What's That On Your Head?!- Odd Lolita Headwear

Lolitas are no stranger to wearing odd headwear. Even the basic rectangle headdress is sort of WTF to most people (because, really, what is it?) or the mini hat or giant head bow are a bit odd if you really stop to think about it. But there have been things released and things that somehow got popular that have always sort of made me think "Who the heck thought this would be a good idea to put on their head?" Some end up being awesome, others end up looking just as ridiculous as you would expect them to.

So let's take a look at some of the stranger things Lolitas have decided to perch on their heads over the years!

Cake Hats

First up is what I like to think of as the original "weird Lolita headwear" the infamous cake hat. Cake hats come in a variety of different styles, from an individual slice of cake perched atop your head, to pieces that look a bit like mini top hats made out of cake, to just plain ol' balancing a wedding cake made out of lace on top of your head.

Angelic Pretty's Ice Cream Cone headbands.

 

A sibling to the cake hat would be Angelic Pretty's ice cream cone headbands. These come in two styles- upright, and spilled all over your head and dripping into your hair.

Angelic Pretty's Fluffy Bunny-chan Bonnet

I'm not being silly and making of dumb names for a dumb bonnet, that's actually what Angelic Pretty calls this monstrosity.  While adding bunny ears to a bonnet is not something Angelic Pretty invented, they certainly took it to the extreme. The best part about this bonnet is the bunny ears sort of flop up against the furry brim, and look like shorter bear ears, so instead of a cute fluffy bunny bonnet, what it looks like is a giant bear sneaking up behind you.

Alice & the Pirates' Pirate Hats

 

Their name is Alice & the Pirates, so of course they are going to put out pirate hats! Although, maybe we don't exactly need a full size pirate hat covered in bows to go with our Lolita. I'm sure that these could work in some coordinate, and I'm sure they could look awesome, but they're just so wacky looking I just can't imagine any self respecting pirate would go for a giant pink tartan bow on their hat, or even be able to see out from under that one with the stars all over it.

Extreme Mini Top Hats

 

If there is a brand that has elevated the act of gluing pompoms and small toys to a mini top hat, that brand is Angelic Pretty. These mini top hats are usually a bit bigger or taller than your average mini top hat, but that's really only so you can fit more crap on them.

Angelic Pretty's Jello Mold Hat

When Angelic Pretty came out with Jewelery Jelly, the Lolita communities first reaction tended to be "Since when is jello Lolita?!" which quickly turned into "OMG GOTTA HAVE IT!" but as quickly as many of us changed our mind on jello in our Lolita, most of us still were a bit confused by Angelic Pretty's choice of headwear for the set. They released a headdress made to look like a glittery brick of jello, complete with frothy lace whipped cream. On first glance it might just look like yet another silly cake hat, but the jello part of the hat his actually made with some sort of stiff sheer fabric. I've always been curious what this hat was made of!

Antique Beast's Bat Maid Headdress

 Definitely my favorite headwear on this list! Because it combines the kitchyness of Maid Lolita with Gothic elegance and bats. Because even Aristocrats need maids, and those maids are probably going to be dressed like frilly bats.

BtSSB's Usamimis

 

Usamimis were a trendy accessory for a little bit, mostly in the Gyaru fashion it seemed. They were little wired pieces of ribbon that were worn around the head and folded in a way that sort of made them look like lopsided bunny ears. They were cute and casual, then Baby decided to get their mitts on them. While some of Baby's usamimi's were just fine, some of them were completely ridiculous and ended looking giant and sloppy.

Very Expensive Hair Scrunchies

For some reason, a couple summers back, hair scrunchies got very popular in Japanese fashion. So brands started to jump on the scrunchie bandwagon and release their own versions of these little throw backs to early 1990's kids wear. Only, being from a Lolita brand, these hair scruncis (or "chou chou" I guess they are called when you want to pretend they aren't meant to be worn by an 8 year old in 1992 to decorate her side ponytail) tended to cost between $20 and $35. Hair scruncies are fine and all, especially with the often pigtailed-hairstylings of Lolita, but there's a limit to how much hair scruncies should cost.

Metamorphose's Gardening Teddy Kerchief

 

Sometime last year, when Metamorphose released their Gardening Teddy series, they really busted out some old school designs, but maybe went back a little too far into the old school, into the realms of Natural Kei, when it came time to think up some matching headdresses for the series. For whatever reason they decided a kerchief was in order. While it's certainly not awful looking, it's just an incredibly bizarre choice that seems several decades out of date.

Witch Hats 

 

 These are usually released around Halloween to go with whatever special Halloween set is being released that year, but I believe Antique Beast sells them year round. Personally, I like the idea of witch hats being worn every day. They're good hats, they've got a big wide brim to keep the sun out of your eyes, some flowers and bows for prettiness, and a point to show that you mean business.

Baby's Freakishly Huge Fur Bow

It seems like headbows have been getting larger over the years, but Baby, of all people, really took the cake when they released this monster of a headbow. To make sure that it will never stay up and probably even give you a neck ache at the end of the day, they decided to make it out of faux fur, which I'm sure you're aware is significantly heavier than cotton.

These aren't all the strange things Lolita brands have released as headwear over the years, and certainly not all the strange things individual Lolitas have decided would work best as a hat, but these are some of my WTF favorites. I really shouldn't be one to talk about wearing weird things on your head though, as I'm sure you all know, I have quite the fondness for oversized bonnets, and those of you that know me personally know that I keep a drawer in my armoire devoted to bonnets, which include a BtSSB bear eared one and a black and white bodyline one with huge awkward floppy bunny ears. And, as I've mentioned in this post, I would just love to see people wearing books as hats!

What do you think of out-of-the-ordinary Lolita headwear? Are you more of a tiny-side-bow kind of Lolita or do you like your headwear to be a bit more attention grabbing?