Introduction
Each Lolita dress contains some of the features standard throughout the clothing genre: there is a large bow for headgear, a blouse, a blown-out skirt or dress (created by using petticoat or crinoline), knee-high socks, and some Mary Jane shoes to complete the cute, “kawaii” look. With 2020 coming to an end, we look at the top fashion styles dominating the Lolita layered dresses.
A Lolita dress has three main pieces that you can accessorize: Jumperskirts (abbreviated as JSKs), one-pieces (OPs), and skirts (SK). Jumperskirts are sleeveless dresses, often having shoulder straps or halter-necks. Unlike JSKs, one-piece dresses have sleeves. Jumperksirts give off a summer vibe, in contrast to one-pieces, which are ideal for the fall or winter look. If you like the recent return of the layered style, you will want all your jumperskirts and one piece. This trend looks gorgeous on fall/winter clothing. You can make it work with a bolero or a short coat. You can also layer a blouse underneath a one-piece, and you have got the modern spin on the fashion.
Ordinary skirts look great on their own, but it does not hold up when it comes to layering fabric. It would help if you had a complementing color palette throughout your outfit to pull a layered dress. Lolita layered dress style lauds the frilly collars and A-lines.
How to Make Your Lolita Layered Dresses Stand Out
An everyday layered Lolita dress can be any of the common types, i.e., a Victorian-inspired Goth style (Gosu-Rori), punk, steampunk, sweet (Ama-Rori) style, etc., and can have tiered fabric around mid-thighs. A classic Lolita dress has lacy shoulder straps (if you are going with JSKs), a front that can house lacey patchwork, ribbon-designs, or cute buttons in a row, and frills on an alternate layer of fabric.
For the missing je ne sais quoi, you can opt for a darker fabric with lighter shades or designs on the tiered sections. The most common include constellation designs or night sky designs with the crescent moon, stars, and night clouds. You can put a color-sequenced frill or lace that can either complement the base color or contrast it.
For JSKs, make sure to wear a lighter colored blouse if you want to wear that look. White works best with pastel colors. You can also use It to pair with your black JSKs if the designs blend perfectly. You can get additional oomph by adding neck decorations such as lace, buttons, pearls, beads, etc. in patterns.
While the style certainly does not limit your creativity to dresses, you can expand this style to your shirts and pants. For shirts, you can wear high-neck collars with patterned bibs. You can tie them with smaller ribbons or put buttons that go all the way down. Remember, layering on the arms is a fashion choice, but they hardly look great. Frilly arms or bell-shaped arm cuts look great with any classic dress. You can choose the fabric, but these looks complement a dress of chiffon much better.
The Goth Lolita (Gosu-Rori) Dress
Because the Goth culture is reliant on darker shades, predominantly black, it is the safest bet. If you decide to alter the dress yourself, make sure you add subtle hues here and there. They can include shades of blues and whites to contrast the black base. Many commercial Goth Lolita dresses follow the traditional “Alice In the Wonderland” approach. These dresses contrast the black with metal colors such as emerald, ruby, sapphire, amethyst, etc. Some of them come with elaborate patterns depicting grandiose geometric shapes and damask designs.
You can accessorize your neck with ornaments or ribbon chokers. You can also add frilly collars that go all the way around your neck. You can either keep them as separate ruff collars or blend them with any of the halter-neck designs. Some goth dresses include a faux pas underskirt to peek out from underneath knee-length dresses. For jumperskirts, you can choose a dress that comes with lacy elbows that let the fabric lose on the forearms, giving it a bell shape. You can tie the elbow line with a ribbon as well.
The Sweet Lolita (Ama-Rori) Dress
When we consider the Sweet Lolita subculture, we imagine both bright and pastel colors, yards and yards of lace, frill, and bibs, and basically, the complete opposite of Goth Lolita. Some of these dresses can be made to stand out if a blend of different colors gets applied. You have your standard shades of pink: salmon, Saxe, duck-egg. Besides that, you can use light blues, lemon, butter yellows, mauves, lavenders, soft greens, mint, cream, or all-white.
There is massive inspiration derived from dollhouse florals, as prominent in Sweet Lolita’s layered dresses. You can find tea sets, bunnies, teddies, ducklings, lambs, kittens, baby deer, horses, carousel ponies, ice-creams, sweets, candy, lollypops, or even cakes feature on the print.
In addition to the prints, you can choose Lolita cake dresses – a dress of white and bright pink fabric layered to look like a cake with pink frosting. These dresses are usually JSKs, with tied ribbons on the front. You can also choose stripes designed in frilly flower shapes to line the hems. The cake dresses look magnificent with shorter lengths and petticoat. Just make sure that the petticoat length is not longer than the dress length. Remember that your petticoat is supposed to provide the bell-shape; it is not supposed to show.
You can extend the Sweet Lolita style to your shirts. Popular trends include imbibing this style with sailor shirts. These outfits are usually a light blue colored dress with a white blouse that can be worn as a dress, or separately. This look sports shorter sleeves.
Final Thoughts
Lolita dresses have one base rule, and that is to minimize the skin you show. Recent trends have changed this perception to a greater degree, but it is essential to respect the guidelines. Moreover, Lolita layered dresses are not cosplaying. These dresses have become part of the more significant subculture when girls wear these (based on their styles) as a mode of expression. You can choose to wear either goth or sweet cake dresses; it is up to you. Make sure that it does not come off as mocking and offensive to others because that is not what Lolita dress culture is about.
