6. Favourite Lolita Brands

I've been a fan of lolita for something like ten (!!!!) years now. The fashion has gone through many changes in that time and so have I, so choosing just one brand that I love above all others is pretty much impossible. It doesn't help that I'm still a newbie when it comes to actually wearing lolita and, as such, I own no burando, but I have narrowed things down to three sections : my first love, what I like to look at, and what I like to buy.

Mary Magdalene's Enid Op

I've mentioned before how Mary Magdalene transformed my love of the fashion from passive observation to an active desire to wear these beautiful frilly clothes. I loved, and still love, the clean lines, the muted colours, and the elegant designs of the brand. Even though I no longer want to wear classic lolita myself, I love the look of it and Mary Magdalene will likely remain my favourite brand for the substyle for years to come.

A quick look at last month on my tumblr

Going by what I reblog most on tumblr, my favourite brand these days is hands down Angelic Pretty. It's not super surprising since I am predominately a sweet lolita and nothing beats Angelic Pretty's super cutesy prints. All the bows, sweets, and pinks the brand showcases has a real place in my heart and one day I would love to own some items from them.

Rouge Aerie's Nightmare Rising

Based on what I actually buy, western indie brands are without a doubt my favourite. The above jsk is my next purchase and with it, just about half my lolita wardrobe will be from western indie brands. They're the best option for me since I am both a plus size lolita and not a traditional sweet lolita. Western indie brands fit my body and my style better than burando and buying from them lets me support artists who love the same things I do.

I don't think I'll ever have a one true brand that I love above all others. Every lolita brand out there has something special to offer and I, personally, am more than happy to love them all.

Part 20/52 of the 52 Week Lolita Challenge.

1. 5 pieces that every Lolita wardrobe should have, regardless of style.

My list of things every lolita should have is a bit... out of the norm. Instead of focusing on main pieces that lolitas need to fill out their wardrobes, I kept my list to the little things people may not even think about.

First up on my list is sunglasses. It's no secret that I love sunglasses, partially because I'm grossly photosensitive, but mostly because they're a great accessory that's really underrated. There has been a recent surge in styles sunglasses are being made in, from the simple to the OOT, so there's definitely a pair out there for every lolita's personal style. Lapin Chocolat did a post on cute loliable sunglasses that you can find here.

My next two items are things that you can't actually wear, but are great to have on hand anyway. A tube of E-6000 glue can make a real difference when the soles of your cute shoes start to peel away from the upper, saving you tons of money, and jewelry pliers will save the day when the findings of your favourite jewelry start to warp.

Two-way clips come in fourth on my list for sheer versatility. Wear them in your hair, wear them on your clothes, wear them clipped to your bag or your shoes; the possibilities are endless when you have both an alligator clip and a pin back.

Lastly, I think every lolita should have a handful of handkerchiefs. Mythbusters may have proven that handkerchiefs are actually really grossly unsanitary for blowing your nose, but they have tons of other uses. From dabbing the sweat away from your brow in the summer, to covering your lap to keep snack crumbs off your burando, to wiping off bus seats of anything icky, a handkerchief in your bag can go a long way to keeping you and your lolita neat and tidy.

Post 19/52 of the Lolita 52 Week Challenge.

7. Why Do I Wear Lolita?

I have a tiny, unreliable income, I'm disabled in ways that makes getting dressed rather difficult, and I'm genderqueer with a masculine leaning identity. Lolita seems like the last fashion I would get into but yet, here I am in all my frilly wonder. Why I wear lolita can be largely boiled down to one reason : it makes me happy; but there are a lot of factors that have influence me into wearing the fashion myself instead of just admiring it.

Lolita, being an alternative fashion at its core, has always had guys wearing it. I've always been a very feminine person even though I don't identify as female at all, and I've always had a love for skirts and dresses and super cute clothes. Finding out that one of the lolita forefathers was male had a huge impact on the way I, this skinny little trans boy, viewed clothes in relation to gender. While the idea that clothing style has nothing to do with gender has only become prevalent in the United States in recent years, back then (all the way back in 2005 I think), the idea that somewhere guys were able to wear traditionally feminine styled clothing really helped me accept the fact that I could be feminine without necessarily being female. It took many, many years for me to get comfortable actually presenting femininely, but my love of lolita was a huge reason why I pushed my boundaries in regards to gender presentation. Wearing lolita has been more or less the ultimate culmination of the self confidence I gained while experimenting with my gender and the way I present myself.

Being disabled, both mentally and physically, means that I spend a lot of time at home in my pjs. The extra effort I put into getting dressed for when I go out, even when I'm not wearing lolita, goes a long way towards tempering some of the symptoms I have. For me, getting dressed is going to hurt anyway so I might as well go the extra mile and wear something that makes me look awesome and feel good about myself. What I gain from this extra effort far outweighs the cost of doing it. When I'm dressed up, I'm happier, I handle my chronic pain better, and I'm not as bothered by the side effects of my medications.

Lolita is a very expensive hobby but, for me, it's well worth the strain on my tiny income because of how happy it makes me. It's a very positive force in my life and it's become a huge part of how I identify.

Part 18/52 of the Lolita 52 Week Challenge.

5, 8, & 20

Whoops, I've been slacking in the blogging department Dx

5. Wardrobe Turnover
So far, turnover in my wardrobe has been pretty much nonexistant. Since I don't have a whole lot of income, I am very careful with what I buy, especially in Lolita. If I am not 100% in love with something and can make at least one coord with what I already have or am planning on getting in the near future, I don't get it. Because of this, I can't see myself parting with anything I have in my wardrobe any time soon. I love it all too much ;v;

8. Why don't I wear Lolita more?
I don't leave my house enough OTL Plus my wardrobe is still to small for me to wear lolita more without having a ton of repeat coords.

20. How satisfied am I with my current wardrobe?
I'm pretty happy with my wardrobe right now. There's definitely still room for improvement and, you know, more stuff, but for only about a year and a half of work, it's a pretty good, well rounded wardrobe.

Part 15-17/52 of the Lolita 52 Week Challenge.

39. Most versatile Lolita item I own

The number one versatile item I own is a plain black skirt with a plain old ruffle at the bottom that I made years and years ago. It's a great simple skirt on it's own and it makes for a great underskirt too since a lot of my coords feature black in there somewhere.

I've worn this skirt under other things to add just a bit of extra length to otherwise too short skirts :

And I've worn it all on its own in simple coords :

Post 14/52 of the Lolita 52 Week Challenge.

10. How I first found out about Lolita

Once upon a time, years and years ago at the height of my weeb phase, I came across the mv for Malice Mizer's Beast of Blood.

The lolita's gateway drug.

Like many other lolitas before me, I absolutely fell in love with the beautiful clothing the band wore, especially that of the guitarist's. I did a ton of research on the band, listening to all their music I could find on youtube and looking at many, many pictures all across the internet. The two most mind blowing bits of information that I found were that the fashion this gorgeous musician wore was called Gothic Lolita and that Mana was, in fact, a man.

To tiny-me, this was a huge deal because, even though (at the time) I identified as strictly male, I wanted so bad to wear cute clothes. Here was this beautiful person who identified as the same gender as me while still wearing clothes that I admired and envied, boldly and without shame. My gothy, queer boi heart would never be the same.

After my initial research binge, I revisited the beautiful world of lolita every couple of years, fawning over gorgeous dresses (I thought) I could never in a million years afford, let alone gather the courage to wear. Sometime in the middle of high school, I came across my first real lolita love, Mary Magdalene. I loved everything about the brand, from the jewel tones prominent in their solid pieces to the elegant and mature cuts. When I found their Enid OP, I knew that, one day, come hell or high water, I would wear this fashion.

My first love.

Fast forward through just a couple more years where I slowly reaccustom myself to wearing feminine clothing and adjust my gender identity to better reflect how I feel about myself, to where I actually start planning to build a wardrobe based around my love of Mary Magdalene. I do tons more research and plan my future classic wardrobe extensively and then fall ass backwards into being a creepy cute sweet lolita instead, but that's a whole different story.

Post 13/52 for the Lolita 52 Week Challenge.

Fremont With Friends

Yesterday my roommate Sam, her girlfriend Marty and I visited Fremont, a neighborhood of North Seattle, for their year round Sunday flea market. There were all sorts of vendors, from kitschy vintage clothing to handmade soaps and candles to artisan wood fire pizza and food trucks, and we had a great time looking around.

The market was a lot smaller than I anticipated, which was probably a good thing, because there ended up being a lot of stuff we wanted to buy. My roommate and her girlfriend are both steampunks and there was a bunch of really great stuff in line with that aesthetic, including a booth that was selling gorgeous jewelry made from watch parts and typewriter keys. Another booth had handmande jewelry made from reclaimed chandelier parts and old books. I absolutely fell in love with the ones that artisan made using medical texts and I'm pretty sure half the market heard me with how loud I got in my excitement.

My two big (lol) purchases were this nifty pair of sunglasses and a redbean taiyaki.

Taiyaki is basically a Japanese waffle sandwich shaped like a fish and it's super yummy. This food truck had a bunch of different flavours, including redbean (the one I got, pictured to the left), cinnamon sugar (the one Marty got), a peanut butter and banana one named The Elvis and one with spam and pineapple! I not so secretly actually really like spam so I was tempted to get that one, but Marty wanted to try the redbean after having the cinnamon sugar one and I love redbean a lot, so that's what I went with this time. It was super delicious >w< The taiyaki food truck is called BeanFish and you can visit their website here. If you're here in Seattle next weekend for SakuraCon 2015, look for them at Westlake park on Pine!

We also got shawarma, pizza, some delicious artisan truffles and organic honey! Can you tell we really like food?

Besides all the food, Marty bought a rose quarts orb and we each picked up handmade soap from a local artisan. I got myself a bathbomb to try after all the hype they've been getting on tumblr that I am super excited to try! After that, we had to hurry and leave the market before we spent any more money. We also wanted to check out a couple of interesting artwork a couple of blocks away before our parking ticket expired.

For some reason, Fremont has this huge bronze statue of Lenin that's actually from Soviet Russia as well as a rocket attached to a corner of one building and Saturn on top of the building next to it, all within a two block radius. It's a very strange collection of art, but still super neat.

Before we left Fremont for good, we went to see the troll under the bridge. Marty and I had never been before and Sam thought this was a travesty in need of fixing so she squeezed her car up the hill on Troll Lane (that is really the name of the street because Seattle is just that cool). Naturally, we took a selfie.