Lolita Charm: Separation of Sweet & Aspartame

Monday, October 25, 2010

Separation of Sweet & Aspartame

Lolita fashion's best feature is its nature to evolve, grow, and redefine itself. As time speeds up, technology and trends flash through our society in a matter of months or years rather than decades, lolita fashion follows suit. As we've seen, lolita fashion has changed faces many times since its inception in the early 90s. Many girls may find that the lolita they first learned has changed drastically from lolita today. When I began in 2006, lolita fashion was nearly a whole other animal than it is today. Like Darwin set to fastforward, we can already see the changes happening right under our noses.

One such example of fashion mitosis? Sweet lolita.

Sweet lolita, for those who follow it and love it, has seemed steady and unwavering for years. The pastels, the lace, and the comforting prints that are reborn seasonally. Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty stand as its two main pillars, both supporting and opposing each other. But now I see hints that sweet lolita may be beginning to branch.

Angelic Pretty, forefront of sweet style, has been honing a new direction for some time now. Bright pastels bordering on neon, more and more elaborate prints, and jelly-shaped hats and ice cream cones sprouting from lolita locks - supported by multi-colored wigs, of course. Is it decololi? Fairyloli? Just different? It's impossible to tell. It takes sweet lolita to new heights (both literally and figuratively, in the case of towering wigs bedecked with jewels, clips and teddy bears) and seems to hold the current reigning crown of lolita fascination, if not actual practice.

Baby the Stars Shine Bright has taken another tack - a retreat back to the delicacy and class that once that characterized lolita. I'm so glad to see them embracing their unique sense of lolita and femininity rather than chase after Angelic Pretty's it prints and customer market. They have resurrected and polished the cherished old-school lolita, turning out pieces that are deliciously sweet but tasteful and elegant. Pastels with black flock, soft florals, and Victorian collars and construction populate their shelves. They are still not classic, not to be lumped with Innocent World's chocolates and bordeaux and sage greens, nor Mary Magdalene's wines and creams. Themes remain the same: cakes, gingerbread, kittens and ballerinas - but they are worlds away from the shooting stars, shimmery donuts, and heavenly colored jellies and parfaits of the rest of the sweet world. A taste of some recent Baby pieces:

(top down: Merveille Doll jumperskirt; Odette de la Lac du Cygnes onepiece; Princess Honey Tea Salon jumperskirt)

Baby's take on sweet lolita is becoming the perfect style for sweet lolitas in transition. Baby, popular in earlier days, has a strongly loyal customer base. Their customers have grown with them through bunny-eared jackets and the early days of heart-shaped aprons; now that same customer base, perhaps one of the first generations of real 'lolitas' is growing up. They're getting married, or having children, or simply moving away from their teens and early twenties. Is this their answer to the previous generation? You don't need to move away from sweet lolita to enjoy its sugar and pretty diamond blues or spun-sugar pinks. Is this their steadfast revival of what lolita should mean to them and their customers - dollish, elegant, charming? - rather than continual half-hearted attempts to follow trends? Are they trying to cater to the dolly-kei and mori-girl crowd, who want fresh innocence and a new meaning to the word cute?

I have always considered it a shame that I have so few opportunity to purchase my lolita clothes in person. Baby the Stars Shine Bright especially suffers from this with the non-Japanese crowds. Photographed, Baby's pieces look unassuming and simplistic. In person, they are exquisite pieces of art and textile, lovingly rendered in sheens and colors that become suddenly present to the eye and touch. It seems that now they finally want to present this side of their brand - not just the obvious like circus printed-this or pony-printed that, but the perfect heart shape of a signature handbag, edged in exact lace, or the crocheted collars of soft and supple turtlenecks. It is a far cry from the popping and eye-catching stock photos of Angelic Pretty, who often reveal thin fabric behind their glittery faces.

Is the sweet world going to crack down the middle? Shall we start calling for more names (God forbid we have the bitter sweet debate again), more subcategories, and further cliques? I doubt it. Sweet has somehow remained united thus far, banding together by color and theme more than actual appearance or similarity. Just as sweet lolitas are completely unlike gothic lolita, they are despite deep differences and styles completely like each other. They are sisters, not cousins - perhaps, if we do mean lolita mitosis after all, more like fraternal twins.

What do you think? Do you lean towards Baby's maidenly sweet or Angelic Pretty's pop sweet? What would it look like to mix them together?

Labels: discussion, fashion

25 Comments:

At October 25, 2010 at 11:05 PM , Anonymous said...: exactly my thoughts. :D :D
At October 25, 2010 at 11:28 PM , Unknown said...: I cannot tell a lie - I was rather charmed by Angelic Pretty's Candyland Attack when it first started a few years ago (well, once I got over the shock of "GOOD GOD WHAT IS THIS"). But after seeing it... well, maybe one too many times, I have to say that I am incredibly happy with Baby's latest pieces. I want every single item - the styles all suit my dream and idea of lolita perfectly. For me, it just reinforces that Baby will always be my number one (no matter how many times I drool over Innocent World).
At October 26, 2010 at 12:12 AM , April said...: I started out liking VM, IW and Baby back in the earlier days. I left lolita for a while and now that I am back it is mostly AP that I love now. I still love the other brands just as much, but AP is what pushes me over the edge to buy it.
At October 26, 2010 at 12:30 AM , MageWeave said...: I love BABY the most for gothic pieces, actually. Moitie may be the pinacle of goth lolita fashion, but I look at most of their items and think, this is a very pretty but very plain black dress with a cross on it. BABY's unprinted dresses look BEAUTIFUL in black! So much detail & pretty lace! It brings me back to what I loved about the fashion in the first place.
At October 26, 2010 at 3:42 AM , Arika said...: I have to say I enjoy both styles, I do like a variety in my wardrobe though. I like to be in theme for either an event or my mood. Some days I want to be a neon wedding cake, and some days simple and elegant is just perfect.
At October 26, 2010 at 4:13 AM , Zeruda said...: I love the old sweet and i'm glad it's coming back. (my first lolita love was classic so no wonder). I feel i'm not the only one stepping away from APs candy explosions. APs sugar pop makes me sick these days. I did enjoy it for a while, but just a short while. Now it's just too much. AP have some cute prints, but the whole candy floss combinations has gone crazy and it seems like they can't come up with anything else. I think it's quite possible to make an AP outfit not OTT. But i guess no one has tried for a long time :S
At October 26, 2010 at 7:53 AM , Rosalynn said...: Sometimes I feel literally torn between AP and Baby. My first pieces are Baby and I love them really much, but it is AP that catches my heart every single time. The dresses that I really want are all AP, apart from only a few Baby pieces. I have a Lolita idol who is covered in OTT Sweet, and if there is one person on the world I'd like to follow, it's her (of course not literally, but like an icon).
Sometimes I feel guilty for liking AP so much when everyone seems to like it (although this is not true). But I used to be the girl who always wore black to hide her body, and now all I want to do is wear bright colours, prints and a lot of jewelry. I will always love Baby and I'll probably buy things from them, but I am really on AP's side most of the time...
At October 26, 2010 at 9:43 AM , Nymph of the Archers said...: I adore Baby. AP is nice but too... flashy for my taste. Best for OTT Sweet, which, while I LOVE to stare at, can never do and will never want to do. Baby's clothes ares imple but elegant, which is my style for non-Lolita clothes and Lolita clothes about. Thus, why I'm a Hime Lolita. It can be OTT or simple, but all the time retain an air of elegence.

I got into Lolita because of the coord Momoko wears in Kamikaze Girls; sax HeartHeart Apron, white short sleeved blouse and underskirt, light blue and white headdress and white, knee-high socks. I love that outfit a year later. Baby is the only brand to have stolen me heart, just like Momoko.

Weather I can afford them or not is another story. XD
At October 26, 2010 at 9:46 AM , Anonymous said...: Regarding Zeruda's comment... I like to tone down Angelic Pretty prints =3. I'm in love with the cute prints, but I find OTT sweet a bit too edgy for me... I find that plainer accessories go a long way to drawing the attention away from the OTT-ness of the print. And I feel that, if people do start to step away from OTT sweet, this will probably be a more common sight.
At October 26, 2010 at 10:35 AM , Christie Klein said...: I enjoy looking at prints, but I know I would never in a million years wear an AP print - just way way too much for me.

But I really really liked the BTSSB Princess Honey Tea Salon that you put the picture of - so so lovely and delicate.

I admire girls with the courage and the ability to wear AP OTT Sweet, but I will definitely never be one :\
At October 26, 2010 at 11:54 AM , crimson said...: I'm a fan of classic and gothic styles, but even I would happily wear some of the recent Baby releases.
I think people will come up with new names sooner or later. Are they necessary? I don't know. But we seem to like categorising things.
Anyway, I'm happy to see that sweet is more than AP OTT cuteness, and that you can still look classy and elegant in sweet.
At October 26, 2010 at 12:39 PM , Yajaira said...: I like both directions, Baby would probably would I would wear, since I am more of a classic lolita and something about their aesthetic just screams classic sweet. but I wouldn't mine having some of APs garments in my wardrobe, sometimes I just want to throw on the sugary sparkly candyland print.
At October 26, 2010 at 1:15 PM , Musouka said...: I like both directions quite a bit, but I think I prefer Baby a little more. I also don't see myself "in transition" (from what to what? I was never anything else, and my style isn't changing), it's just what I like. I think I lust more over AP, but when it comes down to it, I love Baby. Haha, it's like a crazy love triangle of sweet loli.
At October 26, 2010 at 1:42 PM , Andie said...: I like AP's crazy prints, but to honest Baby has always been my favourite, I adore them!
At October 26, 2010 at 2:42 PM , thebabydollprincess said...: I have to say I love to mix them..
I don't always feel like putting a pice of cake on my head/ a wig. Other days I can't live without the wig/ cake on the head.

I don't want just one of the styles, I love them both.
At October 26, 2010 at 2:52 PM , Anonymous said...: Me personally, I love Angelic Pretty and the whole idea of extravagant sweet outfits with lots of sweets, colours and all that stuff. ^^
But I also enjoy the more classical sweet Lolita.
I think it's really good that there are so many versions of the style and there's no need to cathegorize them.. it's just a matter of taste. ^^
At October 26, 2010 at 3:43 PM , TheMidnightWolf said...: I have yet to purchase my first Lolita outfit....because I'm always broke, and my life sucks that way, but I lean more towards Baby, just because it seems a bit more romantic to me....now just speaking about it I wish I had friends who would buy me Lolita.....wahhh!!!
At October 26, 2010 at 7:38 PM , Kara said...: Mostly I prefer classic, with a little sweet thrown in-and that sweet most often comes from baby (How I adore thee, Princess Honey Tea Salon), and because I first began to know lolita from older pictures, stuff from old G&L Bibles, so it speaks a little more to the lolita I fell in love with in the beginning. That isn't to say I dislike Angelic Pretty, I like one, two pieces, and to those who adore it, kudos for you! To each his own =)
At October 26, 2010 at 10:10 PM , Anonymous said...: I completely agree with what you said about seeing Baby in person. I always *liked* Baby seeing it online, but every time I get to see it and touch it the gorgeous lace and beautiful fabrics capture my heart.
I feel that it is a more subtle and mature look that can also cross over into classic and gothic looks much of the time.
But AP is more fun.
At October 27, 2010 at 2:48 AM , Mykki said...: I think, if I were a Sweet Lolita, I would prefer Baby's style more. I'm just not a fan of the overly sugary stuff that Angelic Pretty churns out.
At October 27, 2010 at 6:05 AM , Anonymous said...: I think I like Baby's dresses a lot more, but I would be more likely to buy something from AP since so many of Baby's items seem to not be colorfast, and I live in a climate where it rains out of nowhere a LOT. I wish they would colorfast everything. =(
At October 27, 2010 at 2:48 PM , クリス said...: I honestly love both AP and BTSSB. I like being OTT sweet and the maiden sort of sweet. I also wonder if the communities will draw a line between toned down sweet and AP's edgy OTT prints.
At October 27, 2010 at 8:39 PM , Catherine said...: I can't decide which I like more. I ADORE the heavy sugary prints and sweetness of AP, but the elegance and intricacy of BBTSSB really appeals to me. But to be honest, if I was talking about which I would wear, I would honestly prefer AP. ^w^
At October 27, 2010 at 9:34 PM , Audrey said...: I actually like both in very different ways. I like the brightness and happiness of AP, but I also find the softer beauty of BTSSB. I personally wouldn't buy either based on the look. Whichever one has a dress I fall in love with, I'll buy. I think that if you're only going to buy one Lolita dress and want a lot of bang for your buck, AP is better. If you have many sweet lolita dresses and have the money, then BTSSB.
At October 27, 2010 at 10:22 PM , PinkJucie said...: i don't think we need to split up i hope we don't i like both baby and ap some times one more than the other

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Monday, October 25, 2010

Separation of Sweet & Aspartame

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