Sweet Dreams: Fancy Sleepwear for Lolitas

If you like to add as much Lolita to your life as possible, Lifestyle Lolita or not, sleepwear seems like an obvious place to add some ruffles. And with visions of flowing Victorian nightgowns in your head you go out searching, only to find that there are 3 options for traditional sleepwear: Matching pants and button ups, frumpy grandma dresses, and sexy negligees. Not exactly what you had in mind. To find something that would make even Momoko envious you're probably going to have to hunt a little harder, and either take your search online, or learn to sew.

Lolita Brands

In the past brands such as Baby, Victorian Maiden, Milky Ange, and even Moitie have put out Lolita nightgowns. Baby has even given out fluffy pink bunny slippers away as thank you gifts! I think that currently Victorian Maiden is the only brand with nightgowns in stock, they have a beautiful Ribbon Rose set, which is almost too cute to use as just a nightgown! I don't think any of the other brands currently have any for sale, but they might not be too hard to hunt down on the second hand market. Swimmer, though not a Lolita brand, has a few really cute cami and bloomer sets.

Victorian Styled Nightgowns

I think that a soft cotton Victorian styled nightgown is just about the perfect thing for a Lolita to fall asleep in! And there are many places online that specialize in reproduction Victorian clothes. VictorianNightgowns.com is exactly what it sounds like, they're the perfect place to find pretty nightgowns. The Victorian Trading Co. also has a few scattered throughout their catalog.

Vintage Nightgowns

If you don't mind vintage wear, try hunting down something cute and ruffly at a vintage clothing store. Maybe a used night gown might be a little ick for your taste, but you can easily find a ruffly pastel dressing gown to wear over a new nightgown. Of course, vintage wear sometimes takes a bit of effort to make it wearable, especially if it has been hanging around an attic these last few decades. Here is a great 2 part guide (part 1, part 2) on cleaning vintage clothes.

Sewing Your Own Lolita Nightgowns

If you are skilled at sewing, or even hardly skilled at all, you could attempt to make your own Lolita nightgown out of soft comfy fabric. Here is a pattern posted to EGL some time ago, it's a very simple looking design, but very similar to the style of nightgowns Baby often sells! You can also find sleepwear patterns in the various Japanese language Lolita pattern books and bibles. I know that Gothic & Lolita Bible #21 features a few patterns. Or try checking out your local craft store for patterns, many pattern companies like Butterick and Simplicity sell patterns for Victorian and vintage styled nightgowns.