EGL: My Intro

Surprise! It’s another introduction post (because I hate myself that much.) 

For my first EGL category post, I figured it would be fitting to have a small prelude on how I got into Lolita. 

The Skirt

In 2016 my friend and “Lolita Mom” Tessa formally introduced me to the fashion. She had been wearing it for several years at this point and was more than happy to answer my hundreds of questions.

There was a very short time period (i.e. a few days) between being introduced to the fashion and making my first purchase. Before all of this, I had been somewhat aware of Lolita but not in any real sense other than the rudimentary basics and that it was a type of J-Fashion.

One day at work, I decided to casually browse the Baby The Stars Shine Bright online shop during a break. I ended up seeing a skirt – THE skirt – that I absolutely fell in love with. A “take that skirt home, marry it, and keep it forever” kind of love. I met up with Tessa after work to buy that skirt and a blouse for my first very unassuming and adequate coordinate.

I don’t know what it is about this skirt and design, but I’m still obsessed with it to this day. I attribute it to being the main thing that fully pushed me over the edge. I have since fallen out of love with the OP and JSK version, nevertheless this skirt remains perfect, and will always be, perfect to me.

Building My Wardrobe

When I first started building my wardrobe I really wanted to get into Shiro lolita. I honestly have no idea what influenced this desire, but I very quickly learned it was not reasonable – especially for a beginner. Today I absolutely adore wearing Shiro occasionally and cursing myself with pieces that can’t comfortably wear around.

For the first several months my wardrobe building process was a little chaotic with no real direction. I was still learning about brands, styles, and coordinating techniques, so my purchasing habits were a bit scattered and fueled solely by excitement.

I had a modest amount of pieces I could make some coords with, but my wardrobe was incredibly meager and remained so for quite a while. Buying blouses was also quite difficult early on because I was worried about sleeves being too long on me so I only looked for short sleeves. I had a single solid, black blouse and THREE (!) lace tops. Because of the sleeve issue, I leaned heavily into buying OPs. This wasn’t necessarily a problem but it definitely limited my coord options. 

I also followed Tessa’s guidance and her personal rule of not buying another main piece until I wore the last thing I bought. This helped me make better purchasing decisions for things that I could realistically coord with the wardrobe I had at the time. Everything I purchased had a purpose and a reason. (Me in 2021, with at least 5 new, unworn pieces : “I can’t read suddenly. I don’t know.”) Nonetheless, over the next few years my wardrobe was growing slowly but steadily.

2020 and My Lolita Renaissance

In 2020 I made up for lost time; lost time from barely wearing Lolita in 2019 and not adding new pieces to my wardrobe, having a scarce wardrobe in general, not keeping up with community events, not meeting new people and spending time with friends, etc. 

Last year was quite the heel turn for me. The pandemic and lockdown absolutely escalated my own personal Lolita renaissance. I went from barely wearing any of my pieces and not knowing anyone – to being overly involved with so many things. I also went on a shopping spree and fixed my “chaotic wardrobe” by purchasing a fair amount of non-main pieces like blouses, accessories, and an upsetting amount of Moi-Meme-Moitie OTKs. 

Currently I’m still working on growing my wardrobe but I’m primarily looking wishlist items, older EGA and EGL dresses, and more casual OPs. On the community side of things, I’m spending a massive amount of time working on planning events and daydreaming about extravagant in-person meets.

I’m excited for what the future holds and I hope my little renaissance continues! <3