Styles
Gothic Lolita
The name Gothic Lolita alludes to Goth fashion as a whole, the style is primarily influenced by the Victorian inspired Goth style.
A Gothic Lolita outfit like all Lolita styles is very modest in today's standards. As with other Lolita styles a Gothic Lolita outfit can usually be recognized by the bell shaped skirt, and puffy sleeves. A Gothic Lolita outfit is usually comprised of black or rich dark colors such as burgundy, purple and navy. It is common for this style to involve details in complementary or contrasting colors, such as the infamous black and white coordination choice.
Makeup for this style can range from a light natural look to a dramatic smokey eye with a dark red lip depending on the outfit and occasion. A common mistake by beginners that is worth mentioning is the use of black lipstick and whiteface. Both whiteface and black lipstick take away from the elegance of the name Gothic Lolita.
Sweet Lolita
Sweet Lolita is the most over the top style and includes aesthetics nearly exclusive to Lolita. It is also the most childlike of the Lolita styles, using many bows, ruffles and light colors to make up an outfit. The most common colors used in a Sweet Lolita outfit are pink, white, and powder blue, but an outfit can be made with nearly any pastel or plaid color.
Common motifs in Sweet Lolita are toys, strawberries, cherries, cakes and candies, hearts, polka dots and flowers. Prints inspired by fairy tales are also quite common.
Light, natural makeup complements this style. Teased out pigtails and bouncy curls are commonly worn by Sweet Lolitas.
Casual Lolita
Casual Lolita is a more toned down version of the style, while still retaining the basic Lolita elements. It is very hard to put together a nice casual Lolita co-ordination unless you have years of experience or are a natural at it.
Most favored in the Casual Lolita co-ordination is simplicity, so a nice simple cut sew perhaps with a motif of some sort paired with a Lolita skirt and hair accessory/headdress.
Casual Lolita can best be described as what a Lolita would wear when not “dressing up.” It should be still modest/elegant, but not as over the top as most other Lolita styles.
A great Casual Lolita can be compiled out of any color, as long as you remember to match colors, prints, etc. etc. as you would with any other Lolita style. A simple cardigan or a skirt creates a nice casual look.
Hime Lolita
Hime Lolita, or “Princess Lolita,” is a very elegant style of Lolita that often involves miniature crowns, tiaras, and extravagant or large hair, and dresses. Because Hime Lolita does reflect a sense of royalty, and class, it is hard to pull this style off unless you are very well preened, and have done your best to look “princess like.”
There is a fine line between Hime Lolita and the other styles as it is almost only defined by how you style yourself and not on the clothing. It is most common to see Hime Lolita’s wearing Sweet Lolita dresses.
Any natural looking makeup will look lovely with this style; just remember that the key is looking classy. Pearls, roses and bows suit this style perfectly.
Shiro Lolita
Shiro Lolita, or “White Lolita,” is a Lolita outfit made entirely of white/cream/off-white co-ordinates.
Shiro Lolita can be taken from any style of Lolita, whether it be gothic, sweet or classic, if the co-ordination is completely white then it is accepted as Shiro Lolita.
PLEASE NOTE: Wearing black shoes with a Shiro Lolita outfit looks terrible and is best to be avoided.
Kuro Lolita
Kuro Lolita, or “Black Lolita,” is an outfit made up of co-ordinates of one color, in this case; black.
Kuro also follows the same guidelines of most of the other Lolita styles, so is still fairly easy to pull off for beginners.
Classic Lolita
Classic Lolita is the tamest of all the Lolita styles as many classic dresses could pass for a garden party, church or summer dress.
Sweet Lolita is about looking cute, Classic Lolita is about looking classy, and harks back to Lolita fashion's roots in Victorian fashion, taking inspiration from the floral patterns, and the sense of elegance of the era; bold colors aren't normally found in Classic Lolita clothing. Unlike the other styles of Lolita, many Classic Lolita skirts have an A-line shape instead of the normal bell shape.
Like the other Lolita styles light makeup is suggested but depending on outfit and occasion darker makeup can be appropriate.
Country Lolita
Country Lolita is derived from the Sweet Lolita style, and is often a little hard to distinguish due to the use of the same sweet patterns, and motifs that the Sweet Lolita style uses. However, the Country Lolita style can be recognized by straw baskets, hats, fruit, and gingham patterns.
Most Lolita outfits require a blouse under a jumper skirt to pull of the Lolita look, but because Country Lolita is associated with the outdoors. Like Sweet Lolita, Country Lolita follows the same modest guidelines, as well as the full, bell shaped skirt.
The makeup suited for this style would be very basic, and natural. If you're going outside try putting on sun screen, light lip stick, and blush.
Sailor Lolita
Sailor Lolita is a very nautical themed style of Lolita that is very much inspired by Japanese sailor styled uniforms.
Sailor collars, dark blues, and whites are often key factors in recognizing this style. Nautical motifs are often used in this style; symbols such as ship anchors and wheels make very cute additions to this style.
Like most Lolita styles the same bell shaped skirt is expected, quite often this skirt may be pleated, and the outfit may often include a puffed short sleeved blouse with pockets. Although striped socks may not work with a lot of Lolita styles, they often look nice when coordinated into a Sailor Lolita outfit.
Again minimal makeup with suit this style, including some lip-gloss to stop your lips from cracking if you'll be out near the sea.
Wa Lolita
Wa Lolita is a style that is often recognized by the Kimono look of the outfits, and is for those Lolitas who may love to get in-touch with the country that brought about Lolita fashion.
Wa Lolita involves long “sode” or, sleeves, and “obi” or sashes that are taken from Kimono/Yukata outfits, and fused with the bell-shaped skirt of Lolita. Wa Lolita fabrics are often very extravagant like most Kimono fabrics, involving detailed flower prints, and cranes. Like all Lolita outfits and Kimono, Wa Lolita should not be made out of shiny fabrics such as those that Chinese qipao are made of.
Although this style is quite different from usual Lolita styles, modesty is still a large part of this style, and your skirt should be a reasonable length for Lolita. Sadly a lot of Wa Lolita outfits on the market today have very short skirts, causing many people to be turned off by Wa Lolita.
Traditional Japanese kanzashi or flower hair clips may work lovely with this style in the place of a Lolita head-dress. Makeup can range from light and natural to Japanese geisha inspired.
It's best not to do makeup very similarly to that of a Geisha as it will most likely end up looking more of a costume, and end up ruining your beautiful outfit.
Guro Lolita
Guro Lolita, or “Gore Lolita” is exactly like the name sounds, gory. How gory is always up to you, and can range from anything to some bandages, a sling, or some blood splatters on your clothing. Guro Lolita is a style of Lolita that tries to portray a “broken doll” sort of look, a gruesome yet innocent sub set of Lolita. Although Guro Lolita may sound like a Halloween costume, just like other Lolita styles it is a part of a fashion, and not a costume, and follows all of the guidelines that the other styles do. This style really is not acceptable for a lot of group Lolita activities such as tea parties, and other special events.
A Guro Lolita outfit can really be pulled off in any color, but white really does look fantastic if you want to have some blood splatters! (If you're worried about getting blood splatters on your lovely dress, perhaps you could make yourself a small apron to splatter.)
Makeup for this style is really up to you, as long as you're still fairly modest the sky is the limit.
Punk Lolita
Punk Lolita is perhaps one of the most challenging styles of Lolita to pull off, because it takes someone with a lot of knowledge of Lolita fashion to be able to fuse the image of a Lolita with that of the eastern punk style.
Punk Lolita comes generally in two forms, first is an outfit that conforms to the general shape of Lolita, a bell shape knee length skirt (or a bit shorter for this style) but without as many clean lines as the other styles.
The second form of Punk Lolita is an outfit that has a lighter feeling than a normal punk outfit and takes considerable inspiration from the Lolita style but doesn't quite conform to the general shape. It is a much girlier punk outfit with frills or bows. Though skirts may not be knee length and bell shaped they are still not skin tight and crotch length.
Accessories and fabric choice are very important to this style: deconstructed fabrics and fishnets are a good choice, as are chains and studs. Also layering is the key to this style! A Punk Lolita outfit is not simple; wearing a studded belt over your skirt doesn't make your outfit punk just as wearing a plaid fabric doesn't make your outfit punk.
Makeup of course can be a bit heavier for Punk style than with the Sweet or Classic styles.
Ero Lolita [Erotic]
Ero Lolita or “Erotic Lolita” is a very confused and often controversial style of Lolita due to the fact that a lot of people who are unfamiliar with the style or Lolita fashion in general may get it wrong.
This style contains more fetish elements such as leather, collars, and corsets that one may not be able to pull off in any other Lolita style while still maintaining a fair amount of modesty. Skirts for this style may be a little shorter than usual, but nothing overly provocative. Ero Lolita may be one of the only Lolita styles where you may be able to pull off fish net stockings.
Makeup for this style can be a little more mature and a little less girly than the other styles.
Cosplay Lolita
Cosplay Lolita, or “Costume Lolita,” is not a subset of Lolita fashion, but it is still important to know the difference between Cosplay Lolita and the actual fashion.
Cosplay Lolita is often looked down upon because it's usually seen at Anime Conventions being worn by those who don't really understand Lolita fashion and are happy to throw on a costume quality dress for the weekend. A lot of the time Cosplay Lolitas believe that Lolita is a costume instead of a fashion movement.
Cosplay Lolita generally doesn't conform to the actual standards of Lolita fashion and usually includes very low quality materials, such as thin cottons or shiny fabric, synthetic lace, satin ribbon, square dance petticoats, cat/costume ears, and poorly done corset style lacing, Goth boots, lace gloves, low quality colored wigs, leg warmers, stripper like high heels, low quality lace parasols, maid outfits, and short, un-modest skirts.
Cosplay Lolita takes the lovable elements of Lolita fashion such as bows, lace, frills, and pushes them to the extreme, usually covering a dress with too many of these things, and entirely removing the classy image that most Lolita fashion tries to convey.
Makeup for this style can be anything from a white face, heavy eyeliner, thick Goth eye shadow and black lipstick.
Kodona Lolita
This style is often called "boy style" as it involves more masculine clothing. In Japan they usually use Ouji which means prince and not Kodona. Kodona is a western term.
This style can be either laid back or very extravagant. Usually the people in this style are actually women and not men, but either can dress it. The men sometimes refer to themselves in this style as “dandy”. Sometimes this style has feminine touches, such as more feminine shoes and accessories. Very common are “prince pants”' which are short capri style pants that cut off at the knee and usually have some details on them such as lace edged cuffs. Other common additions are suspenders, ties, bowler caps and long socks. Some of the more extravagant styles can include things like spats, canes, top hats, capes, etc. But they keep the boyish part in tact so that they are not mistaken for an Aristocrat.
Hair is often in a boyish style, often shorter. Those with longer hair tend to put their hair in a less girly way, such as hiding a bun under a cap.
Makeup is often kept to a minimum.
Aristocrat Lolita (Elegant Gothic)
This style is a lot more mature than Lolita in general. It has a lot in common with the western “Romantic Gothic”. In general, there are no cutesy motifs (prints, lace, over abundance of frills, bows, etc). This style can be worn by men and women easily; often this is a very good style for men to take up if they want to dress up too.
Skirts are often worn long, although sometimes they can be shorter, especially in the hotter months. High corseted waists on skirts are common, so are actual corsets. Fitted jackets with tail coats are popular, so are frilly shirts, top hats, veils, etc.
An Aristocrat's hair is usually done in a mature style. Buns and other lifted styles are common; however it is okay to wear your hair down, short or curly. Extreme hairstyles are usually done in conjunction with extreme makeup. Often times it's much too troublesome to go to such lengths for daily wear.
Makeup is also usually mature and sometimes on the darker side. Extreme makeup is usually not done. Somewhat darkened eyes and dark red lipstick is common. Lighter colors can be used, but generally only on the lips.