Digital Time Capsule

Last updated: 12/02/99

I have graciously written a semi tutorial on how to navigate the old web while also sharing the fruits of my labours (many nights obsessively spent foraging for oldschool lolita media.) Please let this inspire you to continue on our beautiful tradition of personal websites.

 You are free to do your own exploring, I will be including links to all the lolita sites underneath. I may do another post with the hoard of indie brand sites I have archived if you like this one?

Blue and black wings

Link

Japanese language only so open in a browser with a good translator if you do not speak the language. She has a few photos of coord pics scattered about. Lots are the Jane Marple-esque brand of casual lolita but my favourite is the few wearing MMMs long nun op paired with a mini hat! The site design is just gorgeous, it is very likely I have stolen graphics or backgrounds from it before <evil>

You should be able to navigate this page just fine although it can be a little slow. Like all of these pages it is no longer active but is still available on the web hence no wayback machine advice. 

Mochimochi

Link

Mochi is very cute! She is a sweet- classic lolita. I found her from a lolita webring where she said her favourite brand is Metamorphose. She also wears Baby, AP, Emily Temple Cute, and Milk. Notice how lolitas back in the day didn’t often wear hair accessories? I feel like this would be considered highly unusual now.

If you wish to look at her photos, for this capture I have set the homepage to its earliest point (2000). To see updates from later years, use the button at the top right of the wayback machine to navigate to 2001, 2004, etc. Typically personal sites will have a profile where the webmaster introduces themselves, maybe a band they like, which prefecture they are from, and their blood type. The ‘bulletin board’ is usually written as BBS and is just a message board kind of like a guest book. Another virtual time capsule.

Vertige

                                 Link

A personal favourite of mine. The site is named after her doll, Verge. It is truly just incredible and I am SO glad organisations like the Internet Archive exist so that these lovely pages are not lost to time. 

I really hope you will understand my enthusiasm once you enter her world. It is unique to me because she is a 25 year old gothic lolita, a full time housewife with two young children. While 25 is certainly not old, there was a sense in online communities that lolita is mostly for high schoolers and by 25 you should have moved on to a more refined toned down version. You almost never hear about regular adult women who were lolitas and have duties like taking their children to school and keeping up with the housework. I read her diary and a section on the lolita page about her experiences with lolita and it is SO TOUCHING. Her passion for lolita is clear. She posted an update in 2001 about revealing to her husband that she wore lolita- she had been wearing it in secret for half a year. The update was titled ‘A Coming Out’ which I would say is an accurate descriptor. Her husband did not approve of the lolita at all and mentioned that she should not be seen going from the house in those outfits. When she asks if he would go out with her in lolita, his response is: “definitely not!!!”

Well dear reader, I imagine you felt the same disappointment as I did at the husbands reaction. She was a little disappointed but expected it. She writes, “I’m just relieved that I wasn’t told not to wear it!” 

…  

Aside from that, I was attracted to her page from her photos alone. A warning that not all the photos will load (some appear just as blank boxes). Sadly this is what happens when the jpgs are not archived or the photo hosting site is unreachable. 

Even the non-lolita can appreciate the L’arc en ciel fan content and her BJD page who I just adore. It led me to the site of my favourite doll artist (Alice in Nightmare) which is also linked on her page. 

Karyu 2003

Link

Simple and cute. Some random lolitas archive of purikura taken of her and her friends. Which looks so fun! I would have loved to hang out with them. I found this site through google images, miraculously. The bible of an oldschool lolita: take purikura, attend Alamode night and go with friends to Dix live.  

*wistful sigh*

(And yes there are other parts to the site. But it confuses me and I can’t make heads nor tails of it so really why are you coming to me for websurfing advice in the first place. Just consume what I place in front of you. Eat your veg.)

Tresor de Treasure

Link

If you want to find other sites like these, use the links section or click on the ‘list’ hyperlink of a web ring like the gothic lolita one so helpfully advertised on the homepage. The list will generate the usernames and sometimes the HP addresses of each member. Web rings will also have titles like ‘_ alliance’ or ‘_ union’

Introducing the homepage of a Japanese lolita comm! 

I thought it was interesting enough to add but it is not in the greatest condition. What ought to have been a cute introduction of the comm leaders (?) with a photo of them beside a short profile is now just a profile, so we can’t meet these members. Just click around the site till you find something that works is the wisdom that I will bestow upon you. The gallery won’t allow you to view all full-size images of the members but it gives you a thumbnail sized glimpse into what could have been. However, in the section which appears to be photos taken at a convention, it is worth clicking on some of the blank boxes as they do bear fruit from time to time. 

Treasure de is sweet and handmade. The lolitas pictured look very young and their lolita has an endearing early 2000s anime con charm. Not that the coords aren’t good, but the quality varies. I will bring you authenticity! Not just pretty polished webpages! 

Red rose

Link

I believe I originally saw this on Tumblr in a post that is now likely 8+ years old. Credit to Rainedragon and the lolitas of Tumblr that are years ahead of me. 

Since then I have seen this lolitas photos circulate Pinterest and other such sites (uncredited, as always) so I like to share this website to anyone curious of the origins of such photos. Her photoshopped backgrounds look straight out of a GLB photoshoot. There is a red arrow at the top right corner directing you to the next page of photos which can be hard to spot so please do not miss out.

I am unsure of this lolitas name or what it would be in English, sorry. She is a cosplayer as well as a lolita and most of her links lead to cosplaying communities or cosplay friends of hers but they are not nearly as well kept as her lolita archive is.  

This concludes my virtual tour. I wish for everyone to be as enamoured with these gems as I am. My brain and your brain will be as one… 

EDIT:  I realised while editing this that my blog looks terrible on any screen that isn’t a tiny mobile phone. Not sure what to do about that yet, so bear with the compressed photos for the time being.