Kingdom of Knuffel

okay, what's the term for the fashion that is fancy, like lolita, but not fitting the strict definition of lolita dress?

define fancy? ;o

I mean you can call something girly or princess, cute etc as a describing term

lolita fashion is really the name of an alternative fashion style, it really has a set silhouette and rules that define wether an outfit is lolita or not

Somehow I would have assumed that most folk-dancing groups and such just make their clothing themselves. But maybe not? Sounds like an interesting idea to find out more in that direction, in any case...

Haha, yeah, I guessed as much ;) But I would probably never aim to go for a full on lolita outfit, so that's fine with me... I just think that you guys have some cute clothing pieces that I could borrow and merge into my own style ;) So I definitely wouldn't end up calling myself or my clothing lolita.
I'm not really someone who accepts rules in their clothing choices anyway :D I wear whatever I feel comfortable in :)

I'm lucky in the sense that the (full) lolita style lines up perfectly with my own personal style haha, I love every aspect of it so to me they don't feel like stifling rules. Though I def think that you should never feel like you have to conform to a style. If you do then imo that's not your style, if you're not 100% comfortable why do it eh?

Some probably do make their own..... but even there, I bet you could ask about where to find patterns or possibly join them if they make things together in a big group session, or maybe a couple of the members don't make their own and then they'd know where alternatives can be found, and sometimes old members leave a performing group and donate their costumes and there's extra they'll sell off, etc.

I don't know, I'm not good at finding stuff via the internet, but I'm actually pretty good at figuring out who to talk to, person-wise, that would help, and I've found that since not many people go the people-route (internet being very popular), a lot of times I find that the people I talk to are SUPER EXCITED about "actually knowing another person interested in this, I mean in real life, not online or anything!" and they'll really help, I mean really help, and they are HAPPY to help, and I meet some really neat people that way.

So that tends to be where my mind goes first.

That's actually really nice Li li, I can imagine there's people that are just happy when esp younger people show an interest in something they're passionate about c:

Yeah, I can imagine that too :)

I'm just actually not that good at finding and meeting people in real life
But we'll see, I will keep my eyes open for events in my area where I could run into them :)

And I completely agree with you Popo on the "if you feel constrained by conforming to a style, it's not really your style"! It's great that it matches up for you! :)
I just mix and match elements that I like from wherever (and I also vary a lot style-wise between different outfits).

I love having a varied wardrobe too. I have a full lolita closet but aside from that I also have a variety of other styles haha I may have um a lot lot of clothes >w>;

Ah, you only have too many clothes once you have trouble storing them ;)
(Which I might or might not have... Our wardrobe is pretty full... But I'm sharing it, so that's not quite fair! :D)

Do you have any specific other styles beside lolita that you like or is the rest more of a mix and match kind of thing?

I had 3 closets when I lived with my parents, now I have 1 big closet and the 2 racks above my bed for my lolita dresses and I'm going to be putting some more lolita stuff up on shelves like I did my bags. But I've definitely gotten rid of 2 bags of clothing and put a closet's worth into the basement for storage, mostly summer clothes. But I also keep buying more things :'D

Aside from lolita I have one part that is 'work outfits' which is all jeans and comfortable pants + sweaters/hoodies that fit under my work vest.
The other part is a mash of styles, I like a lot of different things yeah I can't really put a label on them and I like it that way c: