Tea Rose Garden

Organized by Aleria and edited by verity, with contributions from Anh, Hayley, Jo/Ton, Lee, lepidopteran, and Lyrs.

What are Substyles and Why Should You Care?

Substyles are a way of categorizing and breaking down lolita aesthetics into different genres. All substyles feature a wide range of aesthetics within them, but they each have unifying factors. In Japan, lolitas focus less on differentiating between the substyles beyond “Gothic” and “Lolita”, but the international community contextualized lolita coordinates and pieces within these substyles

Lolita substyles should be taken as a useful guide to help you refine your personal style and what types of items you should focus on buying when starting out, or to see what will look best together. Nothing here is a rule or a law, just one interpretation of how to look at lolita. All substyles and themes keep the common lolita silhouette as the unifying feature. Substyles are mainly defined by the major Japanese brands. This doesn’t mean you have to wear Brand, but these brands are the trendsetters in the lolita world that are emulated by indie brands, similar to how mainstream fashion is inspired by couture. 

For each brand highlighted below, we will feature example coords directly from those brands, images from publications, and coords submitted by members of the international lolita community featuring main pieces from that brand. Our goal is to demonstrate the wide range of coords possible within each specific style in a range of shapes and sizes. Each image can be clicked on to view in full.

Sweet

The keyword for sweet is “cute”, and the details on a dress or print will tend towards that cuteness with layers of lace, ruffles, and motifs like animals, sweets, toys, and a lot of details. The colour palette is primarily pastel, white, and black, but brighter and more muted colours feature as well. Modern sweet uses border prints more than other substyles.

Angelic Pretty (AP)
Launched in 2001 by the select shop Pretty, which was founded by Hiroko Honda in 1979.  
AP’s style of sweet is kitschy and pop inspired, trending towards a hypersweet style with some more mature and retro-inspired sweet designs as well.

Baby the Stars Shine Bright (BTSSB)
Founded in 1988 by Akinori and Fumiyo Isobe.
Baby is always nostalgic in their design and themes with a storybook sweet print style.

Metamorphose Temps de Fille (Meta/Metamo)
Began as designer Kuniko Kato’s personal label in 1993 and launched as a brand in 1997.
The most eclectic of the sweet brands features a wide range of styles, including a particularly whimsical selection of print subjects.

Old School Sweet
Sweet lolita releases from 1999-2006. Solid, tartan, gingham, and floral fabrics were popular. All-over prints were often commercial rather than custom fabrics; screen printing was more common for custom designs. Skirts and petticoats were generally smaller.

Traditional Lolita
Nostalgic interpretation of old school sweet looks. More limited in scope than old school because the inspiration is taken from a narrower subset of looks from that era, but more accessible since it uses new pieces that can be easier to acquire and more size flexible. BTSSB releases traditional lolita main pieces frequently.

Classic

The most historically-inspired style, classic lolita always tends towards “elegance”. Classic uses more solids and subtle all-over prints, as well as a muted colour palette. Popular motifs include florals, cameos, crowns, and sometimes animals, but solids with self-fabric details like pintucks are most common. A-line and longer-length skirts are more common here than other styles.

Innocent World (IW)
Founded in 1999 by designer Yumi Fujihara.
IW designs have the most youthful feel of the main classic brands, utilizing more light colors and initially using silhouettes more in line with sweet brands at the time (fuller skirts, shorter length pieces). In the last few years, IW has shifted toward longer-length pieces. Common IW print motifs are childhood nostalgia and a wide range of European themes, from British royalty to folk dress.

Victorian Maiden (VM)
Founded in 1999.
Victorian Maiden began as a gothic brand and shifted to historically-inspired classic within a few years of opening.

Mary Magdalene (MM)
Founded in 2003 by designer Tanaka Rikiko, formerly a designer at Victorian Maiden.
Mary Magadelene is best known for their distinctive A-line, underbust cut dresses in solid colors.

Juliette et Justine (JetJ)
Founded in 2001 by Mari Nakamura.
Characterized by an extravagant, royal vibe; contemporary pieces often feature historical paintings.

Metamorphose
Meta’s classic tends to have some sweet elements, but features classic motifs and a more mature silhouette.

Gothic

Celebrating the dark and mysterious, gothic also takes historical inspiration in a more fantastical way. Gothic lolita primarily uses darker and rich colours; typical motifs include skulls, crosses, architecture and roses. If it makes you look like a vampire, it is probably gothic.

Moi-Meme-Moitie (MMM)
Founded in 1999 by the musician Mana of Malice Mizer and Moi dix Mois; Alice Kobayashi was MMM’s original designer.
Known for clean lines, structure, and architectural prints, MMM also originated the term Elegant Gothic Lolita (EGL).

Atelier Boz (Boz), now Alpstola
Founded in 1995 by Takashi Shibata; Boz designer Rachel Yamamato runs Alpstola.
Tailored silhouettes in solid colors. Boz is especially known for their outerwear.

Sheglit
Sheglit was founded in 2014. Satomi Imai is Sheglit’s current designer.
More mature gothic style featuring historical influences—especially late Victorian and Edwardian, in muted and jewel tones—as well as edgier designs.

Atelier Pierrot (Atepie)
Founded as Pierrot in 1969; transitioned from casual to mode and gothic fashion with the launch of the first Atelier Pierrot store in 1993.
Romantic gothic with lots of ruffles, lace, and corsets. Atelier Pierrot usually uses luxurious fabrics instead of prints.

Alice and the Pirates (AATP)
Launched in 2004 as a sub-label of Baby the Stars Shine Bright.
Their gothic offerings are dramatic and often lean towards vampiric or circus-themed. 

Metamorphose
Yes, Metamorphose really can do it all. Since the late 90s, they have released both gothic solids and prints.

Marble
Founded in 1997.
A hold out of old school gothic, Marble’s pieces are unlike other modern brands with layers of lace and unusual hemlines.

What about all the other styles?

You might be wondering, what about punk lolita, ero lolita or sailor lolita? We consider those ‘themes’, which are separate from the big three substyles. Read more about themes in our Lolita Theme Guide.