I love rocking horse shoes but they aren't suitable for every coord. I  do adore them though. Antaina rocking horse shoes are my favorite of the off brand. Bodylines are fine, just too narrow and too easy to fall in.

A lot of goths do like boots and I certainly do own chunky boots but my go toes are mary janes.  I mainly wear orthopedics and big chunky mary janes.  The shape of the shoe matters to me more than anythignn else  a lot of the time for my own personal tastes. I like a big around tip and for the shoes to look a bit weighty!

Comfort is a priority but I certainly own uncomfortable shoes as well! I just spread out my wears of them. My daily shoe is actually like these things lol. They are gigantic and I love them though.. c ouhgs.. after a particularly muddy festival, they are due for A DEEP CLEAN. Still cute and not dirty but I miss when mine were a beautiful shade of black.. They've never been the same..

My other daily shoes I can't remember the name of right now LOL but I own them in white and black and they are orthopedics!

NOO SORRY.. I have friends who own it and I borrow their things from time to time! I don't own it, but it pops up on lacemarket occasionally! If I saw it for a nice price, I'd probably send it to the friend  who tells me every time she sees it on LM overpriced haha! I've got too many books!!!

And with ponderings, I typically like them as parts of fiction, but this is not always the case. I just think everyone is always thinking and giving me their thoughts so when I read pondering, I find myself frustrated at the worst of times...I dislike.. when I am presented with a thought exercise with no end goal. Sometimes the goal is persuasion, but it is hard to make me care enough to feel Persuaded. It tends to inspires nothing within me.

...it is likely because of college... college is constantly reading other people's ponderings..

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has these agonizing passages.. That consists of the main character just thinking.  I think.. Ponderings reveal a lot about the person writing and simetimes I dont want to connect with someone in that way, but with fictional characcters, they are not real. An author may or may not relate to what they are writing, and well, it doesn't matter as long as that pondering results in my understanding of the work increasing.

I like Kamikaze Girls for this reason too really. A lot of Momoko's thoughts I enjoy hearing. I enjoy the dissonance more.. I dislike a lot of Novala Takemoto's opinion on lolita and going into any of his longform writing makes me want to explode, but I enjoy Kamikaze Girls because I just feel so ponderings being concentrated into a fiction is good.. It works well here.

That is to say- I do enjoy essays. Most of what I consume on a regular basis are essays- often extremely boring essays about the economy or something.... I like nonfiction presented to me in a somewhat plain way, and I like essays about fiction often but I try to spread out my consumption of it so I remember to do my own media analysis..

With lolita, I mentioned many things have been talking about and I guess.. Like.. I dont know much about visual kei so I like reflections on Vkei and Lolita's overlap from people who feel more strongly about Vkei than I do. I do love Peep TV Show but I feel like I don't see lolitas write about it a lot so I enjoy hearing their thoughts too.

Umm.. and I love blogs.. One reason I'm so online is because I just read new and old blogs for hours..,I made the EGL webring in hopes of finding more lolita bloggers because I like reading the thoughts of lolita in relation to their personal life the most..  Though saying it that way makes it sound exhibitory HAHA. But really it justs makes me feel like there are other people in the world like me ... ^^;

ANYWAYS. IT'S HARD. I DON'T KNOW. WHAT I LIKE DEPENDS ON THE TIME OF YEAR AND THE SEASON AND MY TEMPERMENT.

Sweet is the most popular substyle of lolita and has been for a long time. It also dominates most meets and large events. It probably just boils down to the lolita demographic liking cute things- I am not really sure. I wear sweet too from time to time

The three major substyles are sweet, classic, and gothic. Everything else falls under them. It makes sense that you see the first two but often these coords have elements of other styes.. To find more lolitas, you can just go through gothic or other tags like punk lolitas on SNS that doesn't blacklist it and you will see them. Also going through gothic brand tags haha.

A lot of lolitas I know used to wear sweet or used to wear gothic or used to wear classic then switched to another style too..  Or they wear all of them but mainly wear one cause it's their favorite.. One of my close friends wears mostly classic but is a lifestyle goth and has Moitie piece.. So it's just all over.  Sweet lolitas are very aware of gothic lolitas. We are all friends! We tend to be the minority in comms but honestly.. I do think gothic lolita is very popular outside of comms too. The goth and gothic lolita overlap means you see gothic lolita in Weird Places like goth clubs <-- where I haunt

Old school is extremely popular.. Because technically it's not really a style but every style falls under it. Do not think about old blogs too much. It must be understood lolita sort of...., it did not die but.. With sites like Tumblr and Livejournal on the decline, those things are stagnant. They are not accurate depictions of the current scene. A few years ago in London there was this very large old school themed event called The Queen Is Dead so know stuff is always happening. Baby and Meta keep rereleasing OS pieces too and they sell out because modern lolitas and old schoolers love it.

We are all having fun together. You're just seeing someone's clothes at a meet! At meets you'll find people who have gone through different styles of lolita over the years!! Learn all about it!! I found out another lifestyler I know used to be a gothic lolita and I've known her as one of the sweetest lolitas I know.. And I found that out after 3 years!!

Regarding what is ita, I dont really have a list of things I consider ita. I just think things can be combined badly and look bad. A lot of coords people consider ita are just kind of mid. Lolita is just clothes and you don't need to slay.. Bad coords are kind of visible to your eyes to the point where ''ita'' is kind of ignored as a concept now because there is this thing called "perma ita" regarding lolitas who never really escape the beginner stage but they tend to be accepted because they love the fashion, and honestly, I admittedly think if you are here asking me this you don't need to worry too much.

As you evolve as a lolita, things you considered ita in the past you may come to love. I love a lot of weird EGL I hated when I started out, especially old 'ugly' gothic lolita pieces... It's just clothes in the end..

With the old blogs, it's good to keep in mind a lot of the blogs were run by 2010s American modern sweet lolitas. So much of it just doesn't make sense once you literally just look at a magazine, but a lot of it makes sense in the context of modern sweet, but so much of modern sweet is worn for meets or cons.. It just isn't very wearable.

Like.. if you think about modern sweet, a lot of coords are strange without makeup or blouses or patterned socks. It's one reason I actually don't wear it. I do enjoy it technically, but it is just.. so many steps.

With the current state of lolita, yes, honestly I'm pretty happy. I do hate the rising prices, but with the rising demand, we've gotten so many unique brands across the world. It is more accessible than ever and by virtue of being such a subculture with multiple branches, well, parts of it will always be underground..

At times I do wish lolita fashion got a different name just so that it was more searchable but in many ways, I also am happy lolita is so hard to look up because.. Looks at every goth tag and what they've become. I still think a lot of EGL is underground. Like so many people go to Harajuku to look at lolita because they have surface level understanding when Harajuku is not really the best to go anymore.. And well, you know, you have to Really care because of that language barrier. Misconceptions exist cause of that language barrier, but I am not too miffed about it.

With coord times, it depends. Meets can take longer. I want to dress nicer. And also, I love punk lolita and sometimes I just go crazy and put a lot of work and time into a coord for fun lol, but it can take me less than ten minutes if I want it to..  I have my wardrobe memorized basically and often think about coords while I'm lying down. It's really just hard if I am somewhere where I don't have access to my entire wardrobe or I'm in a rush.

When I'm uninspired but want to wear something new, it can be really rough LOL. I hate buying new things but sometimes I need to if I have a vision. Sighs. And then I can be in a state of paralysis. 

I struggle to pick a favorite but lately I'm in a goth mood. I think about this coord a lot. Have this old AtePie piece from 2011 or something. It's so beautiful. 

Thank you for your kind words!! I really appreciate it!

I've worked very hard to make lolita suitable and easy for me to wear. Really, the most exhausting thing is people asking me about my clothes every time I go out. It happens even in my more toned down outfits that read as less lolita... It can be hard to answer at times.

I guess I will compare to being a goth .. People will ask you about your clothes or where you got it, but Americans know what goths are. They don't know what lolitas are though, so there are more steps. Older Americans in general are barely cognizant of Japan if they aren't into anime... 

Wearing it is very easy for me since it is sort of my default.. It's easy for me to make a coord for every occasion / setting.. unless a job requires Pants.

I've thought about it. Friends have read it and I believe I could probably borrow it from someone If I really tried... It is an interesting piece of lolita history that is unfortunately resold for $100+ over and over. The creator has spoken about reprinting it from what I've heard but it has been quite some time and she still hasn't so. The structure of it inspires me quite a bit, but I just admittedly get a bit tired of lolita ponderings/essays which is why I haven't been in a rush to read it...

I like that there is a zine people adore full of large chunk of text. Do you think lolitas would enjoy a zine with chunks of a fiction in a similar way that is just in novel formats? Sometimes essay wise it feels like everything that could be said about the culture has been said, but there is still so little fiction about our subculture. 

Speaking of the the comics. They are rather lengthy for a zine, so they are also of interest to me.

I do have it on my computer... The entire thing.. But it's just all PNGs.. I should convert it to a PDF.. 

I wish I did lol. 

legit old school

Baby The Stars Shine Bright, Moitie, Angelic Pretty, and Metamorphose are big brands I really enjoy but their modern designs do nothing for me, but they comprise much of my wardrobe.

I love Putumayo. Of the punk brands, they are my favorite. It is a heated battle between Putumayo and Maxicimam but I simply like the diversity and bizarreness of Putumayo's designs. I think so many people point to Putumayo as punk but I also feel like so many modern lolitas would consider Putumayo to be ita..which I love. I know Putumayo is not technically defunct anymore since they came back with Reload A Classical... But it's all classic, classic I honestly don't really like.. Their modern rebrand is basically an entirely different brand to me.

I like their black and red stuff but I imagine if they were still open, much of my wardrobe would comprise of their items.

current brands

I try not to focus on the works of "ancients" because it's important to buy things to keep lolita alive. So many of these brands disappeared and more will disappear over time.

I didn't mention above but a brand I enjoy in line with Putumayo is Black Peace Now (and Peace Now). BPN closed, but the designer is currently doing things for Sheglit which I enjoy. The Sheglit designs are comfy and nice and clean in a way I like though I wish it wasn't so classic focused either. That gothic and classic look feels like it is taking over many brands LOL. And I enjoy it but there is so much of it.. 

I like N+Ah but I only own one piece by them because it's expesnive but aesthetically it feels like me. I desire to own this piece one of these days.

I think Marble also has the potential to be one of my favorite brands if I could just bring myself to buy a piece lol, but everything I like is inappropriate for work sighs..

Lastly, aesthetically of the modern JP brands, my favorite brand is Majoh, but well, I never felt the price matched what they were offering and the owner, MR. CORSET, is a violent Zionist who has stated she donates a chunk of her funds to the Israeli government.. I feel as though avodiing talking about Majoh will not fix the situation so I am very open about it.. It's a brand that is very special to me and visiting their store in Laforet was quite a spiritual experiece, but I just don't buy from them anymore and will try to avoid buying directly from MR. CORSET in general.

OVERSEAS (NON-JP) BRANDS

A lot of brands I like are indie brands, smaller ones and large ones, and usually they are where I Haunt the most.. but I actually have been buying less and not really keeping up with releases.. Smiles. A lot of brands aren't really shipping to the US right now or the releases are very limited and I just don't have energy  to keep up.. I don't enjoy using Instagram and have notifications disabled for it which is the main way to keep up with these brands..

But, well, one brnd I do enjoy is KONU:NOKU. I love beautiful luxurious crosses and they are devoted to the old school aesthetic. I think they have 5-7ish releases, so their catalogue isn't very large, but I do enjoy everything they make. CN brands I can usually easily keep up with because I do enjoy using Rednote and I really only follow brands and Chinese Lolita Influencers who showcase upcoming releases haha.

smiles..

Anyways, all of that is to say I enjoy a wide variety of things but so many things I like have fallen out of style amongst lolita designers I guess haha or they just aren't very accessible to me right now due to my unstable income, but I love lolita (and adjacent fashions.). I buy from a variety of brands when I can!