My Week in the World of Lifestyle Lolita

This past week, I decided to do a little experiment. I wanted to see what being a lifestyle lolita was like. And I have to say, it was a lot different than I expected. I wore lolita six days during the past week, I had to skip Sunday because I can't wear it to the job I have on Sundays. I'll talk about some of the really fun parts of the week, as well as some of the problems I had.

Getting Up and Getting Dressed

I am not a morning person. At all. I get up and catch the bus less than 20 minutes later. Which made dressing in lolita particularly miserable. I decided on my outfit the night before, but even with that, I was still missing the earlier bus and nearly late to class a few times. If I could manage to get up even 15 minutes earlier, I wouldn't have felt so rushed getting ready to go. If I could have gotten up an hour earlier, I would have actually felt awake when I was getting dressed.

Wearing lolita, while fun, is terribly inconvenient. I'm not used to wearing clothing without pockets. And only one of my dresses actually has them. It was difficult to carry my ID and phone with me. I have a bright green and black backpack that I use regularly. When I was wearing my frilly clothing, it felt out of place and, well, just plain ugly. So I couldn't use it. I have a few laptop bags that I used, and while they worked, they didn't really match either. What I really needed is a school bag, but more on that later.

Reactions: Good and Bad

I prepared for the worst. I prepared for the usual stares and the negative comments. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Fellow students ignored me, professors didn't make comments or make me explain myself. The people working at the two coffee shops I frequent were so positive and I received lots of complements. One girl told me to check out the PGH_Lolita group, where I'm a moderator. I politely thanked her for letting me know about this.

Working my week-day job in lolita was pleasant. I work in retail, so it was quite easy to wear lolita to work. However, it was also somewhat difficult to work in lolita. It was cramped and hard to move around a lot to help the customers. I've worn lolita to work before though, so this is not something new to me. My bosses really liked it though, and were very positive.

There were a few random reactions that I got in other places. A lady in the grocery store said she liked my dress and asked me where I got it. My little cat, Nia, was actually afraid of the dresses. There were a few people asking about it on the bus and on the street walking between classes and work. But overall, most everyone just ignored it.

Wardrobe Difficulties

I have a pretty decent sized wardrobe. I have seven skirts, seven jumpers, four blouses, and three cutsews. I've been able to make a myriad of coordinates thus far, but six days in a row took a toll on my wardrobe. I simply do not have enough dresses to make coordinates that interest and excite me every single day. Skirts were pretty-much unusable, because I only had a few tops I could use with them. This was a real eye-opener for me. I had always thought of each piece in my wardrobe being important. But truthfully, many pieces stay on their hangers in the closet. It may be time to do a bit of evaluating in my wardrobe, especially if I plan to become a lifestyle lolita.

I was quite surprised by myself. For the past two years, my life has become more and more lolita-centric. I've wanted to become a lifestyle lolita for past year almost, and that has been what I've been moving towards. After this experiment, I'm not so sure anymore. It's very difficult to wear lolita all day. Perhaps it's just me, but wearing lolita becomes exhausting after awhile. I learned that I would need to own enough cutsews to match my skirts, and while I have four blouse options, not one of them has long sleeves. How did that happen?

My conclusions

I think that it takes a lot of confidence and energy to wear lolita by yourself. A friend complimented me on my outfit one day, saying that she "doesn't have the balls to wear her lolita to school." I didn't feel that way before this experiment. I also feel that my wardrobe is not in a state to be used daily. I can barely make enough outfits to wear something different every day for a week. Finally, there are just some impracticalities that come with wearing lolita. It would be important for me to keep some "regular" clothes around to deal with these situations in. For more on these, check out my post from a week ago on this subject. Still, I don't think you have to wear lolita every day to be considered a "real lolita." Even if you just wear the style to meet-ups, conventions, and occasionally other times, like I do usually, you're still a lolita in my book!

It's almost been a year since I started writing the Elegant Wardrobe. I know I don't have a ton of readers or internet fame or anything. But I'm still happy with how this is going. So I'll be doing a one-year bloggiversary give away, starting later this month. Also, I am proud to announce that The Elegant Wardrobe now has a Facebook page! Please feel free to subscribe to it to get the latest updates right on your Facebook. Until next time~