Confident Lolitas

confident_lolis @ 2008-03-19T21:20:00

2008-03-20T04:23:34Z

Uwah, does anyone still check this anymore? Cause I figured it would be fitting if we had a post on shirred dresses from any brand for the bigger lolitas, >,<

*feared posting in EGL for inflamement*
Does anyone have any pictures, or suggested brands? I don't have any at the moment 'cause im on my dads computer, bah...

"What are You Wearing!?!"

2007-02-08T23:00:19Z

How do you respond to this question, if someone asks you? I don't really know what to say to people-__-'

Styles you're most comfortable in

2007-01-28T23:42:35Z

As everybody knows, there are lots of different sub-styles (or sub-genres, as I like to call them) of Lolita - Punk, Gothic, Sweet, White, Black, Classic, Princess, Country, Guro (I'm sure I'm missing some)...and we mustn't forget Aristocrat, Dandy and Kodona!

So, my question is, which of these sub-genres are you most comfortable in? Which make you cringe at the thought of wearing them, and why?

For me, I'm most comfortable in Punk Lolita - mostly because it's on the casual side, and I can fly under the radar (as it were) if I want to while still being recognizable as a Lolita to those who know the fashion. After that, I'm most comfortable in Classic Lolita, because I feel it captures the "Lolita spirit" while still being a little toned down.

Most uncomfortable? Certainly Sweet Lolita! I'm awestruck by Lolis who have the confidence and poise to wear the beautiful and adorable stylings of Sweet Lolita out in the open, and I really hope to be like them someday. But, for now, I can hardly imagine wearing a headdress outside, never mind all those fabulous ruffles!

Corset tutorial?

2007-01-22T04:30:31Z

Hmm I'd realyl like to make a corset tutorial seeing how I'm making one for my friend : 3 But if no ones all that interested I don't feel like bothering with a camera and taking picture of everything you know? =_= It'll be a zip up back, not exactly a corset but It will have boneing a the criss crossess on the front ^^ just post if you're interested : )

Boobie squishing to fit into AP

2007-01-20T19:52:06Z

Today I'll be replacing the waistband on my petti and making aheadbow to match my new AP dress so I can wear it tommorow. :] I'll probably post pictures soon.

It arrived yesterday and I was extremely pleased with the fact that it *mostly* fits. My waist and arms are fine, but my boobs. :[ I wore it with a sports bra to squish them down a tad, I can get the dress on comfortably, but it gave me a flattened uni-boob look. It doesn't look terrible, but there has to be some sort of alternative.

Does anyone have any ideas? I've heard about reducer bras but I haven't been able to find any, even online. Thank you to anyone who helps!

Fluffy lolitas

2007-01-18T19:37:04Z

A few of the Kera Snap images I found on Avant Gauche of lolitas who weren't the tiny models we see in the GLBS. Most of them are by no means "fatty-chans" (Japanese are on average much thinner than westerners), but I'm hoping the represent some different weights that still look good in lolita. And if anyone would like a skinny lolita post I'd be willing to search for those as well. Just let me know if you really think some of these don't belong, and conversely if you have anything to add let me know.

Page (The most famous fatty-chan)
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And while searching egl for this one post about fatty chans I found this post where banshee123, a self-proclaimed "fatty-chan", pwns everyone by looking better than most in lolita.

Multi-size clothing sewing grumbles.

2007-01-18T07:56:52Z

Do other lolitas who both sew and are trying to lose weight get as frustrated as I do about having to make all your clothes adjustable size, so they'll fit you still if you get smaller? I sure do. I mean, it's worth it in the long run, but sometimes it's just so much extra planning and effort!

I have a few skirts with elastic waistbands, and that's a good way to get around that issue, but I don't really like the look of them that much, so these days I tend to go for a partial elastic waistband. I still wish I could make a regular flat waistband though! Partial elastic bands can be so fiddly sometimes, and I prefer the smooth look of a flat band. I know I wouldn't want to have to pull the skirt apart and re-gather it later. Gathering is evil. I guess you could sew a flat waistband and then, if the skirt has a bow, tie the bow tighter... but I imagine that might not be so comfortable, and might sit wrong.

What else is there? Well, shirring. A lot of people don't like the look of a fully shirred bodice, and I can understand that. I change my mind on that issue a lot. Incorporating back shirring is a good way to sew something that could still fit you if you lose or gain weight, whilst still having a pretty front.

Also, I don't own a serger, so I zigzag my edges, and I generally zigzag each piece separately before I sew a seam, rather than both at once afterwards. This is mostly just out of habit personally, but it does make it easier later on if you want to pull something apart and make it more fitted. Larger seam allowances are good if you intend to let something out later, but I still use small seam allowances... anyway, I don't want to have to let them out! >:(

Hmm, this started off just me bitching about sewing, but I kind of went on a tangent. Does anyone else have any tips or opinions on sewing lolita clothes when you hope to lose weight?

[A big thing to most] Wearing Lolita to school.

2007-01-18T02:17:27Z

I, personally, have yet to wear a Lolita outfit to school yet (but I do plan on once I get my first one for my birthday.) But, we all know that wearing a lolita outfit to school (moreso high school, I'd say) is a big step and you need to have an extreme amount of confidence. Because we all know that we will stick out, we will be looked at funny, we will be asked many questions, and we might even be made fun of. But its best to keep cool in such situations and answer questions to your best ability, and smile at those who give you funny looks. ~.^ Being made fun of is always a tough blow to deal with but being the mature person that you know you are, you shouldn't let such comments even touch you. Being strong and not letting a comment get to you is your best bet. You always have to remember that people who try to bring others down have their own personal problems that they can't deal with so they make fun of others to feel better about themselves.

I brought my Gothic & Lolita Bible to school today for 'show and tell' (Yeah 11th grade and my criminal justice teacher tells us to do show and tell xD;.) But a couple kids who looked at it were like, "Do people in Japan actually wear this stuff? That's weird. What freaks." And stuff like that. So I simply said, "Well I bet they look at our fashion and go, 'Oh how dull.' You just believe its weird because its not what you see here in the US being advertised by a top brand. I bet if Abercrombie started selling clothing like this everyone would jump on the bandwagon because its the new in thing." So the kid who was making those comments then stopped. Another boy said he just didn't understand the culture behind it and I explained it to him to the best of my ability and once he had an understanding, he said he had respect for it and said he respects people's decisions to wear whatever they want and if I came to school wearing lolita he said he wouldn't really say anything but just have respect for me for standing out and wearing what I like and living how I want too. So I recieved many mixed reactions from people in my classes, one kid said he wanted to go to Japan and buy some clothes, some girl said the parasols looked like Little Bo Peep and she thought it was dumb.

But there's just a lot of reactions that you can recieve, you just have to remember to take them all in with grace and understanding~ and not let the bad one's get you down. ♥

Hello!

2007-01-16T23:40:55Z

Hello ^_^!
I'm reasonably new to lolita, I have been following it for some time,
but I've recently made the decision to start building my wardrobe.

I'm going to be honest, my confidence is pretty okay, I'm in the process of being comfortable with my body, and excepting the fact that I am a beautiful puerto-rican girl who is healthy and that though 24 inch waist girls are also beautiful, my body will not get down to that size.
Though I do not want to contradict myself, I do excercise to tone my body and to be healthy.

I've always been the oddball out and I realized if someone will not get to know me for who I am as a person not by what I wear, then they are shallow.

In the sense of Lolita, my confidence is really sort of hanging there by
a thread because I don't know where to buy or what to buy..I've been spending hours reading, looking, and viewing posts, websites, links, etc. and I'm on a budget and do to my size, certain outfits cannot happen.

I'm looking for some recommendations on anything pertaining to buying clothing.
Ranging from shops to seamstresses to ebay stores.

I have links to some shops and while the dress looks nice on the website,
it could be a dissappointment when you get it, and if you don't feel comfortable in it, you won't feel comfortable with yourself.

Thank you!!
For reading this rather long post!

Self-Confidence for the Lolita (taken mostly from www.more-selfesteem.com - an excellent website)

2007-01-16T22:50:48Z

1) Feel Good when you Want!

When you need to boost your self confidence or self esteem, find 3 things that make you feel good. These could be memories of good times, a piece of music, a holiday souvenir, or a person's face - use photos if it helps. It could be as easy as browsing around for a new Lolita dress, or going for a walk, or cooking something tasty for you and your friends and family. These 3 things can be tangible or intangible - Practise thinking about them and bringing them to mind whenever you feel down.

Developing self confidence that lasts - because of the way emotions 'attach' themselves to memories, you will quickly train yourself to feel good when you want - a great help.

2) Beat Self Consciousness

Self consciousness is the No.1 enemy of self confidence. Learn how to keep your attention off yourself. You can do this easily by following these steps...

a) If you notice you have become self-conscious, (you can usually tell because you start to feel anxious), choose something 'everyday' you can see and study it in detail. For example: examine a door, look at the different textures and shades of colour, wonder about who made it and how and so on. The important thing is that you're learning how to keep your attention off yourself.

b) If you feel self-conscious in a social situation, it's usually because you don't have enough to do! Focus on what your purpose in the situation is. Whether you're there to:

find out if you like the other people in the situation
make others feel comfortable
find out some information
make business contacts
and so on...

It's easy to feel self-conscious if you have nothing to do, and much more difficult if your attention is occupied by a task!

Think how comfortable you have been with others when you're all working toward a common goal. The common goal of socialising could be making friends, it could be the exchange of mutually beneficial information, it could be whatever you want it to be!

3) Don't Take Undue Criticism - Even From Yourself !

Challenge your own assumptions. Here's a few to get you started:

a) Confident-looking people have bad moments too! For example, even Lolitas who talk very confidently or look confident in pictures may struggle with their self-esteem sometimes.
b) Just because you feel under-confident, doesn't mean other people can tell.
c) If you're saying things to yourself like "You're no good at anything" then rest assured, you're very wrong! Everyone can compose a sentence, get successfully to the store, eat without choking. Don't let yourself make sweeping statements about yourself - in the long run it is this sort of thing that can really damage your self image.
Building self esteem is not just about thinking good of yourself, it's about not thinking bad for no reason!

confident_lolis @ 2007-01-16T15:28:00

2007-01-16T22:37:56Z

Hey Lolis!

If there's one food item that is eternally tied to all Lolita-dom...it is the cake.

If there is one food item that is eternally tied to a growing waistband...it is the cake.

Fortunately, now you can have your cake and eat it too!

ANGEL FOOD CAKE
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup unbleached flour, sifted
1 1/2 cups egg whites, slightly beaten
1 1/2 tsps cream of tartar
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 c granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix powdered sugar and flour in a mixing bowl; then set aside. In separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites, cream of tartar, vanilla extract, salt, and almond extract at high speed until well blended. Gradually sprinkle in granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time while beating at high speed. Beat just until sugar is dissolved and egg whites stand in stiff peaks. Do not scrape sides of bowl during beating. Fold in flour mixture, about 1/4 at a time, with a rubber spatula just until flour disappears. Pour mixture in unprepared 10" tube pan. Cut through batter to break large air bubbles with metal spatula,. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and set upside-down until cooled. Serves about 12.

Nutritional Stuff per serving (1/12th of the cake)
175 Calories
0g Fat (0% calories from fat)
4g Protein
40g Carbohydrate
0mg Cholesterol
94mg Sodium
Weight Watchers Points per serving: Where the formula is Points = (Calories/50) + (Fat/12) - (Fibre/5); 3.5 points. That's awesome!

You can top this baby with fresh sliced strawberries, low fat whipped topping (look for Cool Whip in your local supermarket, it comes in really, REALLY light varieties and still tastes awesome,) raspberries, blueberries, whatever tickles your fancy!

Flattering clothing.

2007-01-16T19:40:55Z

It seems like we've got lolis of a lot of different shapes and sizes here, and as we all know what suits one person might look terrible on another - different people suit different clothes. So, it might be a good idea to post what sort of loli clothing/accessories you've found flattering for your particular shape, complexion, height, hair...

I'll start:

Big boobs - generally, big boobs and high necked blouses seem to be considered a big no no, but they're pretty much essential for loli, espeicially if you're well-endowed enough that even slightly low-cut tops show a lot of cleavage. I've found that blouses that have slightly asymmetrical fronts, like this one, although I have no idea why. Another option is to wear a chic V necked jumper or cardigan (one which stops below your bust to prevent gaping buttons!) over your blouse to emphasise that no, it's not some kind of matronly shelf and yes, there really are two of them under there.

Avoid A-line dresses like the plague, especially if you're big all over. Having big tits and a dress that billows out below them suggests you've got one in the oven, while having a big belly whose shape will show while you walk just adds to this impression.

Most importantly of all, get a good bra, and one which fits. Most women are wearing a bra that's too big in the band and too small in the cups. Measure your underbust, and round up to the nearest even number to get your band size, don't add five inches to it or any of that nonsense some places peddle (would you want five inches of ease in your jeans, let alone a support garment? Exactly.). Then, measure your full bust, accross your nipples, wearing the closest thing you have to a well fitting bra, ideally not a padded one or a sports bra. Then, find the difference between them to get your approximate cup size: the typical way to do this is one inch difference for an A cup, two for a B, and so on, although some places have an A cup as both measurements being the same, so it's really not an exact science. So just kinda guess that part based on one of those systems then use the handy guides on bravissimo's site to check whether a bra fits you correctly, although the best way to judge this is simply by common sense :P.

Tall loli - brand stuff is, obviously, designed with the Japanese loli in mind, who is on average much shorter than the western loli. So if you're over 5'5''ish you might start to find some skirts are a little on the short side. Checking measurements is obviously vital, since even within one brand skirt lengths vary enormously. I'm 5'9'' and the Meta window-print underbust JSK hits me around about the knee (or would do if it would fit my ribcage ¬_¬), while the Crown Label pinafore with the embroidery would be so short I actually couldn't bend over. But what if your dream skirt is just a tiny bit on the short side? If you're skinny you can wear it lower on your waist, but tall often goes along with a generally larger build so that won't work for everyone. Going for over-knee socks (western, not Japanese, so they're actually over the knee on you) or some nice tights helps to hide the fact that a skirt might be slightly on the wrong side of knee length

Also watch out for blouse lengths, if you're particularly long in the body, although this is fairly easily dealt with if you wear a high-waisted skirt or a JSK.

Now, that's all I've got, but I know the rest of you have a lot more advice, so please post it. It might make a good community memories item if the rest of you can drag my crappy suggestions kicking and screaming upto average quality :P.

Low-fat or No-fat Yummy Recipes

2007-01-16T19:02:47Z

I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in low or no fat recipes? I have a ton of cookbooks and I'd be willing to weed through them and see what I can find that doesn't have a ton of fat in it.

I'm also planning on posting some things that just sound plain yummy. :P

Loli workout~!

2007-01-16T17:54:38Z

I can't read this but I think it'd be cute if someone devised a loli excercise program (not sure how that'd work ^_^;;;). Anyway, just joining to post anything I find that's helpful (my head's already too big :P), but my intro is I'm Caitlin, I'm 20 years old, currently 5'3 and 115 since I've been gaining muscle from excercise (I was 100 lbs before and told to gain some weight), measurements are something like 34-24-35". Don't know if I have any goals other than keep in shape...

Anyway, would anyone be interested in me compiling a bunch of links to some of the fluffier lolitas in the kera snaps like my old style posts? I know there's not a lot of true fatty-chans in the mooks, but I'm tempted to search around for some pictures of loli clothes looking good on a slightly larger frame than the typical GLB model.

confident_lolis @ 2007-01-15T17:00:00

2007-01-16T00:05:55Z

Hey there everybody! Man oh man, am I full of song and dance today. (Okay not really. But I can dream.)

I was just wondering if you all had some pictures of yourself that you'd be willing to let us use for the layout. I found myself flipping through scans from the G&L Bible and KERA and stuff, and then I thought - Wait a minute, that's EXACTLY what we're trying to avoid here!

And then I thought, hey, why not get some pictures of these gorgeous ladies (and handsome gents) instead? This community is really all about US, right? It's not about some model somewhere, it's about the real Lolitas who live and breathe and wear this stuff and look AWESOME in it.

So, if you're willing to give it a shot, comment to this post with a picture or two of yourself - your absolute favorites - in Lolita, EGA, whatever. I'll try to see if we can smoosh as many in there as we can!

Thanks, guys!

Help! Layout needed!

2007-01-15T19:04:49Z

While the one we've got now is, uh...really super and all...I'd kind of like something a little more personally ours.

If anybody has a little extra spare time and can throw together a layout for the community, I would be eternally thankful. Leave a comment here or contact me at drake_katokia@hotmail.com if you've got any questions.

...

...If anyone has even MORE extra time, we also need a community icon. <___<'

Introductory Post!

2007-01-15T19:01:46Z

This is a place where you can post who you are because I figure, hey, most people like to know who they're talking to. I'll start.

You guys can call me Lia. I'm 17 years old, from Calgary, Alberta. (That's in Canada, by the way.) My favorite Lolita styles are Classic and Punk Lolita (yeah, I know, kind of polar, aren't they?) and although I've been an avid worshipper of Lolita for some time now, I'm somewhat of a n00blita as I haven't got a single piece of Lolita clothing to my name. Saaaad.

Right now, I'm weighing in at 173 pounds on a 5'3" frame. My waist size is 32". I consider that progress, though, as I used to be 191 pounds with a 38" waist. My eventual goal is 29" and about 150 pounds - as soon as I reach that goal, I'm going to buy myself my very first piece of Lolita clothing, so I'm really motivated about the whole thing.

Okay, now it's your turn. Post a comment with who you are, where you've come from and where you're going - that kind of thing.