♥ Lolita Fashion: A Beginner's Guide - Part Three/FINAL ♥

This is the third and final part of the Lolita Fashion Beginner's Guide. I've created this to have a short, but in depth guide to help new members of my local comm, as well as others new to lolita fashion that may have a use for it. For part one, see here.

In this section of the guide, I will go into detail on how to purchase lolita fashion online, some recommended stores and scam sites / scammers to avoid.

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Buying Lolita Pieces - Scams & Replicas

[ Source: Lolita-Tips | Original Source: EGL ]

There are a lot of lolita scammers out there, so you must be careful. There are many different websites that are notorious for being scam websites, the worst being Milanoo. These websites often sell lolita at “too good to be true” prices and feature stolen pictures from other lolita companies. Quite often they will send out low quality and/or damaged items and sometimes even don’t send out the items at all!

Please keep yourself educated and well informed on these websites. You can learn more about Milanoo, their scams and see a list of scam sites here.

As well, please try to avoid buying lolita from eBay and Aliexpress. While some of the stores are safe, they are also filled with scam stores featuring stolen photos and replica sales. There are exceptions buying from eBay, of course, as sometimes used lolita items are sold there safely.

Many lolita stores online sell copies or “replicas” of items created by lolita brands. These items can included dresses, blouses, shoes, purses and more. These items are usually only made when the real items are no longer made or are in high demand. In most situations these are acceptable, though opinions on replicas vary in the community.


A very important thing to keep aware of are print replicas. Many stores create their own copies of new print dresses and skirts created by lolita companies. This is highly frowned upon as it is direct art theft, copying their designs exactly but in much, much lower quality. These lolita companies that make replicas trick girls new to lolita and often say their replicas are the real thing or simply lie by omission and imply that they are their original designs. The two largest print replica makers, DOL/Dream of Lolita and Oojia are guilty of both.

[ Source ]

It is actually sometimes more expensive to buy these print replicas than it is to buy good quality lolita items new or secondhand. It is highly recommended to not buy replica print items. As well, print replicas are incredibly looked down upon in many lolita communities, both online and locally, due to their blatant art theft and poor quality.

Recommended Reading

What Is A Replica?
Information & Common Misconceptions of Print Replicas

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Buying Lolita Pieces - Measurements & Where To Buy

The first thing you have to do before buying lolita fashion is taking your measurements. While some lolita companies sell pieces in multiple sizes, their S/M/L sizes do not reflect the typical clothing sizes in stores. Lolita items will have their measurements listed, most of the time in centimetres. In order to know if these will fit you, you must take your measurements.

Recommended Reading

How to Measure Yourself for Lolita
Inches to Centimetre Converter
Shoe Size Converter

There are many lolita brands you can directly buy from. Innocent World and Metamorphose are both brands with dedicated websites for international buyers. Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty both have a US based store and an international store you can order from. However, you do need to use Tenso to order from Angelic Pretty’s Japanese webstore.

You don’t only have to buy lolita fashion brand-new. Often you can buy new or lightly used items secondhand often at a cheaper price than buying new. Good places for secondhand are Lace Market, Lolita Sales in English and Closet Child. Yahoo Japan Auctions and Mbok are great for amazing deals, but you need a shopping service like Japonica Market or FromJapan as the website doesn't have any options for overseas shipping.

If you want to buy things new and also keep things affordable, there are indie brands such as Anna House, Infanta, Bunny House, and The Floral Notebook. There are also Bodyline and Fanplusfriend, but you have to be careful ordering from them as not everything they sell is lolita even if it's under the lolita category. Both websites sell “cosplay lolita” as well, so be careful ordering from them. 

This is a good guide on buying from Bodyline as a beginner, showing examples of the differences between proper lolita and “cosplay lolita”.

Etsy and Storenvy are both great for affordable handmade lolita. Miscy, Silversark, Sweet Mildred, English Charm, I Do Declare, Eat Me Ink Me, and In The Starlight all are reputable stores. For Indie lolita with a more brand-like feel, there is Haenuli, Baroque and Ergi. There are also endless stores on Etsy & Storenvy that sell handmade lolita accessories.

Another option for buying lolita is Taobao. Taobao is a Chinese website similar to ebay. There are many different store that sell lolita items. The entire website is in Mandarin so you will need to use translations and dictionaries. Just like the Japanese auction sites, you need to use shopping service to purchase from Taobao. You could also buy from a reseller like MyLolitaDress, GlitzyWonderland, and Loli-Loli Paradise. However, keep in mind resellers do have a markup on their prices and it ranges between them. 

Recommended Reading

Taobao FAQ
Taobao Guide for Beginner Lolitas
List of Indie Lolita Brands on Taobao

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Reccomended Guides and Websites For Those New To Lolita Fashion

[ Source: Bonxy ]

Hopefully now you have a good idea of what lolita fashion is and how to start wearing it! Things may seem very new and intimidating at first, but being new is not nearly as scary as it seems! There are many supportive community and endless resources online so you will be able to learn quickly and connect to other lolitas very quickly with just a little bit of effort.

Here are some helpful links and advice that compliment this guide with extra info and topics I may have not covered in my guide:

• Lolita: A Novices Guide
• Need To Know & Must-Accepts For Lolita Beginners

• Lolita Glossary - Terms Unique to Lolita Fashion

• EGL - Largest Online Lolita Community
• Lolitafashion.org - Resources/Info on Lolita. Slightly outdated.
• Lolita Handbook (livejournal) - Info/Resources on Lolita. Very indepth!
• Lolita Handbook (tumblr) - Personally Answer Questions, Info on Lolita
• Lolita Tips - Questions & Tips on Lolita Fashion

• Lolita Everyday - Videos: Guides, Advice, Humor (Russian w/ English Subtitles)
• Lovelylor - Videos: Advice, Humor

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Thank you so much for reading my guide for new lolitas! I hope it was informational and helpful!
If you have any questions or would like advice, please comment below!

Thank you for reading!