Turn it up to 11!

Everyone knows of the recent trend in lolita to pile on bows and ruffles and lace and fimo clay sweets and whatever else you can grab and stick onto your outfit. Lolitas, some who used to complain that shoving on a ton of hairclips and bracelets "Isn't decora-loli!", now are wearing over the top prints paired with enough frills to choke a horse with jewelry to match. Bows on top of bows, childish prints that envelop the whole garment, headwear with additional ears? Where will it end?

Even Victorian Maiden, known as a classic brand, has fallen to the insanity.

The main brand to blame for this horrible trend seems to be Angelic Pretty. And it's true, AP was the first brand to start piling crap ontop of their dresses, but the real question is why?

Is this really necessary AP?

The thing is, there's just one simple answer to that question. Because we, as Lolitas, started it! That's right! It's at least some of our faults that this crazy trend began! Sure, you may argue that brands conspire on what will be the next big trend in lolita. They decide for us, if you will, what will be the next big thing. Like this season's deer print trend, or the recent pinkxmint explosion. But the thing is, those are safe innovations. A sudden increase in cute fawns prancing around our skirt hems is just the same as Vogue determining that teal is the Next Big Color. But Vogue isn't going to randomly pull out that a stuffed cake to put on top of your head is the must have item of the season, and neither will lolita brands, unless we give them a reason to think that.

Lolita brands watched the increasing trend of decora and fairy lolita, watched all these girls in their sweet print dresses pile on jewelry and barrettes and bows, and thought "We could make money off of this." They release things on a small scale. A cake hat, a headband with maybe a couple extra bows than normal on it, a slightly rufflier bonnet. And then these items get bought and that gives brands the big green light, and shit goes nuts.

Hear that, lady? Its all your fault!

So, love it or hate it, crazy OTT lolita is here until we all get sick of it. Brands will keep pumping out more clothes and accessories with more bows, ruffles, and who knows what than you can beat off with a stick. Until people stop paying for the stuff, its all here to stay. Sure, the gothic and classic lolitas can all cry and complain that its "ruining lolita" and that there should be some sort of loli revolution where the OTT sweet lolitas break off from the fashion so they can't be associated as the same anymore. But really, we all get the same confused looks when we go out onto the street in our petticoats and ruffles, no matter how toned down or turned up they are. In the end, it's no one's fault but our own that we keep getting asked, "Are you in a play?"