Reinventing: Part 2; Picking a 'new' You

Hello again darlings!

If you haven't already I suggest checking out our last part of the lesson, Reinventing: Part 1.

Now, in this one we get to talk about one of my favorite things; creating an alias! It's just so darn fun pretending to be someone else! We're not going to be looking at making a totally new self for lolita, then we'd just be playing dress-up instead of expressing ourselves. We are going to be using some of the same basic ideas though.


First things first!

Fine Tuning Your Plan!

To begin you need a plan fitted for you, designed just to your specifications and needs, like a custom dress. Of course, to make this dress you need a mental image. Here are some things to get you thinking about this dress. Ahem, plan.

1. First, find someone you idolize. Not because of perfect hair or weight. Look more for an attitude. do they carry themselves with grace? Perhaps they never seem flustered, even in the face of a challenge. Collect some pictures of them.
   (My personal favorites are Audrey Hepburn, Lily Cole and Victoria of Lolita Charm )
   
2. Now you can get a little physical. find someone (or many people) with a style you like. This could be sweet lolita, guro, hime-lolita or even non lolita fashions. As long as it appeals to you, add them to your list. In fact, they don't even have to be people you know or can name, just search google images and collect pictures!
   
3. Make a Tumbler! All those pictures? You're gonna put them here. This will be your personal fashion blog, something to focus on and let you get a visual for fine tuning your personal style and attitude.
   

Now we're going to ask ourselves some questions to help us decide on what we're looking for. Let's start with attitude!I suggest writing all these things down in a little notebook.

• What do you put high value on in personality? Charm? Sweetness? Versatility? Confidence? (You don't have to chose just one, I couldn't!)
• If someone asked  you to think of an incarnation of those traits, who would you say?
  Personally I'd choose elegance and confidence. I think I'd choose Princess Di for elegance and Audry Hepburn for Confidence.
• Think of how that person/those people would act or carry themselves. This will be something for you to channel whenever you need a little boost.

Now we move to style!

•  Think of all the elements of your personality and the personality you want to show.
• Picture your body shape and the elements you want to put focus on. Got long legs? Show them off! (To a point of course. Remember this is lolita.) Got a tiny waist? Get shirts with cinching around the waist, or are well fitted. 
• Think of your favorite colours, ones that make you happy or that you enjoy wearing. Now filter those by what flatters you. You don't need to completely throw a colour out just because (like me) you have red hair and red skin-tones. Fashion says red looks bad on me, and it does, but find the right shade and it's okay. Reds with blue undertones look alright, especially if I can find a darker shade. So don't worry if something tells you that you absolutely cannot wear green even though you love it. Just experiment with different shades and undertones until you find something that works.
• Focus on patterns and themes you enjoy.
• Above all, remember clothes are there to make you look good, but feeling good is just as important.

Combine these things, mix them all up and use it to form this new person in your head. They are you, but they aren't afraid to be themselves and they don't let the world decide how they act or how they look.
It's important to remember this isn't someone different, this isn't even really a 'new' you. It's a you inside of you. The you that isn't afraid, isn't worried about what people think. Give them a new hair colour if you want, with wigs you can have jet black hair one day and bleach blond the next.

You could give this new you a name if you'd like, I do. I had a brief run of modeling and created one of these mes and named her Dahlia. I modeled under this name and every time I stepped in front of the camera I slipped into this me, like pulling on a dress. The scared, confident me who hated pictures taken melted away. I was confident and strong, sure of myself.

Build this person, slowly and carefully. This will be like a special, personalized dress just for you, put a lot of care into it, focus on details. Focus on personality before looks, it takes time for you to be confident with yourself, even if you do have this you to picture and put on.

So go out there and get that confidence going!