♥ Wearing Lolita in Cold Winter Climates ♥

I live in a fairly unusual place in regards to temperature and climate. In the area I live we have a very dry, landlocked climate that is prone to reaching both ends of extreme temperature conditions. Living here requires people to prepare for both incredible warmth and freezing cold, so by living here I've learned a lot about making lolita fashion work for both temperatures.

I've spoke before on wearing lolita in the summer months, but I haven't yet shared any tips on dressing for the other extreme. Today I'm going to share some of my favourite fixes for wearing lolita in winter!

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Coats & Capes

The first and most obvious answer to making your lolita coords suitable for winter is the lolita-style winter coat. Many different brands and indie brands alike release their own winter coats and capes yearly. Styles of these coats vary from basic and versatile designs to the more specific substyle oriented designs.

Most lolita brand coats are suitable for temperatures up to −5 °C (23 °F) but some are useful up to −10 °C (14 °F) on their own. These coats are great for keeping out wind, but may not be very good at keeping in warmth. Ultimately, it really does depend on the coat itself and the materials used in making it. Many of these lolita coats can still handle a cold winter, but will require some layering to do so.

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Long Sleeves & Layering

In my personal opinion, wearing longer sleeves and layering is the key part of keeping warm in the winter. By covering the arms up and layering, any coordinate can be made suitable for winter!

At the bare minimum, it's good to have a long sleeved shirt and opaque tights to wear underneath everything. By wearing tight shirts underneath your blouse and tights underneath your OTKs or ankle socks, it adds an extra layer to trap in heat without drastically changing your coord! Of course, if layering tights underneath your socks isn't your thing, you can substitute tights for your socks instead. Thermal shirts, fleece-lined tights and knit tights are the most useful for keeping heat in on the winter months, but even regular tights and undershirts work well on mild days. 

By layering underneath your blouses and socks, you won't have to worry about looking frumpy or wearing mismatching cardigans to stay warm. It also allows for a bit of extra modesty, which is never a bad thing in lolita, haha. On top of layering with your inner layers, you can also add underskirts, cardigans, scarves, gloves, earmuffs, fur collars and other additional pieces to your coord to make it a little bit warmer!

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Thick & Warm Materials

Believe it or not, there are a lot of dresses and skirts that are made just for winter! One of my favourite pieces to wear, Angelic Pretty's Holy Night Story OP was released in the winter and it made from a very thick cotton material. It's so heavy and warm it's almost impossible for me to wear it when it's not a chilly day!

It's good to keep an eye out for new releases in the winter, but if it isn't in your price range, then it's still possible to look on secondhand sales. While these thicker dresses are often much heavier, and shipping often reflects it, it's definitely worth the extra cost to stay warm on those bitterly cold days.

Good materials to keep an eye out for are corduroy fabrics, velvet and velveteen. wool and knits, suede, sheepskin/pearskin and furs. These materials all keep in heat and allow you to stay warmer longer. While it isn't 

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Suitable Shoes & Boots

The winter means it's time to put away the tea parties, and say hello to boots and insulated shoes! While tea parties are very cute, the open top of the shoes can allow the cold and wet to hit your feet much easier. You can still wear tea parties in winter, but by wearing boots and insulated shoes, you'll be able to keep your feet warmer. For me, the feet are the first things to get cold and most greatly affect me on a cold day, so it's good to protect them.

While insulated boots may not be the most cute shoes in the world, they are the best at keeping your feet warm and it is surprisingly easy to find some that work with lolita! If you wear a lot of sweet lolita, you can easily find childrens' shoes in cute styles (You just have to convert your shoes size!) and Tecnica even has moon boots for adults in cute styles! For the more classic and subdoed styles, it's actually very easy to find suitable insulated pleather boots at most local shoes stores.

Surprisingly, lolita boots are not as great for winter as one would think! They're fantastic for keeping out water and snow, but aren't very good at keeping heat in, so make sure you have some wool socks or thicker tights to wear underneath them. For an alternative to cute lolita boots, there are many online shops like Dream V and various Taobao stores that sell cute boots. While they may not be specifically branded as lolita items, they are still cute and could easily work with a lolita coord!

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While you might be able to use these tips above to stay warmer and be able to wear lolita easier in these cold months, it's still good to keep in mind that in the most extreme conditions it might not be suitable to wear lolita.

Quite often my province has terrible blizzards, extreme wind and heavy snows. While I love wearing lolita, it would not be as useful in that situation as a very heavy parka and thick winter boots would be. With either extreme in temperature, hot or cold, it is good to take the time to judge if it is a suitable situation to wear lolita or not. 

I hope these tips will be helpful and I do hope that you will enjoy wearing lolita in the winter! Winter weather may be dreadful at times, but it's also a wonderful season that is just perfect for wearing lolita. Please keep yourself warm, healthy and hydrated this winter! 

Thank you for reading!