Bodyline, The Lolita's Walmart Part, 3: Padding Your Wardrobe With Bodyline

Welcome to part 3 of my Bodyline: The Lolita's Walmart series. This post will be for the seasoned Lolita, who already has quite a few Lolita pieces, most of them brand or unique custom pieces, but is looking to pad her wardrobe with a few basic pieces to make her more expensive pieces more versatile.

Sometimes you want the focus of our coordinate, or your whole Lolita wardrobe even, to be on a brand or unique handmade pieces. If you don't feel the need to make every piece of your coordinate brand, then Bodyline is a great choice to fill all the nooks and crannies of your wardrobe with, and think of it this way, you could be spending the money you're saving by buying Bodyline on more brand or really nice custom made pieces.

The #1 thing to remember when padding your wardrobe with Bodyline is to not go crazy, only buy a few very versatile pieces, and only a couple "main" coordinate pieces such as skirts or dresses. After all, if you end up with a mostly Bodyline wardrobe, then you are instead sprinkling your Bodyline wardrobe with a few brand pieces, not padding your brand wardrobe with Bodyline.

Wardrobe basics

These are just that, very basic pieces, things every Lolita wardrobe needs but might be so plain that you are hesitant to spend big money on them. Not only am I talking about things like petticoats and bloomers, but blouses that might be hidden mostly under a JSK.

• Blouses- Look for something relatively plain, with a little bit of nice lace on it. Just a high neck or a rounded collar and some sleeves with a little bit of poof to them is all you're going to need.
• Petticoats- Personally, I think a fluffy chiffon type petticoat is the way to go. They are usually extra fluffy, so you only need to wear one, and I have never ever had a problem with them deflating. But, a good one under 50 bucks can be hard to find, luckily Bodyline sells them for about $20. Sometimes they have different ones for sale, so you are going to want to check the length to make sure it is in the Lolita range, that is 17-20 inches (remember, a couple inches shorter than your skirt is best, so it doesn't peek out!), not in the wear-over-your-skinny-jeans range of 15 inches or less.
• Bloomers- Every good Lolita needs a couple pairs of bloomers! Bodyline sells a wide variety of fancy looking bloomers for a rather good price.

Complementary pieces

You are hesitant to spend large amounts of money on these because they really might only go with one or two coordinates, but they would really make that coordinate something special.

• Cardigans and boleros- An easy way to make a coordinate something a little different is to wear a cardigan or a bolero in an accent color.
• Cutsews and hoodies- Cutsews or even Lolita hoodies are a great addition to a wardrobe, they can be paired up with a skirt for when you want something both a little more colorful than a plain blouse and a bit more casual. The problem is, brand ones can$70 or more, which always seems a bit much for something that is made out of stretch jersey fabric (yeah, t-shirt material). Bodyline's cutsews and hoodies run about $25.
• Jackets- A short jacket paired up with a dress or a skirt is a cute way to make a coordinate look a bit more mature. But brands usually only sell them for a month or so in the fall, and cost around $200. Again, Bodyline sells them for $25.

"Luxury" items

These are pieces that are needed for a Lolita wardrobe, but don't need to be made specifically for Lolita, or sometimes can be skipped altogether. The could easily be offbrand, but you would prefer if they were, if not a real brand, at least Bodyline.

• Winter coat- Many Lolitas skip over the winter coat altogether, because lets face it, you probably already have a winter coat, and you really don't want to spend $400 on a brand coat if you don't wear Lolita too often in the winter. Coats are the most expensive thing Bodyline sells, ranging from $100-$125 for a full length winter coat, but that's only a fraction of the price a brand coat would cost.
• Shoes- While an adorable pair of shoes is needed to complete any Lolita coordinate, you can find cute shoes just about anywhere, they don't have to be made specifically for Lolita. Besides, brand shoes typically run $150-$300. Hell, no, I'm going to PayLess. Luckily, Bodyline sells a variety of Lolita shoes, many of them are, in fact, direct knock offs of brand shoes. They are even often of comparable quality, because lets face it, brand shoes are, when you get right down to it, nothing special. They're almost always just pleather shoes, not hand crafted leather like the price tag might imply. Well, so are Bodylines shoes, except the tag on the inside says "Bodyline" and the shoes are really only going to run you $13-$60.
• Purses- Brand purses, much like brand shoes, are often very pricey, I would even go so far as to call them over priced. But Bodyline sells an ever changing variety of purses, many of them, again, like their shoes, are direct knock-offs of brand bags. Only instead of $200, they're going to cost you about $15.

An example of a Bodyline padded wardrobe

Here's an example of a brand wardrobe padded with Bodyline. The pieces in the top row are brand, many of them very expensive pieces (JSKs from left to right: AP, IW, AP, BtSSB, AP, BtSSB. Headbows both from BtSSB), and everything else is from Bodyline. They are added with the intention of complementing the brand pieces, not nessicarily as stand-alone pieces. The top row of brand pieces can easily run you a couple thousand dollars, even if you are buying second hand, while all of the Bodyline items combined will only run you about $400. True, you could get away with buying a single plain white blouse, and a pair of shoes, but that would hardly count as a full wardrobe. This way you can mix and match interesting coordinates to your hearts content and wear Lolita on a regular basis without feeling like you're just wearing the same ol' thing. Here are some coordinates, using only these items, with each of the 6 brand pieces as a focus point, and an extra coordinate for the coat!

This JSK, as well as the circus print one, both have a bit of blue in the print, so I'm using a few blue items to make the coordinate interesting.

There's only a tiny bit of blue in this print, and only a little bit of blue on the socks will be showing over the top of the boots. The boots might be wintery, but pom-poms are a very Angelic Pretty kind of detail, so the boots make a cute addition to the coordinate.

The print in this Baby JSK has quite a bit of creamy white in it, so I've paired it up with the off-white blouse and the pink bolero, which covers up the top part of the JSK, making the coordinate look more pink and pale than red and bright.

Using a pink cutsew I've made a coordinate that compliments the skirt, rather than making a coordinate in which the only thing of interest is the skirt, as using all white can so often do.

This dress is a bit more classic than the other pieces, so the off-white blouse is perfect with it.

The only pink dress in the wardrobe! Knock up the pink a few more notches with the pink cutsew and the pink purse. The green on the purse even matches a few sprinklings of green on the dress!

The best part about winter coats is you can wear any dress you want under it! I just thought this one looked so cute with those shoes. Like the cutest and Loliest Santa ever!

Of course, these aren't all the different coordinates you can make with each of these dresses, you can continue to mix and match a handful of interesting outfits for each of these dresses, before you even have to bother with the old match-it-with-white standby.