Why do I love oldschool lolita?

  I love oldschool. You only need one look at this blog to see that! It takes up a good half of my lolita wardrobe, while four other substyles get smooshed in the other half. They're my most precious pieces, looking at a nice oldschool dress or blouse gives me a kind of fuzzies hardly any border print can hope to archieve. But why?

The lace

Oh the lace. Don't get me wrong, I think the modern tulle lace is absolutely beautiful. Thick cotton lace, though, is my absolute favourite kind. I love the sturdy feel of it, I love the clear details, and I love how it pops against a dress in a way tulle lace doesn't because of how thin the base is.

The ease

Oldschool is possibly the easiest substyle to get into and to wear daily! Building up a wardrobe is easy because there's no need for a bazillion matching pieces or careful planning on what theme or colourscheme your wardrobe will have. In oldschool, you can undoubtedly pull a perfect coord out of your existing closet to match any new dress! As for daily wearing, the shirring and usually low poof makes for very comfy outfits. Kneesocks mean there's way less chance of your socks migrating south during the day, and rectangle headdresses can be worn with flat daily hair and still look good. Plus, at the end of the day everything can be tossed straight into the washing machine without worries!

The nostalgia

Now we're getting into the less practical reasons. Even though I wasn't around when oldschool lolita was just lolita, it doesn't mean there isn't a sort of nostalgic feeling attached to the style. It's frozen in the past, no longer influenced by trends or magazine publications. Wearing it feels a bit like bringing the past back to life for a while, back to the time when chiffon dresses were OTT and border prints did not exist yet. Honestly, there are way worse things from 2004 you could be wearing! 

The off-putting doll look 

Before I became a lolita, I was a goth. A horrible mallgoth, but a goth. I liked catching people off guard and make them look twice at what just passed them by, but I wanted to look cute too. When I discovered gothic lolita, I thought I'd found the perfect blend between looking scary and looking cute, but in time, I discovered that the ideal blend lay not in gothic lolita but in oldschool. Gothic lolita looks gothic, obviously, and it means it looks familiar to people. Nobody in the west knows styles like lolita. Lolita reminds a lot of people of creepy dolls, especially oldschool, with its off proportions (chunky blouses, massive shoes). I love it! I can look cute, while also having a don't-fuck-with-me-vibe if I want to. I have no need to look like a kawaii pink princess, personally. 

The effort and care

This is something I feel is unique to oldschool as a substyle. For one, there are no easy words to google to find that perfect 2002 BTSSB lacemonster, there aren't even dress names to look for. If you want that dress, you better get ready to look through all 217 pages of Yahoo-listings tagged with the brandname and *hope* you find something close to what you want. Finding a dream dress in modern lolita feels great, but finding that one specific dress Innocent World put out in 2003 feels like some deity descends from the heavens to bestow upon you the dress while angels sing. 

Then, there's the whole thing with these dresses being OLD. Some of them are old enough to vote! Naturally, that means they're likely to be a little worn. Missing waist ties, missing buttons or strange stains are all very common on old pieces. Personally, I love patching up an old piece to a condition where it can be worn again. I've replaced I don't know how many buttons, meticulously handstitched together tons of torn lace and carefully handwashed several dresses in water of just the right temperature to lift years old stains while not harming the dye. I actually just finished a dress I had laying around, of which the previous owner had shoddily remade the sleeves into too long, ill-placed straps. Took me two days of sewing, but she's ready for another life!

That's it! Five reasons as to why I love this quirky outdated style more than any other. Do they hold any truth to you too or do you love it for whole different reasons? Please let me know in a comment!