When I was very new to
lolita, my eyes were regrettably staring at those modern day lace monsters that are still very popular today. My
first ever purchase was THAT sugar girl JSK set with the bonnet, then I got that
one princess sleeve blouse with some lace up white OTKs and a pair of pink
heels with lace borders (that ended up being too big). I never actually wore out the dress, when I first laid my hands on it I immediately noticed the bad
quality and quickly complained to 42lolita’s customer service…which lead to absolutely nothing. I sold the dress
on vinted and quickly learned to look for quality pieces somewhere else
Like many people, I
was a big fan of Angelic Pretty’s iconic sweet era, especially as a newbie this
was all very new and exciting for me. I’d spend countless hours just looking
and magazine scans and any posts online reminiscing of OTT sweet with lots of
colors, accessories and details. Unfortunately those AP and BABY dresses were
too expensive (and sometimes not the right fit) for me, so I turned to Taobao
and started buying secondhand on Xianyu as well
I was (and still am)
very fond of Taobao, I discovered this brand N.N.Star to whom I made a lot of
deposits for various items. I really liked the sweet designs and also the store
owner, a very hard working woman who draws all the prints and designs the
pieces herself, she also personally oversees the garments productions. I wanted
to support her with all I had! Today her style no longer aligns with what I
have today but I still keep recommending her sometimes!
Trying to trace back
on when this shift in my journey happened, I’d say around late 2025. 'Old school lolita' had
always been at the back of my mind, like when I began making those “old school”
lolita videos with my digicam and any lolitas on xiaohongshu are very fond of old school, their videos and posts trying to replicate that vibe really inspired and stuck with me
I believe I truly started
becoming infatuated with it when I started reading more and more about lolita fashion's history from 90s-00s. I was reading A LOT about lolita fashion in general, academic papers (from simply about the clothes, to the depths of kawaii culture), blogs, forums...and I can't not mention the influence Novala Takemoto had in my life. It completely changed my whole perspective on old school lolita and from there,
every day I learned to adore more and more these simpler coords, where you can really
tell people wore lolita as fun daily clothes using what they had (ie. No pressure
in trying to look “polished”) and especially as a lifestyler old school was the look and
comfort I want to achieve. I believe that a subculture should have guidelines in
order for a style to remain recognizable but for old school the lines are very
bendable and it’s a lot of fun!
I also deeply
appreciate the love me and the people from 20 years ago (or more!) share with these garments.
Holding in my hands my main pieces from 2005, 2002... I wonder how the previous
owner must’ve felt when they put on them on, the amount of love and care it must’ve
gone through in order to end up in my hands today. I vow to take care of these
clothes with all the love in the world until it’s my turn to pass them down to someone
else one day
I can’t lie I’m extremely
sensitive of the way some people speak about old school lolita. I get so irritated when
someone gets their facts wrong and I try to correct them as nicely as possible of
course but unfortunately the misinformation spreads faster. I don’t like it
when people treat old school like a substyle instead of a tag you put in front
of something (same for shiro, kuro, casual, OTT…) For example you can have an
old school gothic coord or old school [brand name]. When I say stuff
like “I love old school lolita” I am aware of this fact of course, it is at the
back of my mind and I assume most of my lolita friends understand it too but unfortunately
many out there don’t know about this…
It really helps define
a specific style in more detail. It doesn’t help that 42lolita has “old school”
listed separate as its own style alongside sweet, classic, gothic. When you click
it it’s a mix of all 3 substyles that barely even gives a hint of an old school
vibe. I think 42lolita only fucks things up and actively creates more confusion
for those who already don’t even do any basic research of lolita fashion. Those
same people will comment on you for not wearing a petticoat..Okay..!
Today I only have eyes
for old school sweet, every feeling I described has multiplied by 10. It’s hard
to describe what I feel when I look at these old street snaps, I honestly tear
up sometimes because of how overwhelmingly happy I get. I love the simplicity
and passion from that time and to try to get closer to that feeling, I started
taking most of my lolita pictures with my digicam, I later started this blog and
also posting my pictures on
Flickr! It's I seriously full of hidden gems when
it comes to old Jingu Bashi pictures (I wish things like this still happened
today! I wonder how we can build back up this kind of culture…) It also really eases
my mind to be able to disconnect a bit and revert to simpler things like this
I’m going to continue
seeking inspiration from these old street snaps and strive to grow my authentic
old school collection! I barely even care about new releases, I might take a peek
at BABY’s classical series, but when it comes to mainpieces I’d always rather
buy the older release from the 2000s
Thanks for reading my
love letter for old school lolita ^_^
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