It's not unusual to be worried about how to put your outfit together in Lolita fashion. This article will summarize easy-to-understand methods on how to create a good outfit. It can also be applied to other fashions beyond Lolita.
The Secret of Coordination
- decide the theme of your outfit (optional)
- decide the main piece, or an item you definitely want to incorporate
- decide the color scheme
- decide on the accessories while considering the overall balance
Following these steps is an easy method to ensure a decent outfit even outside of Lolita fashion, so let's break them down and have a closer look in their details.
1. Outfit Theme (Optional)
This can refer to quite a lot. It can be something concrete like "Sweet Lolita with candy prints", or something more abstract like "fairy-like". Seasonal themes are the easiest to understand, such as "Halloween" and "Christmas". It's totally okay if you skip to step 2, but if you feel lost with your outfit, it's easier to fix it if you have a theme. Deciding on a sub-theme derived from the main theme can make it easier to see a path. For example, "Halloween" may turn into "black cat motifs". However, it's not recommended to add anything that is far removed from the main theme. You can't decide on "classical" and then try to incorporate "pop".
2. Main Piece
After deciding on a theme, choose a main piece that matches it. It's okay to omit step 1, because you may want to wear a specific piece, as that's what most people do in Lolita fashion.
For beginners, it should be noted that "main piece" refers to a dress or skirt, not just any part of your Lolita wardrobe. You can easily decide on other items you want to integrate once you have your main piece figured out. Of course, there are some people that manage to build up a whole outfit based on an accessory, but this is not recommended unless you have the proper experience, as it's very difficult with a small wardrobe.
Once you have faith in your skills, you can always feel free to try new things.
3. Color Sheme
If possible, limit the number of colors to two, and at most three. It's very easy to mess up a Lolita outfit if there are too many colors.
There are many ways to decide on a color scheme, but the easiest is that the main parts of the outfit are darker than the rest. If the JSK decided on in step 2 is red, the blouse can be pink, and if it's navy, the blouse can be sax. If you add colors that are lighter than the main color, the outfit will look harsh.
When your main piece features big prints, it's also possible to use the dominant color of the print as accent color. Let's take Angelic Pretty's Honey Cake skirt in yellow as an example. There you have red, sax, and brown as colors that could be integrated in the form of accessories. It's a little advanced, but it's a very convenient method to expand your color range. It's not recommended for your first color coordination, but once you have experience with it, please try it.
Despite of how it sounds, it's not recommend to center your whole outfit around a single color (the expections being Kuro and Shiro Lolita). If everything of the outfit is brown from head to toe, it will look boring and dull, opposing the whole point of coordination.
4. Accessories & Balance
Now that you settled on your color scheme, it's time to match the rest of your outfit. Regardless of the substyle, headwear is an essential part of Lolita fashion. Outfits are voluminous both visually and physically, so if you don't have anything on your head or in your hair, it will look unbalanced. Even if you have a very elaborate hairdo, it's still a good idea to add hair accessories as accents in order to incorporate the color scheme of the outfit.
Lolita is a fashion where you wear a complete outfit, so you decide not only on clothes, but also plenty of other items. Do you want to wear jewelry, such as necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings? Depending on the weather forecast, it's always a good idea to prepare an umbrella or parasol.