Hello everybody! I'd like to discuss my take on prints that tend to be everywhere in Lolita nowadays. Please try not to be offended as this is my personal take on prints. If you love prints, that's fine! We all have different tastes in clothing and how we perceive things. So let's begin!
The main thing that puts me off of prints is that many of them are overdone. They have large pictures of cakes, teddies, and rainbows covering a significant portion of the dress. A good example would be this Conversation Balloons dress. The items in the pattern are large, covering a large portion of the bottom of the skirt. Smaller pieces from the border are scattered along the stripes on the rest of the dress. I personally feel that the larger prints like this stand out too much and add a bit too much of a childish element to the dress, especially when the print is of toys. Many times I feel that the dress is overwhelmed by the large images in the border, especially if they are very different colors from the dress like in the Balloon dress. These prints can look cute in certain colors, but I personally feel that they wouldn't look as good being worn outside of the catalogs. When I was first getting in to Lolita, I used a site that allowed you to design a dress and order it to play around and make "dream" dresses. Many times I chose prints that had a print that blended fairly well with the main color, like this Soft Cream dress. However these dresses were never anything I'd actually buy, just something I thought would look cute at the time I made them. Looking back on the dresses I designed, I still think they're cute, but have no interest in actually buying and wearing them at this point in time. I still appreciate these prints, but find them to be rather loud and cluttered.
However, not all prints are bad in my sights. There's plenty of prints I could see myself wearing that are simple, or small prints. Some examples would be gingham or a print with a small pattern of flowers or fruit on it. I actually own a skirt with a small pattern of flowers on it that I made and enjoy wearing. When I do wear it though, I tend to keep all of the other pieces of my outfit solid colors so that the skirt stands out and the outfit doesn't look cluttered. I've contemplated making a matching blouse with the remaining curtain, but I couldn't see myself wearing it with the matching skirt or even a plain one. Another take on prints I like is a simple line art printed in a contrasting color on a otherwise fairly plain dress. An example is this Moi Meme Moitie JSK which has an elegant print on a simple black JSK. I love Moi Meme Moitie's method of doing prints as they are simple and elegant. One of my original loves when I was new to Lolita was a dress similar to the JSK above with a white print on a black jumper. Even now I still love still love the simplicity and elegance of Mana's designs.
So you may be wondering, what do I wear instead of prints? My answer to that is: solid colors with lace accents. There are many cute dresses out there that use white lace to contrast against a solid colored dress. I have several dresses like this and plan to make another for myself before too long with one of my thrift store finds.
What's your take on prints? Like, love, hate? Let me know in the comments below! Try not to flame or troll please!
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