My Secret Garden

February contained a total of 72 individual posts. It's still about a year away from when I first discovered the fashion and then later on stumbled upon EGL in my hunt to learn more, and in 2004, I consider the amount of traffic it received to be quite slow compared to what it would become in later years, even with outside communities such as d_l and the like. February 3, 2003 Well I sure as shit was shocked to see this entry from lillyxandra . At first glance I was about to skip past what seemed like yet another dead-linked post, but then I noticed the name in the link! They aren't a lolita brand at all anymore(if they ever really were), but they do have a ton of beautiful ethereal designs that you might like checking out anyways, just because everything on their Facebook is so beautiful, luxurious and highly detailed. I only wish we were able to see what their earliest designs looked like. If you're interested in checking out the modern Firefly Path, go visit th

So long before we had Closet of Frills, facebook communities in general, Tumblr, Instagram, and even #eglcommunity, everyone posted everything from thoughts and musings, photoshoots, meetup photos and even haul and sales posts onto EGL. As the years progressed, and more traffic began to flow through EGL, smaller sub communities begun to pop up. There were communities dedicated to specific brand appreciation, local communities, sales, and finally, daily coord posts. Daily_lolita was created on August 1st, 2007 by user swdpunk, and here is her first contribution to the newly created community which would go on to be almost as big as EGL itself! The breakdown! flower: claires? I don't remember. top: DISNEY COUTURE LOL from hot topic *thumbs up* skirt: emily temple cute shoes: target Later on that day swdpunk posted again:   What I'm wearing today: Skirt- handmade by me bow, cutsew, wrist cuffs, parasol, shoes- baby bag- vintage And we are lucky enough to hav

Another week, another year to look at. Last week we finished up the year 2002, so now we start with January 2003. There is definitely a noticeable amount of activity this month compared to previous months. There are 16 out of 31 days in which posts were made throughout the month, a total of 34 posts for the whole month! In January, you see a lot of shoe recommendations for Demonia. Funny enough that we still have people regularly buying and suggesting Demonia for gothic and (now) old school coords! I still have several pairs of shoes from Demonia myself that I wear  regularly! Another thing we see quite a bit of is recommendations to just sew lace and ruffles onto the hems and collars of skirts and blouses...so glad we have better options and have grown out of that stage. I mean, it can be possible to do, but it's a pretty rare situation to find something that's good to go and qualifies as lolita with only a bit of lace. And even then, it takes a trained eye to even be able

November 9, 2002 This month we start with a thread discussing how often people wear lolita. It seems like same as now, the majority keeps it as a special occasion/hobby thing. Not going to lie, at this time, the lingo was ToTalLy LOLz but now in 2019 reading as a full grown adult it's actually really grating on my eyes and nerves. With how easily accessible brand, or lolita in general has become, how often do you wear lolita? I've been more or less a daily lolita since 2011. And by now, being well dressed on a budget is incredibly simple. November 12, 2002 cybergothica posts "I want to go to Yoyogi Koen park." Yeah. Me too, babe. November 20, 2002 Today we have a post from nymphie , who shares an exert from an email she receives via J-List containing commentary written by gaijin living in Japan. "The social phenomenon known as "kogals" -- Japanese girls who wear outrageous fashions, with blonde-dyed hair and silly elevator sh

Now you may find yourself asking, "Hey! What happened to July?!" Well, unfortunately it was a slow month, and a total bust. But now we're back with a fairly active month of August! August 4, 2002 Well, today was an interesting find. On this day in EGL history, user dyfferent posted a single link on a post. A post with zero comments or insight of lolita at the time, or anything. This Article , even through all the changes the EGL community has had, I think was as incredibly misrepresented of the fashion then as it is now. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! From likening the visual aspects to a french maid to insinuating that lolitas don their frills and frocks to appease the males who fetishize child-like sexuality...90% of the article is a huge fucking nope! BUT, before you start screaming into the void of despair, never fret, because a few years later in 2008 the author of this fucking travesty of literary work came to their senses (or, most likely had been repetitively assault

February 4, 2002 I want to start the month off with this post. Despite not having any working links or images to document, it calls to me. As someone who wore lolita back before brands went out of their way to cater to non-asian bodies, I really hope this person has been able to stick with the fashion to see the boom of lolita fashion. In just a few years, even Baby the Stars Shine Bright will release an L size! While that size didn't last for long, Taobao and many other non-Japanese indie brands would come soon after to swoop in and take advantage of the demand for either custom sizes, and soon to be several multiple sizes! Later the same day there was another post dated 2002, but the comments were dated as 2007, but just in case, I will mention it anyways. The post asked for nail inspo, and a commenter linked to a photo of a set of nails she had created herself. Honestly, in my opinion, they are super cute regardless if the year is 2002, 2007, or 2019. February 12, 2