I thought I'd provide an update to Chinese brands aka Taobao brands since my last post 5 years ago. First a general update since the heyday of the 2010s, lolita (and alternative street fashion in general) has somewhat declined in popularity in Japan. Several brands have gone out of business and closed permanently, or consolidated to cooperative/collective retailers such as Atelier Pierrot. You no longer see as many teenagers or students wearing outlandish styles out in the streets, which could be due to the original fashion pioneers from the 90s growing up and having full time jobs or just trends cycling out, like skinny jeans in the West. We could be due for a revival this decade, who knows, let's hope so!
So what does this mean for lolita, an higher-cost and labor intensive fashion style that is surely not easy to fund year to year? It seems like the major brands such as Baby the Stars Shine Bright and Angelic Pretty have been supported partially by overseas customers, such as the West (America and Europe) and now also China. China is a prime market because of their significant number of consumers with the money to buy imported goods. However, China is also a manufacturing center of its own that has experience producing for the Japanese brands, and thus many Chinese entrepreneurs have successfully ventured into the lolita market tailored for their own lolitas. The first attempts may have been the object of much scrutiny to us who have been following the major brands for years, but as the market grew, so did the quality.
Now as a word of caution, there could still be Taobao shops out there that sell dresses that don't look exactly like on their site photos or are straight up crappy replicas that don't fit any human body. So you can potentially get a cheap poorly made product not worth the shipping and custom fees and taxes. But many more Chinese brands have been able to secure the means to produce items that are comparable in quality to the original Japanese brands for the rapidly growing number of Chinese lolitas, and those brands are worth the effort to obtain a custom-sized coord that not many other lolitas will be wearing.
Onto the original and reseller sites! Ones in English!
- 1. Fanplus Friend / Neo-Ludwig (https://www.fanplusfriend.com/)
- The OG Chinese brand that all lolitas know, with their own website and an Etsy shop since 2014 for easy buying. I don't consider them "Taobao" as they have always been a successful company on their own site. They stock petticoats, cage skirts, custom sized blouses for women and men, steampunk items as well as their own original dresses. They also produce costumes, kids clothing and non-lolita related historical clothing, like silk pajamas. I have a blouse and 2 hats from them, but my favorite item is this steampunk underbust corset. Read the Etsy reviews for customer comments on quality, service and sizing.
- 2. Clobba Online (https://www.clobbaonline.com/)
- This is a reseller of many different Chinese brands, one of the first English sites I remember using. I used them to buy my off-brand lolita shoes (such as Antaina and Sosic Shop) and now they stock a lot of other items, too, including dress reservations. I haven't used them in years, so I don't know what the quality/service is like now, but probably on par with other resellers.
- 3. Lolita Wardrobe (https://www.lolitawardrobe.com/)
- A more recent reseller based in China, hosting a large number of brands and an easy to use site in English. They have a slight emphasis on ouji compared to other sites, but otherwise the same as other resellers, using the actual Taobao brand's photos and measurements, etc for their listings. I've never had a problem with the service or items not matching and I've used them 4 times already for wonderfully unique dresses and accessories, to be reviewed in part 2 of this series. It's a lot lol...
- 4. Devil Inspired (https://www.devilinspired.com/)
- Another new reseller based in China. They do carry similar lolita brands as Lolita Wardrobe, but they also stock kawaii and vintage non-lolita outfits and wigs and makeup. I think the main difference is the number/types of releases from each brand differs, so one brand preorder found on one site may not be found on the other, so it's a good idea to check both if you are searching for something specific. I just got my first preorder in and will review it later. Note that they only send 1 package at a time, so you have to buy separately if you can't wait for the preorder to arrive 3 months in the future and want the items already in stock and ready to ship sooner.
- 5. Souffle Song (http://www.soufflesong.com)
- This is an older Chinese brand with their own site in English, probably the second purchase I've made from China. This may be the company that left an empty cookie wrapper in the packing box lol. Souffle Song has intricate, richly colored prints, custom sizing, reasonable prices, and can be found on many reseller sites, too. I bought the Arabian Nights special discount jumperskirt in purple, so not as fancy as the version below, very plain with no lace or ruffles, you may remember from this post here.
- Random retail sites
- You can find resellers of lolita or lolita-adjacent brands on yesstyle.com and also aliexpress.com. But the quality/service/shipping is even less guaranteed than the lolita-specific resellers and you never know if the profit is really going to the actual manufacturer/designer or not. I bought a Sosic Shop pair of shoes at Aliexpress for 33.35 but I could have gotten them from clobbaonline for 29.95. Now the Aliexpress listing has disappeared (very common lol). So a lot more sketchy in my opinion, buyer beware. Personally knowing what I know now, I would advise to only buy something small if you're already buying another non-lolita item like household goods or skin care and don't care much about the quality or when it gets to you.
- Lolita Collective (https://store.lolitacollective.com/)
- Lolita Collective focuses on Western indie brands with a few Korean and Chinese and smaller Japanese brands, but they now do drop-ships for more Chinese brands and include otome/gyaru fashion. The store owners provide friendly and prompt service, but for items they do not ship directly from their warehouse which you will see on the listing details, you can be waiting for weeks/months, so be aware of the timeline.
- Long Ears and Sharp Ears (https://lnsears.storenvy.com/)
- I recently ordered a lucky pack with them, but this is a brand featured on other reseller sites that has their own little storenvy shop for their preorders and current stock listed. All for the convenience to us English-speakers! I love their wispy and elegant and detailed designs, very imaginative and Rococco style, will review my pack when I get it.
- Superbuy and other shopping services
- There are several shopping services out there that can purchase directly from Taobao shops that have no English sites for you. This is the case for items that cannot be found on the reseller sites, such as preorders or rare stuff. I used Superbuy to buy some shoes and everything was fine, but the cost of Airmail shipping combined with my cosplay and merch purchases was easily as expensive as the worth of the order... I honestly don't know if I want to deal with shipping from Asia unless it's the sea mail method just because EMS is so delayed and DHL can get much more expensive. As a final note, you can't easily browse Taobao shops unless you have an account. I don't have an account so I'm just searching other people's links, not an efficient method...
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