Thursday, April 10, 2025

Proto-Lolita

   Hello!

    Recently, I have been discovering the intersection of two things I love: vintage and lolita fashion. There is a great article here about how lolita fashion began, which is context for a lot of what I'm going to say in this post: http://www.fyeahlolita.com/2010/02/old-school-lolita-in-90s-80s-and-70s.html . There is another great blog post, which has a lot of images of proto-lolita in it, which I also read as research for this post: https://cynicalneoprincessism.blogspot.com/2018/09/looking-at-roots-of-lolita-pre-oldschool.html .

    While there is a lot of debate surrounding what defines "Old School" as a substyle of lolita fashion, it's largely agreed upon that items released before 2008 fall into this category. The article I linked above goes into something it calls "Very Old School," a style and era of lolita fashion that is also sometimes referred to as "Proto-Lolita," which from my understanding covers the 70s to the 90s. 

    Proto meaning "pre" or "before," proto-lolita is a term for clothing items and brands that have elements that foreshadow what was destined to become lolita fashion. Some of these brands are: Milk, Heart E, and  Pretty (which would become Angelic Pretty in 2001). Proto-lolita items are those items that have lolita elements, but are not fully what we consider lolita. Example: a poofy skirt, but with considerably less poof.

    With all that said, I put together a coord today because I am going to see a friend next week who is into '90s gyaru, and we plan to dress up together. The coord turned out very proto (pre-lolita) and also shiro (all-white lolita). I love how it turned out, so here are all the details:

My shoes are rocking horse shoes. Not from Vivienne Westwood (LOL), but from Bodyline. My socks are from Metamorphose temps de Fille. My blouse is from Maxicimam. The JSK is from Jane Marple. It comes with a built-in petticoat! My headpiece is from Belladonna Lolita, an indie brand local to my area.

Till next time!

4.10.25

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