How was your first encounter with lolita like? No matter how

>>9220101
I feel like my story is less standard so I'll go...

>20 years old
>be in love with the idea of capsule wardrobes and ~style concepts~
>find western fashion boring as fuck, but I want that #minimalist closet
>accidentally stumble on fyeahlolita's wardrobe post
>find nirvana

it's 3 years later, and I'm mostly otome (I've never seen a style more me in my life), with lolita as my "special" wear and I couldn't be happier

>be me in high school, around ~2005
>friend goes to ~artsy~ high school and introduces me to her friends
>one of them is a total weeb and is obsessed with Japan
>she and my friend pour over FRUiTS and Gothic Lolita Bibles.
>on several occasions she dressed in ~lolita~
>from what I remember they were frilly lace monsters with no petticoat
>thought she looked dumb as shit
>fast forward to 2015
>browsing cgl for cosplay
>find modern classic lolita
>fall in love
>been building wardrobe for about a year now

I guess maybe I just don't like old school? Its also possible that she just had shit taste.

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>15y/o extreme weeb
>loved characters from anime like Moon Phase
>wanted to be a goffick animu neko princess
>first con in 2009
>see girls dressed up
>OMG THEY LOOK JUST LIKE MY FAVORITE ANIMES DESU
>ask them about their outfits, they tell me it's lolita fashion

everything started from there, and I attribute that to why I was such a horrendous ita for so long

>fast forward to a couple months ago
>looking through old pics for nostalgia
>these are the girls whose outfits I loved so much
>fuckingwhy.jpeg

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Mine's a bit atypical I guess.

>be 8 year old me in 2004
>be obsessed with Victorian/Rococo period aesthetic from birth
>Just discovered manga. No internet, no anime, just manga.
>read manga that has Lolita-ish characters
>Mostly American manga Bizenghast, also Chibi Vampire and Shugo chara
>Love clothes "lolita" characters wear due to historical aesthetic and general beauty
>Daydream about clothes everyday and wish I could wear them everyday and wish clothes were real
>have no internet so did not know that lolita was real
>Fastfoward to 2008, 12 year old me gets on chat website IMVU
>Finds clothes for avatar by MolotovCupcake called "lolita"
>Look up "lolita fashion"
>*Gasp!* The clothes I love are real!
>never have money to buy because I am in middle school.
>obsess over it off and on for years
>stockpiled information until I bought my first coord in 2013 with birthday money

Now I have a regular paycheck and I'm able to spend more money on Lolita. My wardrobe has grown considerably and I'm not even close to stopping. My end goal is to be a lifestyler, as I've been dreaming about it since I was 9.

>2003
>the first issue of Hana to Yume's german sister magazine Daisuki was released
>features the obligatory lolita fashion article
>buys overpriced In The Starlight dresses

It was nice and accurate for that time but hell, was lolita expensive back then even without prints.

>>9220670
Im so happy for you anon. you live that life

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>>9220670
Holy shit anon, are you me? I read Bizenghast as a tween and got the lolita items on IMVU too.

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>2006
>12 yrs old beginner weeb stage
>discovered rozen maiden
>discovered ali project
>holy shit this is cool
>confused about brands and how to buy lolita for years
>buys milanoo and bodyline shit
>massive ita
>finally learns about proper lolita fashion like 3 years ago
>did a ton of research for coording
>finally built the courage to spend more on brand
>been a lolita for a year and a half with 5~6 main pieces
>life has never been better

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>2004
>tween me was a massive weeb
>didn't have internet so I didn't actually know what a weeb was
>was obsessed with Shaman King (also was a babybat so yeah)
>one fateful day I bought a magazine with the tiniest picture related to the aforementioned manga
>general otaku culture mag apparently
>manga-esque drawing of a "Loli Goth!11!1" in the reader submission section
>instantly in love

>I haven't worn colour since though

to be fair the drawing was some animu girl in a Baby dress so it was pretty accurate.

>>9220411
This is oddly heartwarming to me?

>2002, babby 6th grader
>join art club
>full of weebs
>one girl there is an 8th grader and hardcore into VK
>shows me some bands and gives me a CD mix
>my favourite song is Beast of Blood
>look up Malice Mizer
>see Mana
>holy shit
>see the term "gothic lolita" a lot and search for pictures
>aspire to one day look like that
Then I sort of got into Western goth culture and regular weeb stuff but I eventually bought some outfits when I got a job and well, here we are. I do remember being heartbroken to find out Malice Mizer had already disbanded, haha. Bless you Mana-sama, you saved me from a lifetime of mediocre clothes.

>7th grade
>obsessed with gaia online
>see someone posting pics of lolita
>join the lolita guild
>full of ita newbies
>read a lot of wikihow articles about it for some reason
>but still dressed like a babybat with halloween tights and party city striped armwarmers
>get out of that phase
>and now at college, am i starting to dress in lolita.

>hate mainstream girls' fashion so always wear boys' clothes
>internet friend links me to /cgl/ saying "haha the drama on this board is hilarious"
>start browsing for laughs and "hey, I was into cosplay way back when"
>see lolita
>instantly rekindle love for feminine clothing and decide i need to have it

I was a little weeblet too and had seen "lolita" clothing before when I was younger, thinking it was mildly pretty, but I'd entirely forgotten about it.

>>9220101
I think I've told this story here once before, but fuck it.

>17 year old me in 2007.
>Likes anime and goes to cons.
>Not really a cosplayer, but hangs out on the cosplayfucks forums a lot.
>There's a thread about a bitchy girl on cosplay.com
>She wears weird expensive clothes and likes to act snotty when correcting people about her dumb fashion.
>T r i g g e r e d.
>Proceed to flood her picture comments with bullshit along with several others.
>"That'll show that stuffy elitist bitch! Who the fuck wears that over-priced shit anyway?"
>3 years later I buy my first dress.

> Be me.
> Parents do Victorian/Edwardian meetups.
> Wear amazing costumes with them when they do, but pretend to hate every minute of it because I'm a cool kid and costumes are for babies.
> Get a fucking clue.
> Start wearing Vicgoth generally
> Family starts hosting Japanese exchange students every year.
> Omg, anon, do you Japanese street fashion? I think you would like it!
> Recieve magazines.
> Holyshit.jpg
> Incorporates lolita elements in goth shit for a while.
> Eventually goes full (but still ita) lolita.
> After a few years I learn how to fucking coord,but I'm more colourful now, since I've moved away from the gothic stuff.

I still occasionally go to those meets with my parents. Those people don't like lolita though :P

>be 16
>find angelic pretty storefront
>holyshit.jpg
>proceed to blow over 1k on first coords and other stuff with the help of the staff
>go home
>order a shitton of brand every month because fuck money i'm a lolita now
>join comm as a new lolita
>still one of the best dressed

And the beat goes on to this day. It helps that i didn't have shit taste in the first place, and the anatomy of lolita is easy as fuck to learn. How do itas get it so wrong?

>12 year old me
>stole brother's copy of Shojo Beat (Chapter one of Vampire Knight edition)
>There's a tiny blurb in the letter to the editor asking where to get the pretty clothes in Kamikaze Girls
>Ask for Kamikaze Girls for my 13th birthday.
>Watch it with my weeb friends
>All of us become itas until we have an income to buy brand.

It's been a decade now and all three of us still wear it. We are at least not ita or raging weebs anymore.

>13 years old in 2003
>a typical weeaboo since I was like 9
>always had been in love with victorian fashion
>Chobits may not be lolita but it sparked a want for extravagant clothing to wear all day
>Look into chobit cosplays and end up finding Jfashion stuff too
>I love it all
>cant tell quality for shit though
>start highschool
>dont really remember how or why but my mom ends up buying me a "lolita" dress
>its made out of spandex material, black ribbons on the hem are literally hot glued on, lace is retardedly bad
>I fucking love it
>wore it on valentines day to sing at my schools coffee house
>never ended up wearing it again thankfully

After that I always KNEW about lolita, but never really dabbled in it besides loving older looking dresses and the modesty of it. I didnt have the money to put into lolita until a year ago at 24 years old.

Im still thankful for my mom buying me the dress though, she would always make or buy my jfashion type things that I loved, she would even buy my chobit stuff even though she told me I couldnt watch or read it.

>17 year old fat cosplayer wannabe me
>friend wants to cosplay as a lolita MLP
>Research: Start!
>find lj lolita handbook
>decide to make a lolita Monomi cosplay
>fail hideously
>go to /cgl/
>read about fatty chans and replicas
>read about pixyteri
>decide to lose weight
>buy bodyline shit the next year
>wear a doll themed coord for halloween
>feel excellent
>start building a wardrobe
>get to college
>wear lolita or other jfash at minimum once a week.

I'm the only lolita on my campus. I think I was generally aware of lolita, but my friend's cosplay and /cgl/ pt horror stories really spurred things on.

>Love Victorian anything and old fashioned clothes since I was like 8
>Wish I could have amazing lovely Victorian dresses like the American Girl doll Samantha, also love Felicity's wardrobe
>Drool over outfits from the Samantha and Felicity movies when I'm 10/11, wish I could dress like that
>Fast forward to late 2009, just turned 15
>Googling stuff and being spergy about Victorian fashion and trying to find something cute
>Ugh it's just all bad recreations on Ebay
>Google image search "cute victorian inspired clothes" or something similar
>See bad gothic lolita coord
>ohshitwhatsthat
>Do minimal research, find cosmates.com and fall in love with an overpriced Bodyline separates set
>Beg mom to buy it and small petti for me, she caves

My mom bought me a few dresses and would happily buy me little accessories and offbrand shoes and stuff. I started doing medical research things to get extra cash and eventually got a job when I was 17 and a half. My first coord, the bodyline set from cosmates, actually just looked like goth shit, I wouldn't even call it lolita. I experimented with sweet but it didn't suit my tastes and I always felt odd in it. I'd say my style really solidified around early 2012. I'm classic/goth with like one very simple sweet piece.

>be 13/14 year old weeb and start getting into jpop and jrock
>GACKT
>Malice Mizer
>Livejournal blogs about lolita, making your own cutsew and petticoat
>No interest because I was too busy with cosplay and wearing "decora inspired" abominations (and school and being a kid with no income)
>Find /cgl/ for cosplay, see lolita again, it looks too prissy and too floofy
>Years pass, lose interest in cosplay, anime, and japan
>Be 22 and decide to lurk /cgl/ for old time's sake
>Cosplay is boring now, decide to read some lolita threads
>Discover classic lolita
>I'M IN
>But now I love oldschool more, which I so foolishly turned up my nose at years ago.

it's been a bumpy ride but i'm happy to be here

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>be me two years-ish ago
>wear super normie fashion, but a closet weeb since I was 14
>go to First Friday art gallery with boyfriend
>see two girls dressed in crazy poofy dresses
>one sweet, one Gothic.
>vaguely know Lolita exists, say something along the lines of 'I've never seen a Lolita in real life' to my boyfriend
>awestruck
>go home, don't think about it for months
>last year, a YouTube video about lolitas pops up on my suggested videos
>watch it
>watch another
>binge watch all deer stalkers videos
>start watching wardrobe posts
>oh shit, I love this
>buy my first lucky pack and secondhand dress that year, sell it all back because I start second-guessing myself
>still don't have the courage to wear Lolita

Someday, I'll stop caring about what other people think. But for now, I've pretty much been content with wearing Leur Getter and Emily Temple Cute Otome.

>>9224437
You're not getting any younger, wear lolita now while you're still kawaii

>>9224445
If I wasn't already 25, I probably would. But aging is a real confidence killer, especially given that I love sweet lolita. I know my days are numbered with that style, if they aren't up already.

>>9224452
Age has no real meaning, your appearance matters more and even that's debatable. I recently turned 26 and have been wearing the fashion for more than 8 years with no intention to stop. Do what makes you happy, anon.

>>9224452
I started at 30. I wear almost exclusively sweet including ott. I'll be 35 this year. Do it or live with the regret of not. It's your choice.

>>9224452
Ffs anon, no one confiscates your wardrobe once you hit 30. I've been wearing Lolita close to 10 years and will be wearing it 10 years from now. Come join us. Be ruffly. It's the best.

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My favorite manga in 2005 when I was 13 was Shaman King. I learned that Mari was a lolita and after that found the Kamikaze Girls novel, which taught me the ways of brand. Stalked the EGL LJ for a few years, lost interest, and rediscovered lolita in college, when I could afford it.

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>>9220101
I first saw it through the singer Yohio and I have been obsessed with him and it for years now.

>>9224452

I'm 25 and I'm still wearing lolita strong. Don't plan to stop anytime soon.

Age is a number only if you want it to be.

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>sometime in middle school
>i drew a lot back then, i would look up japanese clothes for reference
>saw pic related, fell in love
>never knew what it was called for years
>eventually i find out, this was around 2009-2010
>loved the fashion but didn't have the confidence to stand out
>finally stopped giving a fuck what people thought of my fashion in 2014-15 and bought a shitty f+f jsk
>itaphase.jpg but fuck was i happy
>was into cosplay at the time and discovered cgl, lolita interest intensified and now i barely cosplay

I'm about a year and a half in the fashion and I'm happier than I've ever been before. I finally feel passionate about something after years of being an empty husk.

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>>9225931
>>9224460
>>9224476
>>9225931

F-full speed ahead. I've admired this dress for ages. I hope I win the auction!

>>9226286
>2009-2010
>middle school
Fuck I graduated high school in 2004 and was already into lolita. Has it really been that long?

>>9226413
Congrats anon. This is perfectly fine especially if you're concerned about being older. DESU at 25 you can pretty much wear anything well.

Keep in mind that most lolitas who have well-established wardrobes aren't teenagers. Some of the larger wardrobes, including the sweet ones come from those who are 25+ and have careers. You can't get that working a part-time min-wage service job while you're in school.

>>9226420
I was just entering high school in 2009 so I suppose so!

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>>9226413
Keeping my fingers crossed for you, anon!

>>9226413
nice choice! good luck, anon!

>be teenage me c.2007
>borrow Godchild from a friend
>become super interested in Mary
>see Mary described as a lolita somewhere online
>look up the style and stare at MMM dresses for hours

>be me c.2011, now in HS
>see two sweet lolitas at a public event
>I remember them as being almost twinning in red dresses (one strawberry themed, one cherry themed) and wearing wooden platform shoes
>awkwardly tell them I love their dresses
>realize lolita can actually be worn outside of conventions and harajuku

>2010
>like three people took pics of my sad first cosplay at a local con
>searching for con pics online
>come across the relevant /cgl/ thread and thus discover the board as a whole
>what are these beautiful dresses
>binge-read the entirety of hellolace that day

Didn't actually start wearing the fashion until 3 years later out of fear of ending up like the people I'd see in ita threads, and only joined the local comm this past year but it's kind of consumed my life since then

>2005
>friend invites me to come over to her house so I can help her with her homework
>as always we procrastinate instead in front of the computer
>she shows me pictures of that japanese fashion that she discovered a while ago
>shows me some sites like avantgauche, Btssb, F+F, Putumayo
>she proceeds to go to her room and comes back with some magazines, some early GLBs iirc
>I'm just staring at the price tag of all those weird clothes and start to think that my friend must be insane and suffer from some form of escapism for wanting to dress like a fairy cupcake
>later when I went home I decide to have some laugh for myself and to do some more research on this fashion
>looking up all those websites and stuff again
>oh it doesn't that so horrible after all
>still shocked at the price tag

I've only fully acknowledgeed my love for lolita to my friend once I had finished school and started uni about 3 years later. As a poorfag I've always felt uncomfortable about having unnecessarily expenses, so I waited until my living situation changed and I was ready for it.

>Height of my weeb phase in 2002.
>Go to art museum with anime club for Japanese pop culture exhibit.
>See FRUiTS.
>That's cool whatever.

>Few years later, start seeing lolitas at conventions.
>Can I take a picture of your cosplay?

>A few friends are wearing the fashion mid-late 00's.
>Start to get a little interesting.
>Huge and fat. Likes sweet. Don't want to be fat chick in cake dress.
>Nothing would fit anyway...

>Start actually wearing in 2012.
>Lost weight. Has options.

>Gained back weight. Now fat chick in cake dress. FML.

>it's 2003 and I discover anime and become a babby weeb
>continue being a weeb throughout high school. vaguely aware of lolita fashion through seeing photos and drawings here and there
>it's 2012 and I'm doing a cosplay for the first time
>somehow I end up on 4chan and see that there's a cosplay board, so I lurk it for advice
>at the same time, get a tumblr and become exposed to himekaji and other cute fashions, fall in love with jfash
>keep lurking cgl, there's a fuckton of lolita threads. see all these beautiful dresses
>"so that's lolita, well dang! but it's pricey, it's not for me. oh well"
>go to first con with husband in 2013
>at flea market trying to decide on buying a Liz Lisa dress when I stumble on a bunch of tables selling lolita (there's lotsa pricey brand)
>find an Infanta OP for $70 and really want to buy it, but I'm worried about costs of getting into the fashion
>husband tells me to just fucking do it
>few months later get a petti, and then order sale items from IW, and cute tops and bags from taobao
>make a bunch of questionable coords I never wear out but they're good for learning
>make my ~lolita debut~ at a con early 2014, then join a comm april 2014

My hubs has been super supportive since then (going to con fashion shows, visiting stores, helping me take photos and stuff). And really, I have /cgl/ to thank for making me fall as hard for the fashion as I did.

Last note: I'm 26 now, and I don't see myself stopping any time soon. I love my comm and I love the clothes, fuck what normies or anyone else thinks. If any of you gals think it's too late for you to start, you're probably wrong. If you can afford it, just take the plunge and enjoy the ruffly happiness. It's really something special.

>Years ago
>Come across old Fruits style street snaps lurking around Livejournal
>"Oh this is lovely! They look like candy!"
>Been making odd fashion choices since birth, didn't think of the style as a costume or something for a special occasion
>These are just the most beautiful clothes I've ever seen
>But bummed I'm US based
>Iwillneverfindthem.sadface
>Mention the pictures offhand to nerdy bf (now husband) who recognizes the fashion
>"Oh yeah anon! There's a whole board on 4chan about this!"
>Bought my first dress shortly after learning about the real EGL LJ and the Comm Sales
>Been here learning and loving ever since