Beginner's Guide - Shopping

 

Shopping for Lolita Fashion

Nowadays there are many ways to get your frilly mitts on Lolita fashion. Unless you live in metropolitan Japan, or a handful of cities in Europe, the USA, or China, you'll probably have to buy your Lolita fashion online. Sometimes in a city or country with a large, dense Lolita population you may also be able to attend a swap meet at a fandom convention, or be able to buy pieces direct from retailers at these conventions. 

 

In-Person Retail

Most of us in the international community don't have access to brick-and-mortar Lolita Fashion retailers. This fashion is so niche that it just isn't feasible for Lolita stores to exist in most places, or at least they can't rely only on income from in-person sales to pay the bills. Some are part of a larger company, such as Angelic Pretty and Baby the Stars Shine Bright, who have stores in Japan, China, and the USA, but others are smaller indie operations. 

Online Shopping 

Online shopping is the way most of us obtain our frills. You can buy directly from many brands and ateliers using their webstores. You can also use shopping services and dropshippers to easily access Chinese brands. You can "directly" purchase from some Chinese brands on Taobao. You can buy secondhand items directly from some Japanese webstores, or from seller-to-buyer platforms like Lacemarket, Mercari, Frill, and Xianyu. Lacemarket is unique among these as it is made specifically for the sale of Lolita fashion. 

When shopping from international stores it is very important to understand their individual international sales and shipping practices. Some brands accept all sorts of payment options and ship worldwide without incident, and some only accept certain kinds of payment options and may only ship to domestic addresses in their own respective countries. These international sales limitations exist for myriad reasons, and often these days they are due to and exacerbated by international shipping and taxation/tariff laws. 

For the astute Lolita, it helps to have as many corroborating sources as possible to ensure success! The new Lolibrary Wiki is a great resource I want to see succeed, and they have a recent shopping guide as well. 

 

Japanese Brands and Ateliers  *not an exhaustive list

  • Angelic Pretty 

Angelic Pretty is a Japanese sweet lolita brand known for their custom prints and OTT Sweet styling.

https://angelicpretty.com/ - Japanese webstore, ships worldwide

https://www.angelicpretty-usa.com/ - USA webstore, ships worldwide

https://angelicpretty-paris.com/  - French webstore, ships worldwide


  • Atelier Pierrot 

An atelier and select shop for dozens of brands and small creators, hosted by Atelier Pierrot. Mostly gothic and classic.

https://atelier-pierrot.jp/en - Japanese webstore, ships worldwide

 

  • Baby, the Stars Shine Bright and Alice and the Pirates

A webstore hosting both Baby and their sister brand AatP, which runs the gamut from sweet, classic, and gothic, and even sometimes Ouji pieces. 

https://store.babyssb.co.jp - Japanese wesbtore, ships worldwide

https://shop.baby-aatp.com/  - USA webstore, ships worldwide

 

  • Enchantilic Enchantilly

https://e-enchantilly.com/ 

 

  • Innocent World 

https://innocent-w.jp/  - Japanese webstore, ships worldwide

 

  • Juliette et Justine  

Famous for their dresses featuring prints of oil paintings from the Renaissance and Baroque art traditions, with a focus on the classic substyle. 

https://juliette-et-justine.com/  - Japanese webstore, ships worldwide

 

  • Mary Magdalene 

Mary Magdalene is a classic lolita brand known for their elegant solid colored pieces and classic designs. 

https://www.marymagdalene.jp/ - Japanese webstore, does not ship internationally, requires a shopping or forwarding service

 

  • Maxicimam

https://www.maxicimam.com/ - Japanese webstore, does not ship internationally, requires a shopping or forwarding service

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/brand/100000108 - English store hosted through CD Japan, but doesn't seem supported anymore

 

  • Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Metamorphose Temps de Fille is a Japanese brand known for their design creativity, great English customer service and in recent years, for offering extended sizing.  

https://metamorphose.gr.jp/en/online-shop - Japanese webstore, ships worldwide
 
  • Moi-même-Moitié
Moi-même-Moitié is a Japanese gothic lolita brand founded by Mana-Sama.
 
https://www.wunderwelt.jp/collections/moi-meme-moitie -Wunderwelt Fleur hosted webstore, ships internationally
 
  • Physical Drop 
https://tawaraya-kato.ocnk.net/  - Japanese webstore, ships internationally
 
  • Victorian Maiden

 Very classic brand renowned for their timeless designs. 

https://www.victorianmaiden.com/  - Japanese webstore, ships worldwide

 

Chinese Brands

There are truthfully probably a thousand stores on Taobao making items specifically for Lolita fashion so I won't recreate a list here. I will link to a few resource lists I have found useful, and to resellers / drop shippers that make buying from these brands very easy for beginners. Taobao is very challenging to navigate as a non-Chinese national due to location, payment, and language restrictions on their platforms, and I know many experienced Lolitas who are still unable to access the website consistently due to these restrictions. Without an account you may often be stuck in a limbo of being blocked by their servers when browsing, and even with an account you may find your account flagged constantly for suspicious activity that blocks your access (this happens to me at least once a year).


List of Reputable Chinese Brands on Taobao

https://stephano.me/blog/chinese-lolita-brands/ 

 

Trustworthy Reseller / Drop shipping Stores 

  • 42 Lolita 
Started out as a shopping service 42 agent, they closed their generic shopping service platform to focus entirely on Lolita fashion. If there is an item you want from taobao that is not on their platform you can enter a link and an agent will inspect the item, and if it is accepted as a listing you'll be able to purchase it through their platform. 
 
http://42lolita.com/  - International webstore, ships internationally
 
  • Clobbaonline
Clobba has been a very reputable company operating for a very long time. It started out as a shopping service and has become a more user-friendly storefront with Lolita items that are easy to browse.
 
https://clobbaonline.com/shop/  - International webstore, ships internationally
 
  •  Wunderwelt Fleur
Wunderwelt started out as a secondhand store similar to Closetchild, but now operates a select shop called Wunderwelt Fleur as well which sells new items from both Chinese and Japanese brands. You won't see as many Chinese brand items here as the above two, but you can rest assured that the ones they carry are reputable brands. 
 
https://www.wunderwelt.jp/en/pages/fleur - Japanese webstore, ships internationally
 
 

Western and Other Brands and Select Shops *not an exhaustive list

Japan and China aren't the only countries with Lolita brands. The USA, the UK, Russia, Korea, Brazil, Switzerland, Spain, and more are home to Lolita fashion indie brands.

  •  A. Gato Designs - USA
 
  • Baroque - Korea
 
  • The Black Ribbon - USA
 
  • Cloudberry Lady - Finland
 
  • Elegy - USA 
 
  • Dejmo - Sweden (formerly Ergi by Piratessan)
 
  • Fluffy Tori - Switzerland 
 
  • Haenuli / Iris Garden - Korea
 
  • I Do Declare - USA 
 
  • Lady Sloth - Poland
 
  • Lily of the Valley - USA 
 
  • The Lolita Collective - USA
An online and in-person retail select shop store based out of Kansas City, MI, they carry a blend of local and international indie brands, Japanese, and Chinese brands in one storefront.
 
 
  • Miss Danger - Russia
  
  • Me Likes Tea - Brazil 
 
  • Mossbadger - USA 
 
  • Puvithel - USA
 

Secondhand Shopping

Lolita fashion places a heavy emphasis on collecting and building a wardrobe over the span of years. Most items retain some value in the community even after being owned, worn, and washed. Sometimes someone will spend years in the fashion, and then later decide they no longer wish to be a part of the fashion and sell off their items. Often it is just that someone has an item they no longer want, as maybe their tastes have changed or they can no longer wear the item due to fit issues. We have a rich tradition of secondhand shopping.
 
  • Closet Child
Closet Child is a Japanese secondhand gothic, punk and lolita consignment shop, operating via physical locations, online shop and some Japanese auction sites. 
 
https://www.closetchildonlineshop.com/ - Japanese webstore, international shipping
 
  • Fril
http://fril.jp/ - Japanese secondhand marketplace, you must have a shopping service to make purchases
  • Lace Market
An online marketplace for Lolita fashion. Each seller is responsible for their own listings, and their profile will let you know if they can ship internationally. Payment must be through paypal. 
 
 
  • Mercari
https://jp.mercari.com/ - Japanese secondhand marketplace, you must have a shopping service to make purchases
 
  • WunderWelt
WunderWelt is an online Japanese secondhand lolita consignment shop.
 
https://www.wunderwelt.jp/en Japanese webstore, international shipping
 
  • Xianyu
https://www.goofish.com/ - Chinese secondhand marketplace
 
  • Y!J Auctions 
http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/ - Japanese auction site, you must have a shopping service to make purchases 

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