It was October 2019 and I was scrolling twitter. A person who followed me recently shared a link to a dress and it caught my eye for two big reasons: First of all, the dress was unlike anything I had seen before and I was hopelessly in love with it. Secondly, the link was to a store, the dress could be bought. I stared at it blankly, processing the new info. In my mind dresses this beautiful could not be worn casually, every day, but they had to represent a character or be worn for an event, yet, on the profile of this person dresses were just worn, just like this. It’s like a light in my brain turned on: “you mean, I could just wear these?”
That was when I realized I really liked lolita fashion, and that even I could wear it, simply because I liked it.
I had already encountered this fashion when I was a teen, at Lucca Comics and Games, and a friend of a friend was wearing the most beautiful gothic coord. I asked them if it was a cosplay and when they said no, I was very puzzled as everyone else was dressed as something. In hindsight, I’m so sorry for this! I really had not grasped alt fashion back then.
The second time I got to wear beautiful frilly clothes was when a Rozen Maiden group asked me to be Hina Ichigo to complete their group for a competition because the person who was supposed to be her was sick. Seeing myself like that was incredible, and yet it was cosplay and not alt fashion, although I’ll learn later, Rozen Maiden and lolita fashion do share some official collabs.
But this time, this time it was different. I could see myself as being the girl in the picture. I wanted to stroll around in a mejestic outfit just for the sake of it.
I started researching the fashion. I started consuming blogs and videos about it, I had to know more.
My research ended with me ordering my first lolita pieces, in what I thought would be a good newbie lolita outfit, which did not include that beautiful dress because I felt like it costed too much and would not be that versatile after all.
I regretted that decision of course. So when another round of preorders came up, almost a year later, I immediately ordered the dress. The hat, shoes and bag were also something that required a lenghty search, especially the hat since it wasn’t sold with the dress as a set anymore.
I was so overjoyed once the last piece arrived – the hat – and I could put on my complete coord. The feeling of finally having coronated that desire to be that girl, to touch that fabric, to look at the details, have the right silhouette, the right hat, truly made me feel beautiful like I rarely felt in life before.
I’m still waiting for the right time to wear it at a lolita meet, but I also got the chance to wear it for a photoshoot this last October 2021, two years after that first time I saw it. My sister and her friend Riccardo Bertani wanted to test camera lenses, and needed a subject to photograph. It was a last minute thing but I didn’t need them to repeat it, I said yes and I knew immediately what dress I wanted to wear!
I got to channel all the “I’m a girl from a small town ready for a big adventure” vibes, and if it looks like I’m having fun, it’s because this was one of the best moments of 2021 for me, and I was truly overjoyed.
And if you reached the end of this? May you also find something that when you wear it makes you feel like the happiest person in the room!
