LBC: Skills every lolita should have

Its not actually necessary to have any particular skills to wear lolita fashion clothing - yeah you read it right, its actually 'wearing clothing'. Even a four year old can do it! However there certainly are skills advantageous to have! 

Kaya, famous 4 year old lolita from Japan

• Refined taste made it to the top of my list due to it's impact on how the fashion is seen. Without taste, you are going to end up hot mess regardless of your amount of brand. On the other hand, with refined taste you can look fabulous without even single brand piece!

• Patience is important with any niche hobby. It takes time to find resources, skim the sales groups for a decently priced dress, waiting for a release you'd like instead of jumping at first dress you come across, or waiting for your package from across the globe.. it would drive you crazy if you were not a patient person!

• Frugality is on par with patience. Saving up for an expensive dress requires good expense managment. Getting local opaque tights and faux pearl bracelet instead of splurging on brand OTKs and plastic jewelry is an excellent example of frugality. Most of lolitas are middle class people with jobs or studying and have to actually put money aside for lolita, so we have to be efficient with what we spend the money on.

• Computer skills come handy on many occasions. Maybe I'm overrating computers, but for us people outside Japan it would be outright impossible to be lolitas without internet. It's usually how we found about the fashion, how we shop for our clothes and how we keep in contact with friends. Its also handy to know how to autotranslate foreign shop pages, adjust your tumblr layout or personify your blog to meet your ideas... lolitas greatly benefit from being proficient with computers.

• Photography is another important skill related to community aspect of niche fashion. Who wouldn't want to share the joy of a great outfit with their online friends? Bad time to realize you have a cheap smartphone for your only camera and no idea how to pose or enhance images. You may also want to simply keep a diary of daily outfits, take some detail pictures for your blog or decent photos for a sales post. Knowing basics of photography is in no way necessary in the era of smartphone cameras, but it certainly makes the picture better! Look up my tips for better outfit photos!

• Makeup actually comes into play before photography is taken. Even if you're lone lolita, photoshop has its limits if you want to look natually beautiful. Additionally, fancy clothes just need decent make-up and hair care for finished look. I'm not a fan of circle lenses or false eyelashes, but at least some care should be given to the face for coherent look.

• Housework doesn't sound very useful for dressing up, but in the long run really helps. How many times you end up wondering how you should store your precious dresses, if that elastic wont stretch out, how to clean that little spot on your shoes, or if you can just throw that expensive blouse into a washing machine? Upkeep of such fancy clothing is demanding and errors are costy, so previous experience certainly helps! 

• Sewing is a bit specific to be thrown into housework. In no way required, though still advantageous to have. One doesnt have to be a trained seamstress to benefit from sewing. Bloomers and small knick-knacks are easy for a beginner. Brooches, bracelets, decorating a beret or sewing a strip of lace to your socks.. there's numerous small ways to get accessories cheaply and save your money for the big pieces!

• Bonus skill: Manners! Rather a skill every person should have, its doubly saddening to see a beautifully dressed person misbehaving.. maybe just a pet peeve of mine, though I really think good manners go a long way, even if people without manners wont see the difference.

More blogs who participated:

Vanilla Bear
Cupcakes and Unicorns
 The Fat Flat Cat
Parasol Obsession