
*all opinions expressed are my own, about myself. I'm not talking about anyone in particular and make assumptive-gross over generalizations but I'm not finger pointing. I'm just talking about my own perspective and its ridiculous I'm even making this disclaimer.

I cant tell if this is “in your wardrobe” or just in general, but honestly my response is consistent I suppose:
Angelic Pretty 2008-2011.
This really was the golden era of sweet tbh and AP’s golden era as well- so so many great prints came out during this era and since I got into Lolita around 2012 my nostalgic love for this era exists to this day; as evidenced by the fact I have a French café jsk~
It’s a wonderful era where we see the fixation of the modern sweet concept and silhouette and yet, it consistently still harkens back to the days or yore. Its honestly also the era where I feel the most memorable prints almost in general were released, and we begin to see more experimentation with cuts and silhouettes – maybe this in itself a callback to proto-origins what with the releases of salopettes and mini skirts? This 3-4 year period of AP is just so unapologetically loud and attention grabbing its no wonder this is when the brand became the poster child for the fashion and in extent also where it was truly led into phenomenon status; I wouldn’t say hitting the mainstream but for sure hitting widespread niche knowledge – hitting countless anime illustrations and characters, if you were into anything Japan here you KNEW about Lolita fashion [something that cannot be repeated today, when I wore a basic bxw OS coord to the chainsaw man movie and the guy sitting next to me asked “why are you dressed like a maid” – there were 0 (ZERO) maid elements]
My Lolita-otukness is showing and ive gone through 52 pages of the 171 that appear when you simply select these dates on lolibrary. Its an incredible era but then for me: it’s just that. I can’t see myself throwing myself into this style completely- maybe as some one-off coords for events because then here is my biggest qualm:
it feels like a costume.
Although this is when Lolita could’ve almost hit the “mainstream” of alt-fashion as a whole its also where I feel its complete “costumification” occurred. Its loud, its unapologetic, its attention grabbing, its SO MUCH… its TOO MUCH for it to simply be just clothes. And for me that’s how I most enjoy my Lolita- as just clothes, and this level of over-the-top sweet, well the term says it all, its over the top. I’ve has conversations about this line of thinking of mind with other lolitas and in particular modern sweets, and I’m met with responses like “but what's the point if you’re not a princess?”, “but that is the point”, and “well I cant see it like that”. And all I can say as well is that there’s a reason why “con-litas” became a thing during this era.
"but what's the point if you don't look like a princess?”
If you’ve read enough of my blog or simply know me you’ll know I’m a student of the channel fashion school since always and for me: There can always be such a thing as too much, even in Lolita. You can see my outlook painfully-obviously in my coords and I have no way to better expand on it then that. It’s likely why when I got a complete modern-sweet coord together I looked in the mirror and instantly said without a sliver of doubt “I cannot go out looking like this”. Its too much for me, its practically a costume- its fun of course but if I were not within the confines of a convention I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to wear coords of this era – its likely I would’ve very much been a “con-lita” for the majority of my existence if I had succeeded in entering the hobby pre-2015 like I wanted to, but then again who knows.
its likely I would’ve very much been a “con-lita”
That’s the wonderful thing about Lolita: everyone is able to interpret it how they want and it can still be identifiable [wouldn’t this be true for all alt-fashions though?]. modern-sweet is still the most instantly identifiable style within Lolita and usually-almost always the first style people are exposed to in general, and quite honestly based on observation then the first style they try to get into, only a serious select few have I ever seen begin in other sub-styles. Anyways, modern-sweets are stronger than any soldier- the last time I wore out my “secret airmail” jsk I was so uncomfortable, it lead me to bitter-sweetly selling her, she did her duty when I first got her, but I felt almost unsafe wearing her. And for that again modern-sweets are so brave, and I am not. I love my simplified and subdued solids even if they get me “is that traditional dress?” fuck-ass stupid questions.

.☘︎ ݁˖Happy Spring! Thanks for reading!.☘︎ ݁˖
Have you been to a picnic already this season?˖𓍢ִ໋❀.ೃ࿔
