OLD SCHOOL COORDINATION

LETTING GO OF "THE RULES"

For most western lolitas in 2024, the rules of lolita loom large, even as a joke—we know that showing your knees is legal, but we also know this was once a topic of debate. Whether or not they're rules or guidelines, certain criteria draw a dividing line between Lolita and Not Lolita. You've probably seen one of these "anatomy of lolita" illustrations floating around online: 

During the oldschool era, visual guides to lolita fashion also appeared. Here's one from Fruits v. 37 (2000), that suggests a headdress, frilly blouse, bangs, natural makeup, crown jewelry, low-heeled shoes, and, of course, Brand:

There's a difference between these two illustrations—one describes the agreed-upon elements of lolita fashion for viewers interested in lolita, while the other is drawn from observation of actual lolitas and aimed at a much broader group of readers.

Does the lolita in Fruits v. 37 look like a lolita to you?

CULTIVATING OLD SCHOOL STYLE

Learning to coord old school requires us to set aside the first diagram above and the mindset that we can reproduce a perfect coord from a guide alone and turn our own eyes on primary sources, like street snaps in the Gothic & Lolita Bible, KERA, FRUiTS, and CUTiE, as well as other magazines like Zipper and Machi Colle that aren't as well documented online. While there are excellent curated collections of street snaps out there, in my opinion it's helpful to see outfits in context, alongside other Japanese street fashion that may or may not share components, like similar shoes or accessories. The deeper you get into learning about the old school era, the further you get from a diagram that can tell you exactly what to wear to cook up a perfect old school coord every time.

Old school era (and proto) lolitas wore a loosely defined fashion with various degrees of adherence to a lolita "style," coordinating a variety of brand, off-brand, and handmade items according to their personal taste. While you can certainly copy street snap looks (and many do this to great effect!), that won't teach you how to put together coordinates of your own design—which you'll need to do if you want to incorporate modern items effectively and avoid drifting away from wearing vintage fashion into historical costuming.

Ghostlieangel says, "I think it's better to look through street snaps for themes rather than a specific item. For example, 'oh, loads of people are wearing flat shoes with 1cm heel and a buckle on.'" Expanding on that suggestion, you should look for themes that you are drawn to. You can't build a versatile old school wardrobe—or incorporate items you already own—just by buying coveted prints, good deals, or (if you, like me, don't fit into many old school era pieces) the first main piece you find that fits you. Old school era lolitas brought their individual sense of style to their coordinates. To master old school coordination, you must bring your own swag.

BUILDING AND CURATING YOUR WARDROBE

For those of us wearing what is now a vintage fashion, it is hard to replicate a once easily-accessible look with any degree of spontaneity without a well-curated wardrobe. While it's true that old school era coords used brand items that, while rare, are accessible via the secondhand market, old school era lolitas incorporated a variety of brand and offbrand itmes. (Angel Bruises goes into detail about some specific trends for items in her post How to Dress in Old School Lolita Pt. 1, which I highly recommend reading.)

Deciding on a consistent color palette for your wardrobe is a great place to start, whether you're just beginning your lolita journey or digging through a full closet. The main colors in my wardrobe are black, white, off-white, and red; the blouses, bags, socks, shoes, and majority of hair accessories I own are in those colors. While black and white/off-white are staples that work with any old school coordinate, red complements them well as a mid-range value (we'll get into values in the next section).

You should also figure out what cuts feel most comfortable and flattering to you. As you may have noticed from the name of this blog, I'm a full shirring fan. Some prefer no shirring at all! Everyone has unique fit issues—for example, people with broader shoulders will do better with JSKs than OPs—and preferences. The easier it is for you to wear an item in your wardrobe, the more likely it is that you'll want to pull it out of your closet. Having main pieces that you're not reserving for special occasions and which don't require a separate set of coordinating accessories is key to being able to mix, match (or don't!), and recapture some of that old school playfulness.

Having a capsule old school wardrobe is entirely feasible, and it is, in fact, very old school to make do with one pair of shoes or one bag across all your coordinates! A single pair of Mary Janes can work quite well.

ELEMENTS OF COORDINATION

When I build or analyze a lolita coordinate, I consider four visual elements, color, value, texture, and symmetry. You'll play with all of these in building your old school lolita coordinates.

CONTRAST VS BALANCE

If you're coming from contemporary lolita coording, you might be more used to emphasizing "balance" in your coordinates - for example, color placement throughout a coordinate, or pairing short socks with shorter sleeves for more even visual weight. For old school lolita, I find it more helpful to think about contrast and how to bring it into my coord to make elements visually pop. There are, of course, plenty of relatively balanced old school coordinates out there—some of them the inspiration from which traditional lolita has taken form. Introducing strong contrasts can make a coord feel more lively and casual, while more balance can make a coord feel more polished. 

VALUE

"Value" is used to describe the range of tones from light to dark. Since coordinating old school involves so much more black and white than color coordination, I find that value is a stronger visual tool than color alone for most coordination.

Some coordinates have very disparate values (high contrast):

Some coordinates have a smaller range of values, but still incorporate either black or white (medium contrast):

Some coordinates have relatively similar values throughout (low contrast):

    

Shiro and kuro are all the same value (no contrast alone, high contrast when twinning):

When I'm building a coord, I like to keep value in mind. Sometimes I do like to go for a more balanced look, with alternating black and white around a main piece of any color; sticking entirely to solid black and solid white treats the main piece as a focal point. It's important to remember that even if you want to go for high contrast black and white elements, you don't have to distribute them evenly throughout a coord:

Footwear or accessories in sharply contrasting value can make a coord feel more casual:

I generally treat striped socks as a mid-range value when coording unless both stripes are close to one end of the value spectrum (for example, pale pink x white stripes).

COLOR

Old school coordinates always include black and/or white somewhere in their color palette, but a wide range of colors were used for main pieces and accessories in old school - a wider range than you'll find from most brands today. Most notably, old school sax is often deeper and less pastel than contemporary sax, so it can be hard to find a good match. (For those purchasing new, Rococo Heroin is the only shop I've found with blue fabrics that match older AP sax.)

    

 

Don't be afraid to embrace vibrant colors in your coord! Likewise, don't be afraid to use color combinations that don't feel like a perfect match. This is a great opportunity to be playful.

TEXTURE

It can be fun to mix and match different types of fabric and prints within a single coord—even clashing ones! Multiple textures are most often seen with bags (Vivianne Westwood leopard bags, brand purses and shopping bags, offbrand bags), and/or with multiple tartans within a coord.

    

 

SYMMETRY

Many of the coordinates I've highlighted above have strong asymmetrical elements—in distribution of color, value, and/or in visual weight (no hair accessory, blouseless)—but asymmetry is not required for an old school lolita coordinate. Symmetrical and balanced coordinates did exist:

There's nothing wrong with styling your pieces like this! However, exploring less symmetrical styling can be fun. Especially if you're working with modern pieces, incorporating asymmetrical elements can make your coordinate look more old school by contrast with modern coordination approaches. In addition to the examples with value, color, and texture shown above, here are two coordinates with asymmetrical visual weight (no blouse and small hair accessory paired with tights, long sleeves and socks with no hair accessory):

MY GRAND UNIFIED THEORY OF OLD SCHOOL COORDINATION

Be creative! Have a good time! It's okay to be a little messy and to reuse many of the same pieces in your old school coordinates. What appeals to me the most as a daily wearer of old school is the ability to experiment without worrying about perfection.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Ghostlieangel and Velvet for their early feedback and to Anh for always challenging me to improve my coordinates, as well as to Angel Bruises for her many old school resources (including this flickr album, from which I pulled many example coordinates).