How to Dress in Old School Lolita ∣ Pt.1

This blog post is hopefully going to be a comprehensive guide to how to most accurately and authentically dress in old school lolita. It's all tips and tidbits that I've picked up myself over the years of wearing and admiring old school, mostly just from observing things in photos. Perhaps you will find these points helpful, or perhaps you'd prefer to ignore it and just do your own thing~! I thought I might give some tips that I feel might help you wear the style in as authentically of-the-time a way as possible, and bring light to possibly forgotten features, without being too prescriptive.

I tried doing this in a video some time ago but I did not do a good job at it, as I hadn't organised my thoughts enough beforehand, which lead to a few bits of misinformation and poor communication, plus coming off slightly mean; all amplified by my awkward camera presence. But hopefully this blog should be much more accurate and helpful.

I try to stick to these myself, as I do love that particular aesthetic and find it looks best when I dress as true to period as possible. I want to make it especially clear that this is of course all just my opinion,  I didn't invent old school (I wish lmao) and these aren't rules, and anyone is free to wear what they want, but I hope at least some of you find this helpful.

 

My first tip for better coording old school lolita is to remove yourself from the coording mindset of modern lolita. Modern lolita has more rules and generally needs to be more 'perfect', and is more influenced by kawaii themes or historical themes. Old school coords, a lot of the time (though not always) had a 'messier' feel to them as it took cues from visual kei and natural kei, and stemmed from street fashion culture. Part of the change in styling comes from the activities the subculture is based around, back in the 90s and early 2000s lolita was often worn to hang out on Harajuku bridge or go to Visual Kei concerts, whereas now it’s more commonly worn to go to large tea parties or organised meet ups.
There were also a lot of coords worn specifically to be photographed and featured in street snap magazines like KERA, or even taken at home, and we shouldn't forget the western community back then, but they don't differ too much from other coords vibe-wise. However I should also point out that the level of frumpiness varies from coord to coord and style to style, there isn't only one way to wear old school.

 

You can tell that in a lot of coords, people would make do with what they had, such as wearing black shoes with a sweet coord, plain socks rather than printed or lace-top, or a mismatching bag, because they didn't have something that matched better. That's partly because back then, brands were a lot less set oriented as today. This 'make do' attitude also tends to look less out of place in old school than in modern coords imo. There wasn't so much pressure to be pristine and photo ready at all times, and overall the fashion - even sweet - had an edgier "so what" vibe to it. It really shows that they are dressing for themselves.

 

There are so many different looks, styles and overall aesthetics in old school lolita, some of which are often forgotten or not thought of as old school, but it also means you can easily have your own tastes and personal style when it comes to old school as there's so much variety. Perhaps you don't like the frumpy doll look but you love the clean cut minimal oft forgotten classic Victorian Maiden/Mary Magdalene aesthetic. Or maybe oldschool EGL isn't for you, but you absolutely love the 'barely lolita' roots of the 90s. You should be able to see even from the small fraction of pictures on this blog, the variation within old school lolita.

 

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Source material

I think it's important to have as large of a source as possible to study and get a good general idea of what old school can be, beyond the stereotypical pigeonholed version most of us think of. It's a good idea to think of old school the way you would think of vintage fashion, you can't put together an accurate outfit without vibing out the way things were worn in that period, and you have to look at source material for that rather than at other modern interpretations. Over the past few years I've been collecting any authentic old school photos I come across and keep them all here in this flickr album. I recommend you look through it and even save the images if you want to. Personally, I think you should make sure you get a good idea of the sorts of ways old school was coorded and how it looks. From there you can use this knowledge as well as common sense and basic fashion knowledge to put together coords.

When putting together a coord, sometimes you might find it helpful to look at how similar items were coorded, for inspiration. I found this particularly helpful when starting my venture into oldschool. For instance, if I wanted to see what sort of coords my blonde ringlet wig would suit, I might look at coords with ringlet wigs of any colour and coords with blonde wigs. The idea isn't to straight up copy them (unless you want to I guess), but it definitely helps give you a good idea of the sorts of looks you can put together with it. Looking at the photos might also give you inspiration for things you didn't even realise were old school, like Victorian style boots or screen printed dresses, or to do things you'd never do in modern lolita, like leaving your blouse un-tucked or not wearing a headpiece.

http://re-ri.net/

 

The nuances are very important when wearing old school, as these subtle things we might not even notice can bring a coord from 'authentically old school', to 'old school inspired', not that the latter is bad, of course, but this blog is about how to dress as authentically to the period as possible. It might seem like I'm being strict or "giving too many rules to old school" when the fun thing about old school lolita is that it's so free of rules compared to modern lolita. And it is, however there's one difference when it comes to wearing old school today. The reason it was so effortless and free is that they used the things they had access to, but it's no longer the 90s or early 00s, and the style of items change. We no longer have easy access to what was available then. So we have to put the extra effort in if we want to put together accurate old school coords that they never would've had to think about back then. Once we have these things, we can be as free and creative as we like putting together coords that will feel like true old-school lolita. After all, creativity has always been a big part of lolita. This point is mainly about accessories and styling, I'll be touching on this more in relation to main pieces in part two.

 

Footwear

Shoes for instance, when you look through all the old school photos you'll see a wonderful selection of mouth-wateringly beautiful chunky, clunky shoes. Chunky shoes were very popular in the 90s and so it would've been much easier for lolitas to buy them, you can even tell that a lot of the shoes they wear weren't made specifically for lolita. These days, however, it is much harder to get hold of shoes in the styles that are authentic to the period. There are lots of chunky shoes for sale currently, as they were on trend fairly recently, but the problem is that a lot of them are in the style of modern chunky shoes, with a modern shape, modern style sole and so on; the styling is very nuanced and subtle but it plays a very important part in making your coord appear of the time.

Currently popular chunky platforms tend to have a neater modern feel to them, with a tidier sole not much wider than the actual shoe, and fairly proportionate. The toe is often rounded off in a quiet, unobtrusive way. Chunky platforms from the 90s, however, often have a more organic feel to them, many times with a sole that is much wider than the shoe or the shoe itself being wider. The shape of the 90s chunky shoe is often squared off or bulbous at the toe, they will always feel somewhat substantial and sturdy aesthetically. Shoes from back then will often have that chunky feeling even when flat. I recommend some Antaina shoes, some Demonias, Metamorphose, Tokyo Bopper, or actual vintage or reproduction shoes. There's some great loliable 90s shoes on etsy.

1, 2 & 3 are examples of shoes available currently that are perfect for old school
4, 5 & 6 are examples of shoes taken from actual oldschool street snaps
7, 8 & 9 are examples of shoes better suited for more contemporary lolita & J-fash

That being said, not all shoes worn in that era were chunky and platform, there were plenty of other styles too, but most will still be somewhat harder to find today than they were in the 90s and early 00s. There are so many different shoes worn back in old school that it would be impossible to name them all, so I'd recommend looking at more photos if you want more inspiration. To name a few, Rocking Horse Shoes or boots (the proper Vivienne Westwood ones, or maybe chunkier ones from another brand), Victorian style boots, flat Mary Janes, open toed shoes in many different styles, square toed 90s heels, high heeled boots with varying levels of chunkiness, crazy ultra-chunky 'specialist' 90s alternative footwear (my fave), straightforward shoes or ones with all the frills, there's so much choice when it comes to footwear. How easy it is to find and get hold of may be another thing entirely, however.

An example of just a fraction of the variety of shoes worn in old school lolita

lauran.blog

What you don't see a lot of back then is tea parties, as they weren't released by Angelic Pretty until 2006, as far as I can tell. Shoes with bows were less common than today, though they certainly were worn, more so in the later stages of old school, like 2004-2006. I suggest paying close attention to the styles of those shoes and the coords they're worn in if you want to wear shoes with bows. I am a bit biased though, as I personally feel wearing shoes with bows can easily make a coord look modern, despite the clear evidence that they were worn. So please don't let my personal taste interfere with your own.

Hair

The same goes for hair and wigs, everybody knows that ringlet wigs were worn in old school, but sometimes we forget to pay attention to the smaller details. You'll notice that wigs in authentic old school coords have a much tighter sausage curl which goes right to the top of the head, whereas most modern ringlet wigs have a much softer, looser curl, which wasn't worn back then. I currently only know of one place to buy ringlet wigs in a style close enough to old school, which is Maple. The ringlet wigs from other popular lolita wig shops are in the more modern style. (Please ignore the fact I used a selfie for the Maple wig, Maple's stock photos absolutely do not do it justice!)

1 & 2 are examples of ringlet wigs/hair pieces from back then,
3 is the Maple wig, the only close-to-authentic ringlet wig currently available (that I know of)
4, 5 & 6 are examples of ringlet wigs better suited for more modern coords

Natural hair was generally favoured, often fairly short on the 90s, choppy in the early 2000s, and more emo-y towards the mid 2000s, though this is a great generalisation. If you look at some really old street snaps from the mid 90s, it was popular to have short, coloured hair which I think is wonderful, however only really lends itself to the one style of old school. Understandably, most of us don't want to get our hair cut into a dated style just for the sake of lolita, as I'm sure most of us don't wear it 24/7. So make sure to check out the photos, see how the hair is styled or cut, what wigs were commonly worn, etc. Personally I'd recommend a neutral, timeless sort of haircut that isn't too trendy or out of date, which shouldn't look out of place in your old school coord or whatever other fashions you wear.

There are so many forgotten hair styles in old school lolita. It can be so easy to stick to the same handful. Hime cut, plaits, ringlets with your actual hair (in which case loose is fine!), looped plaits, curled updos, spiky pigtails, curled pigtails, short ringlet bobs, spiky buns, are just some of the hairstyles that come to mind. It might be beneficial to get a good idea of all the hairstyles that have been worn in oldschool, and figure out what can work with your hair. This will also help you diversify your coords, and can even give a completely different vibe to an already worn coord.

bonus handsome vampire Misako

If your hair type is less common in oldschool pics, then don't worry. My hair is curly which obviously isn't common in Japan, but there are some instances of curly hair in brand ads, and I just used a knowledge of my hair type and of hairstyles in oldschool to figure out cute hairstyles that don't look out of place. You can also so research and use examples of hairstyles from the time period worn in the west, but please use some common sense about what will look good and not out of place with lolita. For instance, if you have an afro hair type, box braid pigtails or poofy buns/pigtails would look perfect.

cryptkasper

  

me... obviously lol

Makeup

Makeup style is another thing that is quite important but can be easily overlooked. Just like everything, makeup trends come and go and the way makeup was worn in the 90s and early 00s was different to how it's worn today, in and out of lolita. In modern lolita we often wear kawaii style makeup with blush under or around the eyes (byojaku/ofero), fake lashes, circle lenses, flat eyebrows, ayego-sal makeup, or a less extreme version of western instagram makeup with contour, highlight, thick drawn on eyebrows, overdrawn lips with matte liquid lipstick, and heavy winged eyeliner, or somewhere in between the both of them, however if this modern style of makeup is worn with an old school coord it can make it feel off. So I would steer away from the typical kawaii and trendy western makeup, and go for a more neutral look. I'd like to stress that byojaku blush should be avoided in old school at all costs, and with exception to in EGL coords, matte liquid lipstick should also.

1.is an example of makeup from an early issue of GLB, a popular way makeup was worn
2 & 3 are popular contemporary makeup styles that are best suited to looks other than oldschool lolita

It's important to pay attention to how makeup was done in the 90s and early 00s and use that as inspiration for your makeup if you want your old school coord to look as authentic as possible. There are quite a few makeup tutorial scans from early Gothic Lolita Bibles and other magazines in my flickr album which should be helpful. They seem far less tailored to Asian faces than more recent makeup tutorials, although of course they aren't going to suit everyone. Western and Japanese makeup seems to be pretty similar in the 90s from what I've seen, but I still find it helpful to base my makeup on examples of western makeup in the 90s. Generally this means a pale matte base (if you're light skinned ofc), blush on the apples of your cheeks, particularly in orangey shades or dark natural pinks (or probably browny reds if you're darker), lips in a natural colour or lipstick in red-brown-burgundy shades, thin or natural eyebrows, minimal eyeliner in a lot of cases, and simple eyeshadow usually in browns or maybe a light shade for sweet. Some other makeup looks common in old school were the minimal to no makeup natural look, or the Mana-esque heavy gothic look. How heavy you want to wear your makeup is completely up to you. I'm thinking of writing a more in depth guide on 90s style makeup for old school lolita, or perhaps re-doing my makeup video, so keep your eyes peeled for that~

This style of heavy make-up wouldn't suit every coord, but it's a good example of a 90s make-up look

Eye enlarging makeup was seldom worn, and when it was it tended to be more subtle than the popular kawaii styles today. One exception to this, once again, would be the ultra gothic Mana-esque look, which does sometimes employ eye-enlarging techniques. Coloured lenses were worn back then, but they were just regular size. I am guilty of wearing circle lenses in old school coords in the past, but in the end they looked wrong with old school. I'm considering getting a smallish pair of circle lenses and seeing if it works if they look natural, but I'm not betting on it.

I still have so much that I haven't mentioned yet, but this blog is getting rather long. I'm already working on a part 2 to this, which will mention accessories and main pieces among other things, and I shall be posting that at some point in the future (whenever it's ready). I hope you have found the information compiled so far to be useful. If there is anything you would like me to go more in depth about, let me know and I can try my best, although I am always learning just like everybody else~

Disclaimer: None of the photos in this blog post are mine unless it is a photo of myself. I tried to credit any photos I knew the source of however many are magazine scans or I simply don't remember the source. If you know the source of any uncredited photos let me know and I will add it below the photo.