Easiest Tights/Socks Blouses (for under jsk) Cardigans
Hardest Shorter length blouses (for a skirt coord, most of my blouses are pretty long and don't drape well over a poofy skirt) Cutsews (haven't seen any that suit me brand or offbrand)
Everything else is in between/medium because it depends on what I'm looking for.
I don't find cardigans easy to buy at all. Most I find are long enough to cover my bum, which doesn't look good over dresses that poof out from my natural waist. I never see cropped cardigans, boleros or jackets that aren't really modern in style (e.g. cropped denim jackets) and unsuitable-looking for lolita.
I feel you on the blouses though, it's really hard to find ones that you can wear untucked.
Cropped cardigans and boleros were in fashion a few years ago and I built up a nice collection. Now the ones I bought back then are too big for me, and cropped cardigans are out of fashion and hard to find. I was excited to find a nice waist-length feminine knit cardigan with a furry collar this season because that length is so rare now.
I know the feeling. Everything in my wardrobe, outside of socks and tights, is second-hand or handmade, and has taken hours and hours of careful hunting and scrutiny to procure them all, and a ton of frustration when you come up with nothing.
Easiest:
Lining fabric Shoes (Seriously, there's 5 thrift stores in my immediate area and all of them have something good every time I go) Tights Jewelry Hat and hair pieces, especially really neat vintage stuff Really good lace, oddly enough
Hardest:
Good quality trim that isn't lace (Velvet, high quality ribbon, ect.) Purses Blouses that don't gap in front Border printed fabric on GOOD cotton Good quality velvet, harvest-able from 2nd hand clothes or not
And the hardest thing to find out and about? COATS AND JACKETS. UGH.
Ookay, in order from easiest to find to hardest to find in both lists!
Easiest for me to buy (locally): Jewellery: very easy to find and cheap in charity shops. Hair accessories: Claire's do a lot of nice clip-on bows. Tights and ankle socks: floral lace tights and solid-colour tights can be bought new almost anywhere, and frill-topped ankle socks are everywhere at the moment, as cheap as £1 at Primark (it's a pity I hate ankle socks - wish they sold frilly OTKs instead). Shoes for classic lolita: easy to find but hard to find in my size secondhand, easy to find but expensive at Clarks. Full-sized hats: berets are fairly easy to find either new or secondhand, and a different vintage hat trend seems to come around every few years in mainstream fashion.
Hardest for me to buy (locally): Handbags that are 100% lolita: a lot of sorta-lolita-if-you-squint bags can be found new and secondhand, but I find that truly lolita handbags are hard to find. Shoes for gothic lolita: available offbrand within the EU but not from physical shops near
( ... )
I second you on Claire's! I recently bought a couple sets of clips from them for $10 (one was a set of six little bows with tiny pearls sewn on them and the other was a set of nine butterflies).
I've actually never found any frilly ankle socks in stores, but I did find a pair of mint ankle socks with a couple frills at the ankles at Target. But any socks that would be great for Lolita are in the little girl's section, and I don't think they can accommodate a woman's US 6.5/ US 7 shoe size. -_-
Blouse wise, the ones in my wardrobe were snatched up from constant perusing consignment shops (namely Goodwill). Heck, most of my offbrand finds are the results of checking as often as I can.
*sigh* I feel your pain on Sweet Lolita shoes. I've been pricing shoes on Bodyline, Rakuten and YesStyle to figure out which ones to get.
Really? Maybe it's a UK-only trend, but for about 2 years there's been a big trend of different-coloured ankle socks with different coloured frilly tops. Last year that was pretty much the entirety of River Island's sock section, and this year the trend's filtered down even to cheap shops like Primark. Frilly socks are no longer just in the kids section.
Probably my easiest would be tights, jewelry, and boleros (particularly non-fancy ones-- ideal for when you have a jsk under it that's a bit over-the-top). I have a super-tough time finding suitable blouses anywhere other than the comm sales, though peter-pan style blouses are at F21 and so on a lot, most of them just don't seem nice enough or are too sheer for my taste. I have this eternal hope that I'll find one someday at a consignment shop, but alas, they all look like regular office blouses.
Loliable shoes used to be a bit difficult for me to find in regular stores, but they've cropped up a bit more recently. They're still all but impossible for me to find in any color but black or brown, though.
Yeah most blouses I've seen that are colored for Lolita tend to have dual pockets, those clips to shorten sleeve length and/or are sheer enough for me to need a camisole underneath.
Shoe-wise, the only styles I've seen are those oxfords and those would be better suited for Classic imo.
Yeah, any blouse without a pointy office collar is ALWAYS really sheer. It's not even black chiffon either, which I think works well for gothic, I keep seeing ones that are a sort of peach colour.
I see loliable boots on occasion, oxfords, and sometimes flat mary janes.
Comments 40
Tights/Socks
Blouses (for under jsk)
Cardigans
Hardest
Shorter length blouses (for a skirt coord, most of my blouses are pretty long and don't drape well over a poofy skirt)
Cutsews (haven't seen any that suit me brand or offbrand)
Everything else is in between/medium because it depends on what I'm looking for.
Reply
I feel you on the blouses though, it's really hard to find ones that you can wear untucked.
Reply
Reply
Easiest:
Lining fabric
Shoes (Seriously, there's 5 thrift stores in my immediate area and all of them have something good every time I go)
Tights
Jewelry
Hat and hair pieces, especially really neat vintage stuff
Really good lace, oddly enough
Hardest:
Good quality trim that isn't lace (Velvet, high quality ribbon, ect.)
Purses
Blouses that don't gap in front
Border printed fabric on GOOD cotton
Good quality velvet, harvest-able from 2nd hand clothes or not
And the hardest thing to find out and about? COATS AND JACKETS. UGH.
Reply
Easiest for me to buy (locally):
Jewellery: very easy to find and cheap in charity shops.
Hair accessories: Claire's do a lot of nice clip-on bows.
Tights and ankle socks: floral lace tights and solid-colour tights can be bought new almost anywhere, and frill-topped ankle socks are everywhere at the moment, as cheap as £1 at Primark (it's a pity I hate ankle socks - wish they sold frilly OTKs instead).
Shoes for classic lolita: easy to find but hard to find in my size secondhand, easy to find but expensive at Clarks.
Full-sized hats: berets are fairly easy to find either new or secondhand, and a different vintage hat trend seems to come around every few years in mainstream fashion.
Hardest for me to buy (locally):
Handbags that are 100% lolita: a lot of sorta-lolita-if-you-squint bags can be found new and secondhand, but I find that truly lolita handbags are hard to find.
Shoes for gothic lolita: available offbrand within the EU but not from physical shops near ( ... )
Reply
I've actually never found any frilly ankle socks in stores, but I did find a pair of mint ankle socks with a couple frills at the ankles at Target. But any socks that would be great for Lolita are in the little girl's section, and I don't think they can accommodate a woman's US 6.5/ US 7 shoe size. -_-
Blouse wise, the ones in my wardrobe were snatched up from constant perusing consignment shops (namely Goodwill). Heck, most of my offbrand finds are the results of checking as often as I can.
*sigh* I feel your pain on Sweet Lolita shoes. I've been pricing shoes on Bodyline, Rakuten and YesStyle to figure out which ones to get.
Reply
Reply
Loliable shoes used to be a bit difficult for me to find in regular stores, but they've cropped up a bit more recently. They're still all but impossible for me to find in any color but black or brown, though.
Reply
Shoe-wise, the only styles I've seen are those oxfords and those would be better suited for Classic imo.
Reply
I see loliable boots on occasion, oxfords, and sometimes flat mary janes.
Reply
Aha, I don't do anything but Classic, really.
Reply
hardest: skirts, shoes, purses
i usually find alot of cute jewelry at f21 and charlotte russe... and i've seen alot of cute white blouses in thrift stores!
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