#literally half of official oldschool brand ads they’re not wearing a petticoat and neither are the street snap girls

[strawberryteabunny]

Frederick’s 30 Days Day 6: Are there popular lolita things you tend to dislike for your own style?

So this might be really controversial but… petticoats ><

A) I travel a lot and I’m a lifestyle lolita; on average I’m out of town at least once a month. I also live in a big city and don’t own a car so I’m on the bus or train everywhere. Trying to pack a petticoat in a suitcase or on public transportation is REALLY annoying so I started skipping it and it turns out I find it a lot more comfortable without!

B) A lot of classic and oldschool styles are either very low or no petti in the first place (or have built in petticoats in the dresses)- so an OTT level cupcake petticoat doesn’t work for most of my coords anyway. I do wear a petticoat on occasion for dresses that look really flat without it…

C) … but tbh no one’s ever called me out on it or said my dresses/skirts look flat/bad. Maybe everyone’s just really nice and keeps this thought to themselves, but imo it’s not very distracting/bad looking and in photos it’s easy to hide if a dress isn’t poofy enough. Who knows, maybe I’ve been posted to cgl over it or would’ve been on BTB but I feel like people care less these days, especially other lifestylers or people who do more casual coords.

Oldschool/classic styles were often a lot more casual about wearing a petticoat or even a blouse- these are all pre-2003 iirc, from GLB’s via lolitahistory. The last one is an ad for Victorian Maiden- a summer coord with no blouse, petti, bloomers, or long socks! (Disclaimer that some of these coords may have petticoats but some clearly don’t, and it’s not always crystal clear which is which)

I’m not wearing a petticoat in any of these pictures (and I tried specifically to look for photos where I’m not holding my skirt out)- would you have been able to tell the difference if I hadn’t told you?

I do want to wear more underskirts though- a lot of dresses are short on me and I just like the added detail. Somewhere in my project bin is an underskirt that I’m hoping will provide a nice amount of length and volume for my dresses and will therefore double as a ‘pettiskirt’- adding some volume but not an overwhelming/uncomfortable amount of fabric. I’ve also been really into a VM underdress I bought recently that I’ve been wearing in my classic coords to lengthen/add some volume to my skirts.

I do want to add that I think a key part of the lolita fashion is the silhouette, which has a poofy knee-length skirt as the ‘platonic ideal’. Skipping a petti absolutely can lead to your coords looking bad and there’s definitely some dresses where I always wear a petti because they need one to look right. But just like longer skirts can still be lolita and are more common in gothic and classic lolita, I think lower volume can be a thing in oldschool or classic coords sometimes too.

On a much less controversial note, I’m also not a huge fan of KC’s and wristcuffs. I’ve really fallen in love with rectangle headdresses and KC’s are a lot more ‘sweet’ to me, so if I wear a head bow it’s usually on the back of the head not on the top. Wristcuffs- I’ve just never liked the feeling of something on my wrist! I don’t wear bracelets or watches either 🤷‍♀️