/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

It was in 2005, I was a huge (closet) weeb, outwardly a baby goth. I had one of those awful Western "Draw Manga Like a Pr0!1!!1!!" books, and the term "Goth Loli" kept popping up. I didn't have the internet at home, so I looked it up on the school internet, discovered our Lord and Saviour Mana and the rest is history.
I couldn't afford anything until I got a lot older lol, but it was pretty easy for me to start wearing the fashion in terms of confidence and stuff like that, already being a massive goth.
Looking forward to hearing everyone else's stories!
Pic related; DD, still can't afford orz

So I found out about lolita in about 2008/9. But I didn't start wearing it until 2015.
I was a kid browsing the internet, somehow fell down a rabbit hole into something called lolita. Cool, looks dope but I am literally a young teen at this point, so it's a pipe dream.

Fast forward a couple years later, I'm in my mid-teens, like 15, and I have a roleplay tumblr for some anime character (I used to tell my parents I was practising my creative writing, cringe). I see people reblogging these mary magdalene floral jsks and tagging it with "my character would wear this!!". I remember being super indignant and thinking, "no, your tomboy character would not wear lolita, but you think they would because you don't know what lolita is!!" I didn't voice those opinions (even at 15 I knew that was a bit cunty) but I started googling lolita again and quickly it became everything I wanted to wear.

Now I wear it semi-regularly, pretty much every weekend. Quarantine has me stuck in pyjamas though.

>>10369422
My re-discovery of lolita probably would have been about 2012ish. I didn't start buying it until 2015/6 because I had to save up from my part time job.

It was actually just a few years ago in 2015. I had always been a closet weeb but was also a massive outward normie in college. I knew what lolita was for years but didn't have the time, money, or comfort with being socially ostracized in college. Once I had graduated and was only really surrounding myself with close friends, I knew they wouldn't give a shit about how I dressed. My family still doesn't know I wear it because they don't need to and will probably just worry about me. I wear it on a weekly basis, give or take.

>>10369303
Around 2010 or 2011 I was a massive weeb and also a total mall goth. Found out about "goth loli" through those two, and eventually I fell in love with it. Didn't start buying pieces until 2015 and I've been wearing lolita daily since 2018.

I found about lolita because I was into visual kei and was a massive weeb in 2010-11. I Did buy one skirt and a blouse and had every intention of wearing lolita at the time, but I got scared about my family and people on the street laughing at me. I decided to drop lolita and it wasn't until 2017 I got back into it, but this time i actually had enough money to buy nice brand pieces and fufil my moitie fag fantasies. Unfortunetly, I had a massive bout of depression and I gained weight. I did have the perfect body for lolita, but I ruined it because I got frustrated with fashion and the way I looked and felt I was too ugly to ever look nice. I regret this so hard and now I still have to lose that weight. I have worn lolita a couple of times, but I really want to get into daily lolita properly when I finally lose all the weight.

In the late 90s I started getting into Japanese music through anime that aired on TV. Back then I would often visit my local comic book store that used to sell j-rock albums but it's only a few years later in the mid 2000s that I discovered Malice Mizer and subsequently gothic lolita.

Over my high school years I slowly built up my wardrobe, relying almost entirely on the western secondhand market which was few and far between back then and by the end of my final year I was wearing lolita daily. I remember my first brand piece was a Moitié cutsew I got from CDJapan for my birthday and I still wear it to this day.

Nowadays I only wear lolita on my days off since it really wouldn't be appropriate for work but I can't see myself leaving the fashion anytime soon.

As someone into ddlg, I got into sweet lolita after getting tired of just wearing diapers under normal clothing. Originally it was just to wear for daddy in the bedroom, but now I like to wear it even in public because it's my kink and I don't care what other people think of it. If they kinkshame me, that's their problem.

>>10369708

>>10369303
I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while. I usually have a good memory for my childhood, but I really can’t remember when I encountered lolita. It was either in an online dress up game or in a cover spread in the manga Ultra Maniac, and it was when I was very young, like 11-12.

The kiss dolls made by SakuraFairy, aka Lily of the Valley. She would write in the information section where she got the outfit ideas from, citing GLB, BTSSB and KERA magazine. I played with these for hours as a kid and sometimes I revisit them.

Pic related from 2003 in the Daisuki magazine.

>>10369720

>>10369717
>>10369718
You know what? It may have been this game that introduced me. I definitely remember playing it. But I had no idea SakuraFairy/Lily of the Valley made it. What a throwback.

I always liked goth, but in a lacy-frilly-feminine way. Then I found out gothic lolita through The Wallflower anime in 2006-ish. It was everything I’ve ever wanted. I would wear lolita inspired pieces after that but I got my full coord in 2013. Now I wear lolita whenever I go out.

It was in 2008, the spring/summer of my freshman year when I was 14. It's still a bit hazy because I feel like at that age I was still mentally kind of pre-teen? I had gotten into blythe dolls earlier in the fall/winter, so I think I must have come across lolita through blythes. I honestly can't remember very much, besides browsing Livejournal and how excited I was to receive my bodyline shoes and Inthestarlite petticoat. Now I wear it 90% of the time I'm outside the house.

>>10369914
Blythe gang

I first got into lolita when I had a tumblr blog back in 2012, I was following a lot of pastel goth fashion blogs and they would retweet Japanese street fashion. When I first saw ott sweet I fell in love instantly. After that I kind of went back to more casual alt styles (leaning more towards skater fashion).

A couple of years later (around 2014) I started to become interested in jfashion again as I started to get into jpop and kpop and then I made a friend who also wore jfashion. Then I started being interested in fairy kei fashion too so wore stuff like that until I moved out of my parents house.

In 2016 was when I purchased my first piece! Since then I've been wearing the fashion, I pretty much wear sweet.

Knew about lolita when I first found out about kanon wakeshima in 2008 and mana, was huge into Visual Kei in elementary school and didn’t get into lolita fast forward 2019 where I got tired of cosplaying, and saw a tea party that was outside of a con that was happening. I happened to bump into 2 Lolita’s that had a solid, ero/goth esque look and found out about lace market and I’m in deep, bought 44 listinfs from lm and 20+ Listings from wunderwelt and a couple from closet child. I wanted to wear it as often as I could but it’s difficult being an art student, having constant messes in college meant not being able to wear it as often as I wanted to. now due to the coronavirus lockdown I only wore it s couple times here and there. Modeled for a goth burando of my dreams despite being a beginner.

A friend I used to chat with on MSN messenger (lol) sent me a link to the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright website in the early 2000s and it was all downhill from there.

I was a child then so I wasn’t able to buy anything until around 2009. I often wish I had bought more and earlier but I was dumb at understanding which shops sold overseas and how to use shopping services even into my teens. It sucks realising you were around for the release of some iconic dresses and now they’ll escape you forever.

>>10369718
Anytime people mention KISS dolls I get hit with this huge wave of nostalgia.

I don't remember exactly how i learnt about lolita but it was probably from the style boutique ds game (i think it's called style savvy in america) when i was about 11/12, or maybe through my japanese friend (who was, and afaik still is into gothic.) obviously i couldn't afford it then so my interest was on and off until 2017 when i could finally afford to get into it "full time." since then i've been wearing lolita pretty much any day i leave the house to do more than buy snacks. as a kid i liked ott sweet because that was also the hot thing at the time, and while i still appreciate it, i tend to stick to classic, oldschool and solids.

>>10369943
Kek EC, is that you? I didn't know you lurk here.

Around 2005 I was really into Death Note. One article I read referred to Misa Amane as a gothic lolita and even though I didn’t care for Misa’s clothes I googled it and fell in love. As a 13 year old weeb of course I couldn’t buy anything but I obsessed over it for years until I finally started building my wardrobe in ~2008? I still have the first brand dresses I bought with money from my first job and even though they’re not my style anymore, I can’t bring myself to sell them.

>>10371202
Who ?????

It was at my very first anime convention (A-kon 2007). Prior to that I was pretty much a larval-stage goth with weeb tendencies. Of course, even though I loved the fashion, I was too fat for most of it so I ended up living my dream of wearing lolita through my art. I eventually ended up losing the weight later on in college but I struggled financially for the longest time so lolita was put on the backburner for a while. The only downside to being able to afford my dream dresses today is that the ones I lusted over as a weeb gothling are now extremely hard to come by secondhand.

I think it was about 2009/2010 I met a lolita at casual weeby meets my friends and I used to do, then later I noticed a stall featuring a lot of lolita including an emerald green dress with white cats in cameo frames and thought it was amazing.
After that I gradually got more interested and eventually spent time watching lolita YouTube channels, occasionally browsing sites and blogs. When I came across cgl a little while later I used to follow threads while I had been visiting to read cosplay threads. Eventually I got my first dress in 2014/15 which was infantas tangled JSK, I got some Bodyline but really just started wanting to get brand once I established my basic accessories. Despite getting more classic pieces in the beginning my favourite style is absolutely sweet ranging from pastel to chocolates and some jewel tones. I have my dream dresses and most wishlist pieces now so I'm mostly just chilling and getting accessories. Before we went on lockdown I was wearing it basically whenever I went out on a day off, so anything up to four times a month if not a bit more. Since I'm working full time it's more difficult lately.
Haven't really gone to a meet for a couple of years or so so I'd like to get more involved again once it's possible to.

my older sister had a weeaboo phase around 2005-2008. I never got into anime, but during that time she got really into malice mizer and showed me Mana, and told me what lolita was. I started spending a lot of time on livejournal around 2007, and I lurked EGL on and off until 2012. finally took the plunge and bought a lucky pack and a few bodyline dresses. wore sweet, looked awful in it, was a cheap tacky ita. gave up on the fashion. started lurking cgl again around 2016 and decided to jump back in. I'm glad I did. I understand more about style and what suits me, what looks good in general.

I found the English GLB at Borders during my Gaiaonline era and it's been frills ever since

>>10369303
>12 years old
>best friend's big sis is awesome
>has a huge anime and manga collection
>lends me weeb stuff
>takes me to cons
>shows me her art of sexy men and girls in frilly dresses
>I had such a crush on her
>I always tried to dress cool when I went over
>actually looked like "catholic girl tries to be emo" FML
>watching bff play Kingdom Hearts one day
>Big sis comes in
>"hey anon, read this book."
>"one of the MCs reminds me of you"
>it's Kamikaze Girls
>I fucking love it
>return it a week or two later
>"thank you so much, you are so right, Momoko is literally me."
>"...anon, I meant Ichigo."
>"I can't imagine you in a frilly dress, lol."

I kinda stayed away from lolita for a while after that until I made online friends with a girl who was into gyaru. She encouraged me to actually give lolita a try even though I wasn't cute. Now I'm 26 and a daily lolita brandwhore.

>>10369911
There's a lolita in The Wallflower!? I remember the main girl Nana in Othello was basically a Malice Mizer cosplayer and Polaris from X-Day wore legit Gothic, but I don't remember any lolita in that one, daaamn

I believe it was in 2006, I was at a friends house for some school project, but instead we killed time on the PC browsing the internet. I remember we browsed the F+F and Putumayo website. She didn't tell me what this fashion was called, so my inital thoughts were that the princess style dresses and almost everything on F+F were fucking ugly and I was more drawn to the punk aesthetic by Putumayo. Later I learned that she actually ordered some clothing by those brands, so borrowed a Putu skirt of hers for a few days and fell in love in love it. Then I decided to check that F+F website again and l started to learn about the fashion and all the other brands that exist. Made my first own purchase in 2008.

was suuuper into dress up games as a kid. i distinctly remember style savvy, the sakurafairy games that >>10369718 mentioned, and several dolldivine games like this one
https://www.dolldivine.com/lolita-maker.php

then i started browsing watching youtubers, browsing blogs, then browsing cgl... but still didn't have any pieces. wasn't until last year when a friend got into and was super ita that i outed myself and we kinda got into together,

>>10371534
There are the gosuloli sisters--not the most flattering portrayal but Sunako also wears lolita sometimes.

>>10369717
I'm the exact same! It's so strange to me that I can't remember something that basic when I remember more or less everything else about my childhood.

I think I was 13-14, though, and my best guesses are that it was either through a Bebo "what Japanese fashion are you" quiz (lol Bebo), or the video game The World Ends With You. But then I remember being disappointed that I always ended up with cybergoth on that quiz instead of lolita and I also remember being excited that there were lolita clothes in TWEWY, so maybe it's neither? It's so fuzzy for some reason.

I ended up living in SF randomly and someone ended up in Japan Town. So I walking around, checking out the shops and of course walked into the Baby store. I was like the fuck is this? I'm really into fashion in general, so I wanted to look at all the cloths stores but I had no idea what these party dresses were for and why the fuck were they were $300 bucks a pop. I actually left the store without so much as a word. But then I came back, like some sort of pull. And then I bought a dress, asked the nice girls there, "what do I do now?" and ...here I am. I also like telling girls on CoF "that's not lolita" and watch them melt.

I'm guessing I must be one of the younger posters here (21) but I found the fashion from a tumblr post of various Mary Magdalene dresses in 2013. I'd encountered lolita before then from playing dressup dolls online, but they were always gothic or sweet, which didn't speak to me in the same way as classic did. I've been actively wearing the fashion since 2014, although my style is a lot more sweet than pure classic, and I'm still yet to own anything MM. I spent a lot of time browsing Hello Lace, and as a result I have a bit of a soft spot for old school. Since quarantine began, I've actually been making an effort to wear lolita pieces almost daily, although not necessarily in proper coords. My usual daily style is Axes Femme and I'd wear lolita about every other weekend.

>>10371208
I think I know who they might be talking about actually, but I don't want to out them like an asshole.
They're definitely an artist and really good, and said recently they were going to try and wear lolita more often.

>>10371972
>I also like telling girls on CoF "that's not lolita" and watch them melt
Considering your background, you should fucking humble yourself.

>>10369303
Can guys get into Lolita? Looks comfy

>>10372105
Yeah but it doesn't really work out well most of the time.

I was around 13, and my first exposure was going to a lolita meet without even knowing what lolita was. My friends and I were going to a haunted house, and our ride was a lolita, so the meet was our first stop. I was in a big tomboy phase and socially awkward, so I hung back. (Secretly loved cute stuff, but thought it made me lame/weak to like it and thought I was too ugly to dress up.) Later, I got on Tumblr and followed a ton of J fash blogs and just pretended I liked to see other people dress cute. I’d draw my favorite anime characters in AP and MM dresses.

When I was about 14, I fell HARD for BTSSB’s Sweet Fawn coat in ivory. Didn’t ask for much as a kid, but I needed that. I asked my mom to buy it (she said yes without either of us knowing how much it actually cost kek) and then discovered you couldn’t buy it from the BTSSB store because it was an old release. Sad day.

Then, college comes, and three things happen: I realize it’s stupid to think femininity is weakness, I discover self-esteem, and I have the money. Fanny Rosie’s toned down, classic style inspires me to get into the fashion. Researched forever, bought dresses using shopping services, and nervously but excitedly attended my first meet in a Mary Magdalene dress (my favorite then and since brand). My community was absolutely amazing, and I had a blast with those girls until I moved back home. I miss them to this day, and hope to start a community here (comms come and go here) with the help of another local lolita I connected with once we can all go outside and have gatherings again.

I have a large classic/sweet wardrobe I adore. Found the Sweet Fawn coat in my preferred colorway, too. Little me would be so pleased with where I’m at.

>>10372105
the stupid questions or general thread would be a better place to ask this. I’d recommend dipping your toes into ouji first, though

>>10371970
>twewy
Based
I was always upset that you never actually got to see neku wearing the lolita clothes (or any of the other clothes] in game, but I understand how much extra work that would have been for the developers

>>10371202
no?

For years I'd had a vague idea of what gothic lolita was just through internet osmosis and general weeb stuff. In high school fashion class, I actually did a project that marginally involved gothic lolita - we had to design a line/brand and mine was casual clothes with a tiny bit of frill inspired by lolita. That was in 2007.

It dropped off my radar for years and years, until in 2012, I started lurking /cgl/ for cosplay advice when I started cosplaying and then in 2013 I got a tumblr and started coming upon all sorts of cute clothes. Mostly I wanted to wear himekaji at first, but Fancy Egg came out around that time and when I saw the print I fell in love. I said to myself "well I'm not gonna get into the fashion but if I did I would totally wear this print." That year I went to a con with my husband and we went to the flea market. There was a little tiny bit of jfash there and it basically came down to me either buying a Liz Lisa dress from one girl or an Infanta dress from another. The LL dress honestly wasn't that nice but it was the only opportunity I'd have to get one in person...I agonized it, thinking I could have a much nicer dress for the same price but the latter basically required a jump into a whole new fashion. My husband finally pushed and said "dude, if you like it, just buy it. You can get the other stuff you need for it later." So I did! I started collecting pieces after that and then wearing it proper at the beginning of 2014, often on dates with my husband, and then finally joined a comm mid 2014.

Oh, and I happily now own 3 Fancy Egg pieces (2 dresses and a skirt) and honestly one day I might just buy up a piece in every colourway that exists.