Bringing Back the Old School

A while back (the beginning of November!) I started to write a blog post about general Old School Lolita and my fond memories of the early days and each time I go to write a little more it keeps morphing into separate posts! Angelically Sweet and the post about narrow headdresses both started out quick little paragraphs in this eternally unfinished post of mine and I'm afraid I've gone off track completely and yet another separate post has spawned from it.

Yeah, that's right, yet another post about Old School Lolita. What can I say XD I really love it and I would love to see the style come back, so this post is about exactly that: how to add some old school flair to your coordinates, even if you don't have a closet full of dresses from 8 or 10 years ago. Provided your closet isn't exclusively OTT prints I think that it's pretty easy to make an old school looking coordinate fairly easily without having to buy whole new pieces.

Like many things that simply aren't new any more, the old school style is shunned by some and many of the style elements (black and white, mini hats, clunky black shoes, etc.) have come to mean, to some, "unfashionable" or even "Ita". I think there is a lot to learn from the older Lolita styles and they shouldn't be written off simply because they are not so new any more. I think that keeping many of the older style trends in mind when putting together a coordinate can create some refreshing outfits. In a Lolita world full of mile high pink wigs, bold and colorful prints, and piling on as many accessories as you can the simple elegance of what we now consider Old School Lolita can be breathtaking. If you are interested in adding some old school elements to your coordinates, try some of these tips!

• Simplify your color schemes. Avoid mixing a bunch of colors into your coordinate, even if your print features a colorful print. Instead just stick to your base color and either black or white. The classic way of color coordinating, old school style, is to wear a plain colored dress with either black or white lace and then make sure your blouse, socks, shoes, purse, and parasol are the same color as the lace.
  
• Avoid brand prints. Prints didn't start to become a big thing until around 2006/07. There were prints around before then but they were usually much simpler such as allover prints with the brand logo hidden in there, something relatively generic like flowers or fruit, or a simple screen printing. If you must do a print, try classical florals or a print of scattered fruits.
• Ditch the tea parties for a pair of platforms or classic mary janes. Tea parties and other bow covered cutsie shoes are relatively new to Lolita, the most common type of shoe back then was the mary jane, either with a relatively modest heel, or a monster of a platform.
  
• Wear black or white shoes. I know they make Lolita shoes in a rainbow of colors, and you can usually find the perfect shade to match your dress, but stick to basic black or white for footwear.
• Stick to just Lolita. I know, this sounds like it should go without saying, but it seems like nearly all of the major omg-I-just-have-to-try-that trends that Lolita has gone through in the past few years have just been trends borrowed from other fashions, if not outright fashion crossovers. Lolita hardly has any trends or innovation of it's own anymore. So nix the Gyaru makeup, the Steam Punk accessories, the Mori Girl color pallet, the Hime hair, and the light dusting of deco and try something that's just purely Lolita.
  
• Wear a slim rectangle headdress. Have I told you how much I love these yet XD? The rectangle headdress was pretty much the headpiece to wear back in the day. Sure, there were bows and hats and bonnets and hair corsages back then too, but nothing really defines Old School Lolita like the rectangle headdress. While the big ruffly rectangle headdresses are only flattering on a very small portion of Lolitas, and most people just feel silly wearing them anyways, the slim and often ruffle-free headdress are a nice and modern version of the old Lolita stand by. It it pretty much instant old school without people asking you "What's on your head?!"
• Trade in your stuffed animal purse for a brand tote. This also includes pleather purses shaped like tea cups, clocks and other fancy things. Purses were much simpler back then, most of the time Lolitas just carried around a brand tote or a simple square purse with their favorite brand's logo on it.
• Keep your makeup natural, or at least simple. Don't bother with fake eyelashes, circle lenses or doing all those tricks with white eyeliner that make your eyes look huge and alien. Either stick with a natural and clean looking makeup job, or something very simple like a little bit of eyeshadow in a color that matches your coordinate. Use a red lip stain to give your lips a rosy look that is much more sweet and doll-like than the Barbie gyaru glam lips that are so popular now.
  
• Leave your wig at home. You don't need perfectly coiffed hair a mile high in a candy colored hue to complete your Lolita look. Instead try a more natural looking hair style, either a nice curl, a pair of braids or brushed out until it's straight and shiny, then either put up in pigtails or leave it down. If you want to either wear a wig or spend hours holding a curler in one hand and a bottle of hairspray in the other, consider ringlets.
  

To get some inspiration flowing, here are a few of my favorite old school coordinates taken from the first 10 or so volumes of the Gothic & Lolita Bible. These are from 2001 to about 2003 or 2004 I believe, none of that 2008 immediately-before-Deco-Lolita-became-popular "old school" XD

As you can see from these, the main pieces, the skirts and the dresses, are all similar to things still being sold by brands today, they just aren't nearly as popular as the OTT and next-big-print pieces. Some designs are recycled year by year and most brands have at least a few staple pieces that have been in their shop since the beginning. Baby, the Stars Shine Bright does this most frequently, and their recycled designs have remained relatively unchanged, with the exception of nicer photos and a bit more skirt poof nowadays. Here are a few examples of their recurring designs.

Left, 2010. Right, 2001



Left, 2010. Right, 2001

Left, 2010. Right, 2003, although they had been making the same dress for a few years before that, just without the scalloped hem.

So even if you have a wardrobe that is mostly OTT prints and very up-to-date pieces but you're desperate for something that has an old school vibe to it and you don't want to sort through second hand sales posts and buy a 10 year old dress, you can usually find something in the brand shops that's just a remake of a very old piece. Browse around on Hello Lace or The Lolibrary for the really old pieces, chances are you'll see something that's familiar because it's still being sold.

Some classically old school details to look out for are empire waists, laced up grommets, heart shaped pockets, 2 rows of lace running down the front of the skirt with tiers of lace on the side, shirring either all around or in the front, pintucks, and A-lined dresses. Older dresses were often times just as detailed and OTT in their own way, they just relied more on texture rather than color and print.

The old school style never really went away completely, it's been there all along just waiting to be rediscovered!