Anyone else skip their ita phase altogether? (at least dressing

>>9452292
kek, nice.

I had one handmade abomination I created (that I never wore thank Christ) but after that I basically did what you did and started researching the shit out of lolita. Though I started here on cgl then went to LJ. never bought bodyline or replicas and went straight to secondhand brand. Feels good.

Did this really need it's own thread though?

>>9452292
I like your story about overcoming adversity and toxic people through study and perseverance, OP!

>>9452810
Same here. I'm just starting to get into the fashion after lurking here and on LJ for a few years and so far have been very lucky that all I got from closetchild, mercari, and wunderwelt fits well. It's all fairly easy to coord, and I have a basis to start building the rest of my wardrobe. Since I'm not a teen I feel I can't afford an ita phase because I'd look more like lunatic than like a misguided young weeaboo.

no one cares bro
congrats on your upcoming graduation though, since you're clearly still in H.S.
>Amino is thattaway

>>9452292
Probably sounds cocky but I feel I always had generally good taste and never liked typically "ita" items, and could tell the difference between rubbish and good coords. I'm extremely picky when it comes to what normie clothes i wear, and still fairly picky about what clothes i merely like so my personal 'style' rules extended to lolita. That being said I could not coord for shit nor specify what about an okay/passable coord could be improved, which is still something i'm working on. Also it helped that I like to research the ever loving shit out of a topic or hobby in intense bursts when I become interested in something.

I ironically think skipping my ita phase was because of things like being a collector of anime merchandise and cosplaying, even though most people dislike weebs. I think there's a lot you can take over from seemingly unrelated hobbies into lolita.

For anime merch, you have to buy from Japanese websites, search yahoo auctions, and there's a stigma against replicas there, too. For cosplay, any cosplayer worth their salt will tell you wigs are better than natural hair and the materials are important for a good looking cosplay.

>>9453392
I'm autistic and obsessive about research (I probably spent literally hundreds of hours on it before ever buying anything) but I don't buy this "no ita phase" thing, and I'm saying this as someone who used to cringily brag about having skipped the ita phase. Yeah, you might not have had a classic, Milanoo-tier ita phase, but when you look back on your coords in five years time you will definitely see things you've improved since. You're just literally not capable of seeing the flaws now because you haven't developed enough of an eye for it.

Most of my coords from back then are things I'd wear now, but some were inappropriately accessorized or have some odd colour balance issues through trying to apply cookie-cutter colour balance guides to everything (I still see this on girls today, like a girl who wore white ankle socks over dark OTKs on CoF lately because she thought her lower half had to incorporate white for the coord to look good, even though it actually threw off the balance of her coord). Most of the successful coords are basic and I wasn't great at lolita make-up or wig/hair styling due to lack of practice, even though I understood the importance of it and tried to follow tutorials. I also couldn't pose for shit and didn't understand that make-up that looks slightly over-the-top IRL shows up better on camera and vice versa.

>>9453399
>wigs are better than natural hair

I avoided my ita phase because I went though a baby bat phase. Goth fashion teaches you quick that quality comes with a price tag and make sure you're buying an authenticated brand. Research who you're buying from before you purchase and never buy from eBay. I bought my first jsk from no spear boutique when moitie was there. It was a downward hill from there since my closet is mainly all ega and egl now.

>>9453438
>never buy from eBay
I hear popular goths advising people to buy from eBay all the time, they all seem to be big on the original DIY aesthetic and thrifting/upcycling things. Unless you mean "don't buy a Victorian goth ballgown on eBay" rather than just never buy from eBay full stop.

The first lolita thing I bought was a cheap JSK+blouse+headbow+socks set from Baby so it was hard to be ita when a brand tells you how to dress, but looking back the quality of those items was pretty shitty. Also, I wore petticoats inside-out once (luckily not to a meet).

>>9453400
Well I did specify i couldn't coord for shit, and its still something i have to work on but my piece taste has always been fairly sharp - but maybe that's just a product of being slightly older than most while getting into the fashion and generally being detail oriented (i'm extremely autistic about details). But I wouldn't say that having an untrained eye or not much practice makes you necessarily ita, it might just make you okay or passable. Also a big part of having basic coords while you're new is lack of wardrobe. What generally makes a coord exceptional are the finer details, which are hard to refine if you're stuck with buying more basic versatile items for your wardrobe. You'll look okay or good, but of course there could be something to change and improve.

>>9453415
A lot of girls can't style their hair for shit and you're probably one of them.

>>9453450
cosplayers pls go

>>9453415
w-what planet are you from? when has shitty, thin damaged hair from constant dying ever looked better than a wig? and when could it ever be styled as well without further fucking up your hair?

for lolita, sure i agree that natural hair is sometimes nicer depending on the look you're going for, unless you have shit hair but it makes zero sense for cosplay.

>t. brain user

>>9453458
This is a thread about lolita, I'm talking about in lolita. Fully agree that wigs are better than natural hair for everything but a minority of live-action cosplays.

>>9453442
Buying from eBay takes experience and if you type in goth in the search you will get a lot of garbage of venders tag fishing.

>>9453453
Cosplayer are fine anon. There's a lot of very experienced lolitas that know how to separate the two from fashion to cosplay. It's the weebs that believe they are X anime cheracter and try to dress the fashion.

I wish lolitas would stop wearing wigs so much and just style their hair/take care of their natural hair.
Wearing wigs make the fashion look even more costumey.
Goths,punks,...never or barely wear wigs.

I skipped my ita phase because I was really into fashion in general for several years beforehand, unlike a lot of lolitas who can't dress themselves outside of lolita.

>>9452292
I feel like instead of an ita phase I had more of a nitpick phase. When I think ita I think of it in the classic sense of being so badly dressed it's painful to look at. My first few coords definitely had issues, but it wasn't ita levels of bad.

I think if you lurk for a bit and have basic fashion sense, it's pretty easy to skip your ita phase. I had a half-assed attempt at an ita phase where I wanted to wear a cosplay as a coord but I knew it wasn't really good enough (thanks to a very honest friend) and only wore it to cosplay events. I waited until I had my own money and lurked here for 6 months.

>>9453554
Agreed, but at the same time I wish I was more socially accepted in general to wear wigs as a normal fashion accessory.

I think it's actually pretty easy to skip the ita phase. It's not that you won't put together some bad, even ita, coords but that overall you won't be an ita. My early days were bland but cute since I didn't have much. It was only when I tried to do coords that I just didn't have the pieces to pull off that I delved into ita territory.

How not to be ita
>Simple is best at first
>Don't feel like you have to match the meetup's theme
>Focus on one color palette or style at first to get the most out of a small wardrobe
>hair and makeup are just as much a part of the coord as the dress
>look up 3rd party reviews and worn pics before buying