolutely! I do it all the time.
24. How much do you spend in your Lolita clothes& accessary monthly? Oh dear god, I have no idea and it varies heavily from month to month. I prefer not to think about it.
25. What is the most expensive Lolita thing you've bought so far? How much was it? Well it used to be my Milky chan set. Which I spent in the 500 USD range for. But I just bought a bundle on Xianyu that included one of my dream dresses: Vampire Rose by Alice and the Pirates. The bundle included some other dresses and accessories which totaled to $650ish. I am hoping to sell off some of those pieces though, so I'm not sure if it counts since I will recoup some of the cost.
26. So far about how much has the expense been for Lolita goods? Again, no idea. Kind of don't want to think about this. Which is not what I would recommend for other lolitas of course - budgeting is important. But pre-getting into the fashion I was super stingy about my money and saved like every cent I had. I am hoping to find a happy balance between spending and saving in the future.
27. Lolita outfit really costs money. How do you raise money to cover the cost of
Lolita? I am senior-level Software Engineer and an ex-software engineering manager so I make good money. :)
28. Have you ever bought from an online store? If so, please tell us its good
and bad points and some advice for the future. If not, please tell us why not. I buy almost everything Lolita online. I've only been to Baby / AP San Francisco once, so that is the only time I've bought from a physical location that wasn't a swap-meet.
29. Even if you sort of want to keep it a secret, please clandestinely tell us
about a private manufacturer that is the best. I have no secrets, but I will say I feel like Xianyu as a market is highly underrated or underutilized by a lot of Lolitas, especially newbies. It takes some getting used to with the translations and shopping service and stuff, but at this point I think I have bought most of my main pieces there, and the selection on there is really good.
30. Is there a brand and/or an item that you think, "I could never get it! But I unreasonably want it!"? For a while this was Silent Moon.
I tried so hard to get that dress and kept losing LM auctions for it. Finally I won one, even though I feel it was overpriced.
31. What do you think about people who only do Lolita at music-lives or cosplay? I don't think I know anyone who does that?
32. From what age to what age is it acceptable to do Lolita? Do you think that there's a state in which someone must graduate from Lolita? (you can answer as ‘never graduate’) Any age I think is acceptable to start wearing Lolita, as long as you can afford it. I also don't think there's an age limit to Lolita.
33. Is there a Lolita fashion or behavior that you think "I don't want Lolitas to do this!" about? Do. not. associate. lolita. with. age. play. or. any. sort. of. kink.
34. Is there something you think "Lolita has to be this way!" about? I think it's important to understand the rules of lolita such as the basic silhouette and such, but there are always ways people can successfully bend those rules. And ways that people unsuccessfully try to bend them, I think it's about learning what looks good and what doesn't.
35. While doing Lolita, has something changed from earlier than you did Lolita? As I mentioned, compared to when I first started I kind of became a bit of a brand-whore.
36. Do you go to school/work as Lolita? I work from home, so no.
37. Do you wear Lolita clothes as casual wear? Yes! Sometimes.
38. Do you have a boyfriend (or husband)? Do you understand each other? (I think she meant “Does he understand you (as lolita)?”) I have a girlfriend who is supportive of my interest in Lolita.
39. What do the people around you think of your doing Lolita? Do they accept it? My friends are supportive, and my parents don't know much about it, but what they do know they support.
40. What kind of Lolita is who has impressed you the most up until now? I love it when lolitas wear mulitple styles. Especially folks who wear lolita and ouji. I will take a minute to shout outyuriathewitch who inspires me with every coord they do and who I am considering my unofficial ouji mentor, cause they have been giving me excellent advice on my ouji coordinates.
41. Have you ever made your own Lolita clothing or/and accessories? If so, what was the best item that you’ve made? I have! But none that I am especially proud of or feel like are worth mentioning. I made some wrist cuffs and headpieces here and there.
42. If you have an ideal Lolita outfit or coordination, please tell us. Any coordinate with my ultimate dream pieces, both of which I own! :D Fancy Hospital from AP and Devil Cats from AATP.
43. Is there a motif that you think “this is a simple of Lolita”? Bows are a big one, but also I think tea cups/tea pots are also very iconic.
44. Would you want to dress your children as Lolita? I will never have children, so no.
45. What's your image of the ideal Lolita? A lolita who feels cute or elegant and confident in their coordinate having a great time with other lolitas.
Here's the original question set.
1. Please tell us your Hand Name (name that’s used ONLY in internet.) and hometown. As mentioned, my main online handle is "nosoi". It is a reference to the pathfinder creature (I'm a huge D&D nerd). I'm from Portland, Oregon in the United States.
2. About how long is your history as a Lolita? I still consider myself new to the fashion. I put together my first coord in September of 2020, so coming up on 2 years soon.
3. What first motivated you to do Lolita fashion? I learned about Lolita fashion from local anime conventions. I have been aware of it maybe since 2013-ish? Especially in 2016 I started doing a bit more research on it, but at the time I was super into cosplay and couldn't afford another expensive hobby. In 2019 and early 2020 I started getting into jfashion a bit more through menhera and I wanted to expand into Lolita, so I finally took the plunge!
4. After knowing Lolita fashion, have you had any time-gap or resistance till you actually started to be Lolita? Loooong. I guess based on what I stated, 7 years.
5. Please define your Lolita style as much as possible. (eg. gothic Lolita, sweet Lolita, white Lolita…. Etc). I wear sweet lolita the most, but I do wear gothic lolita as well, I'm trying to balance out my wardrobe so they are a bit more even. I also have started wearing Ouji more recently, and have really enjoyed it!
6. About how many Lolita friends do you have? IRL I have a couple of people in my comm that I am friendly with, and two pretty close friends that I hangout with outside of events! Online I have the vetted server which has a bunch of kind folks in it!
7. What is the best thing about doing Lolita? Looking and feeling cute and sharing that love and feeling with other lolitas.
8. Conversely, what's the worst thing? Lolita is expensive, and I aparently have no impulse control.
9. Which Lolita Brands do you like? Baby the Stars Shine Bright/Alice and the Pirates is probably my favorite. I also have and love pieces from Angelic Pretty, Meta, Moitie, Boz, and Miho Matsuda.
10. What was the first Lolita item that you’ve owned? My first item was a Strawberry JSK from Alice Girl.
I actually just sold it on Lace Market earlier this week. While I still love it, I don't see myself opting to wear it again and there are many other strawberry pieces that I would prefer to have.
11. What is the “must have!” Lolita item? Probably a petticoat? Obviously you need many things for a first coord, but I feel like a petti is an essential item you will use across all your coords, and it cannot be forgotten.
12. Do you wear drawers? It depends on the coord. I do have and wear bloomers sometimes, but other times I'll wear bike shorts or something underneath my dress.
13. Do you have any favourite Japanese music? I'm not as into Visual Kei and other Japanese music as I was when I was younger. But I will say I've been rewatching Nana recently and man is it a fun series with good music. I am a sucker for female lead singers.
14. Where do you particularly visit as Lolita? Picnics at any of our local rose gardens are probably my favorite.
15. About how many times per week do you dress as Lolita? This has really ramped up for me recently. I usually wear lolita at least once a week on the weekends, sometimes twice if I am really feeling the itch. It's been an important component of my mental health to be honest. Dressing up gives me that much-needed serotonin.
16. Please tell us about one embarrassing episode from the time when you were
just beginning Lolita. I definitely fell into the devilinspired/reseller trap when I first got started and paid way too much for my pieces. I was like: "Oh, I'll mostly buy taobao pieces to save money". Little did I know I was overpaying for my taobao, and nowadays I am a bit of a brand whore.
17. What's hairstyle and color that you think Lolita would suit the most? I am a wig wearer so I pick my wig to suit my coord. But in general I think you can never go wrong with natural hair color such as brown, blonde, or black hair. I would go wigless a lot more if it weren't for the fact that I split dye my hair black and pink.
18. Have you ever thought of stopping Lolita? The reason? Not yet!
19. Please tell us your heart's bible as a Lolita. (anything like a book, magazine, CD, idol...) I have some GLBs which I love to look at, but honestly I've gained so much knowledge and feel so much love from my felow lolitas, but from my comm and online!
20. Do you own a doll? Tell us your feelings about her intensely! Perhaps an unpopular opinion among Lolitas, but I find dolls creepy. But for that reason, I like them, as I like creepy things. I do not own any dolls currently.
21. What kind of make-up do you wear when you wear Lolita clothes? All kinds! I try to tailor my makeup to my coord. I will go heavy and dark on my eyeshadow for gothic looks, or try to do minimal makeup with just eyeliner for old school coords. Usually, I try to color match my eyeshadow colors to my dress. For Ouji I do some contouring to make my face look a bit more masculine.
22. Have you ever secretly changed clothes in a train station bathroom on Lolita day-out? Nope, I usually suffer through whatever I need to so I can change at home.
23. Are you composed when doing Lolita all by yourself? I'm going to assume this means are you "comfortable" wearing lolita alone. In which case I will say yes, absolutely! I do it all the time.
24. How much do you spend in your Lolita clothes& accessary monthly? Oh dear god, I have no idea and it varies heavily from month to month. I prefer not to think about it.
25. What is the most expensive Lolita thing you've bought so far? How much was it? Well it used to be my Milky chan set. Which I spent in the 500 USD range for. But I just bought a bundle on Xianyu that included one of my dream dresses: Vampire Rose by Alice and the Pirates. The bundle included some other dresses and accessories which totaled to $650ish. I am hoping to sell off some of those pieces though, so I'm not sure if it counts since I will recoup some of the cost.
26. So far about how much has the expense been for Lolita goods? Again, no idea. Kind of don't want to think about this. Which is not what I would recommend for other lolitas of course - budgeting is important. But pre-getting into the fashion I was super stingy about my money and saved like every cent I had. I am hoping to find a happy balance between spending and saving in the future.
27. Lolita outfit really costs money. How do you raise money to cover the cost of
Lolita? I am senior-level Software Engineer and an ex-software engineering manager so I make good money. :)
28. Have you ever bought from an online store? If so, please tell us its good
and bad points and some advice for the future. If not, please tell us why not. I buy almost everything Lolita online. I've only been to Baby / AP San Francisco once, so that is the only time I've bought from a physical location that wasn't a swap-meet.
29. Even if you sort of want to keep it a secret, please clandestinely tell us
about a private manufacturer that is the best. I have no secrets, but I will say I feel like Xianyu as a market is highly underrated or underutilized by a lot of Lolitas, especially newbies. It takes some getting used to with the translations and shopping service and stuff, but at this point I think I have bought most of my main pieces there, and the selection on there is really good.
30. Is there a brand and/or an item that you think, "I could never get it! But I unreasonably want it!"? For a while this was Silent Moon.
I tried so hard to get that dress and kept losing LM auctions for it. Finally I won one, even though I feel it was overpriced.
31. What do you think about people who only do Lolita at music-lives or cosplay? I don't think I know anyone who does that?
32. From what age to what age is it acceptable to do Lolita? Do you think that there's a state in which someone must graduate from Lolita? (you can answer as ‘never graduate’) Any age I think is acceptable to start wearing Lolita, as long as you can afford it. I also don't think there's an age limit to Lolita.
33. Is there a Lolita fashion or behavior that you think "I don't want Lolitas to do this!" about? Do. not. associate. lolita. with. age. play. or. any. sort. of. kink.
34. Is there something you think "Lolita has to be this way!" about? I think it's important to understand the rules of lolita such as the basic silhouette and such, but there are always ways people can successfully bend those rules. And ways that people unsuccessfully try to bend them, I think it's about learning what looks good and what doesn't.
35. While doing Lolita, has something changed from earlier than you did Lolita? As I mentioned, compared to when I first started I kind of became a bit of a brand-whore.
36. Do you go to school/work as Lolita? I work from home, so no.
37. Do you wear Lolita clothes as casual wear? Yes! Sometimes.
38. Do you have a boyfriend (or husband)? Do you understand each other? (I think she meant “Does he understand you (as lolita)?”) I have a girlfriend who is supportive of my interest in Lolita.
39. What do the people around you think of your doing Lolita? Do they accept it? My friends are supportive, and my parents don't know much about it, but what they do know they support.
40. What kind of Lolita is who has impressed you the most up until now? I love it when lolitas wear mulitple styles. Especially folks who wear lolita and ouji. I will take a minute to shout out
yuriathewitch who inspires me with every coord they do and who I am considering my unofficial ouji mentor, cause they have been giving me excellent advice on my ouji coordinates.41. Have you ever made your own Lolita clothing or/and accessories? If so, what was the best item that you’ve made? I have! But none that I am especially proud of or feel like are worth mentioning. I made some wrist cuffs and headpieces here and there.
42. If you have an ideal Lolita outfit or coordination, please tell us. Any coordinate with my ultimate dream pieces, both of which I own! :D Fancy Hospital from AP and Devil Cats from AATP.
43. Is there a motif that you think “this is a simple of Lolita”? Bows are a big one, but also I think tea cups/tea pots are also very iconic.
44. Would you want to dress your children as Lolita? I will never have children, so no.
45. What's your image of the ideal Lolita? A lolita who feels cute or elegant and confident in their coordinate having a great time with other lolitas.
no subject
Date: 2022-07-02 12:59 am (UTC)