I Am A Lifestyle Lolita & This Is Why

    Life is art to me.  So of course fashion is an art for me too.  Lolita is one of my favorite styles of fashion, so I use that shade of paint, if you will, on other works in my life.  That is just how I live.  And I wouldn’t want it any other way.  But I know not everyone wants that for themselves so I don’t expect others to live that way or to even get it.

    I think as long as I have been a lolita I have been a lifestyle lolita; even when I didn’t know the term.

    Let's start from the beginning in the early 2000s.  The things that I loved were tea, art, dollhouse miniatures, and Victorian clothing & architecture. I found Lolita fashion quite by accident and when I first set eyes on it, I was in love. It had all the elements I loved the detail and the loveliness of the old fashions.   But it also had different elements to it.  Lolita fashion is cute and adorable.  

Image from Antique Images.

    Once I had gotten into the fashion I found myself pulled toward certain ideas.  I would see something like a really cute nightgown pattern.  I thought they would be great for a lolita to wear. Not as a fashion, but as a nightgown.  One more way to embrace the elegance and loveliness that is lolita.   Another thing that I found myself pulled to was the idea to incorporate this beautiful fashion into other hobbies, like miniatures and dollhouses.  To this day I still want  to make a gothic lolita bedroom in 1:12 scale miniature. A little room box all dressed up like a Lolita's dream bedroom.

    Whenever I brought these ideas to forums back then, they were often met with perplexity. So I thought that I was different from the other lolitas.  I wondered if I took the fashion too seriously; or maybe I took everything too seriously.  But I eventually found my way and came across more people that also embraced this lifestyle take on the fashion.

So do I wear lolita fashion all the time?  

    No!

    For one thing, I only recently got a job where I can wear lolita to work.  At least for the selling.  When I am working with clay I wear clothes that are easy to wash.  Have you seen what red polymer clay does to your hands?

    Also, as a person who is gender fluid I am not always inclined to wear dresses.  Though I am working on getting more dandy options in my wardrobe.

    I do tend to add a bit of elegance or cute to my outfits even when I am not wearing lolita.  Even when I am presenting male.

Are all of my hobbies cute or lolita themed?  

    No.  Not really.  There is overlap here and there.  Some of my hobbies are heavily influenced by lolita fashion.  But I also love math and astronomy and to work with darker writing themes.

Do I have hobbies that are very lolita-esque?  

    You bet your pretty floral bonnet I do.

    Tea!  Miniatures!  Poetry and poetry reading!

    I am a lifestyle lolita because I love wearing these clothes as often as I can.

    I am a lifestyle lolita because I mix elements of lolita and kawaii fashion into whatever I am wearing.

    I am a lifestyle lolita because I bought a step through frame bike so that I could wear lolita while riding my bike.

    I am a lifestyle lolita because I love to make things in my life aesthetically pleasing.

    I am a lifestyle lolita because I still love this fashion after 12 years.

    I am a lifestyle lolita because that is one of the ways I identify myself.  One of the ways.  We are all multifaceted.  There are too many aspects to any one person to say they are just one thing.

    So if you consider yourself to also be a lifestyle lolita, that is awesome.  If you just enjoy lolita as a fashion, that is awesome too.

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”  - Oscar Wilde

 Tata,