Tea Prints and Themes in Lolita Fashion

Hi! 

A while ago I made an article about coffee prints. I didn´t really drink tea at the time that much, but since then, I had to have iced tea every day (because it was too hot for coffee), then matcha every night (because it was too late for coffee) and now normal black tea every morning, well, because I´m sick. I really only drink coffee now mainly because it kicks me out of bed and fills me after breakfast. Safe to say, my tastes have changed.
To celebrate that, I decided to have a look at tea theme in lolita fashion.
/>Lolita lifestyle and our favourite leafy beverage seems almost inseparable. With all the tea parties (both events and shoes), musings about elegance and inspiration drawn straight from the past, it´s hard to imagine anything more fitting for a fun outing than tea.
Shirley Temple realized this in 1994 and quickly made a skirt and an apron with all over print of various teacups. There´s something fun about all the colours, patterns and even the size of the cups, and honestly, I can imagine buying the apron and actually baking some cute pastries in it.

Isn´t this to die for? The lace, the cups, the colours!

Next documented item was a tea set by Jane Marple in 2002. Prints weren´t so huge at that era and I can imagine that if did any, teacup probably wasn´t your number one choice.
That changed between 2002 and 2007, so by the time of my next stop in Lolibrary´s settings, things looked a lot brighter for everyone who likes matching their food choices to their clothing. (I do, so this makes me happy.) 

If you can really count on any brand to have a tea print, it´s definitely Emily Temple Cute and Leur Letter. It fits well with their more casual style.

Tea Time Print OP (2006) by ETC, it also comes as JSK and a skirt

Flower Tea Party Camisole JSK (2018) by ETC
Little more modern, but I absolutely love it. You can get in in pink,
beige and ivory, and the print is gorgeous on closeups.

Of course, not everyone thinks of Leur Letter and ETC when they hear „lolita brand“. What about The Big 3? Metamorphose was first, of course. With its Sweets Collection, they have beaten the other two in 2006. And they did it in a big style – Sweets Collection is a giant series that has everything from two cuts of skirts to a bathing suit. I´m not particularly fond of this print, but I love the simple cut of Shirring Tiered OP. It also featured a cutsew, surprisingly popular article when it comes to tea prints
I was surprised to see that next one with super sweet print wasn´t AP, but Innocent World. They came with Candy Pattern series. I don´t think that the print suits the classical cuts in most cases (looking at you, Flare JSK) but I don´t really hate it. It´s also a year of Meta´s Sweets Collection bikini for some reason.

Sweets Collection print - Okay, it´s not that bad in black

Candy Pattern Flare Skirt by IW

At this point, you may have noticed two things. First of all, I´m jumping over Alice most of the time, at least when it doesn´t collide with cute fluffy rabbits. Alice prints make a big portion of tea-themed pieces, probably because tea parties are just as popular in Wonderland as in lolita communities. I´m not so keen on Wonderland and even though it intersects, I believe it deserves its own article.
Also, we have cups, cutlery and all the dishes, but what about the actual physical tea? That´s right. Even if cups do imply that tea is present, should we believe them?
It was hard to tell from some photos, but you can definitely have an actual tea dress without painting the beverage into tiny cups yourself. That would a bad idea. 

Can we all agree that AP´s Wonder Party is absolutely iconic? My favourite piece is this Wonder Party Mini Sleeve JSK. It comes in black, brown, sax and pink, it has tea, cookies and cupcakes and you can have matching OTKs with it, which also features tea. 

You just know that this dress is comfortable. I adore Tea Select print from ETC, partly because the colours are so well balanced in this ivory colourway. It also comes in blue and green and on JSK and a longer skirt. I would love to just read some Agatha Christie in this.

 

Of course, I´m not shaming anyone who just wants to enjoy fancy porcelain. I love Peasant Print Border Skirt from Jane Marple too much for that. And Violet Tea by ETC. Even Classic Tea House is kinda cute.

Peasant Print Border Skirt - It reminds me of my grandparents

Classic Tea House from Metamorphose

Violet Tea - I just adore the print

Tea isn´t the main focus most of the time. That usually tends to be food accompanying it (Rose Macaron, Tea Cup & Breakfast JSK, Chocolate Tea Time), an actual teaparty (Royal Bear, Afternoon Tea in the Forrest, Teenage Witch, Frog Tea Party JSK) or something slighty related (Royal Warrant, London Print Square JSK, Sweet Girl Room). You can even join your annual poker night in lolita, now on theme, thanks to Alice and her bizzare story – look for Wonder Bunny Magical Cards (AatP) or Sweet Poker (Meta) which was made in a whole series.

Rose Macaron JSK - Triple Fortune may be famous for their bonnets, but this is a piece of art. 

Royal Bear (Victorian Maiden) - This dress is so breathtaking I wouldn´t even care what´s on the bottom, but the fact it´s bunch of chilling teddy bears makes it so much better.

I´m moving to UK after school and Jane Marple´s London Print Square JSK is coming with me.

But for that, you will need a whole coord. Lucky you, there are even more tea themed accessories than main pieces. BB and B has some super cute pieces (mainly for sweet lolitas) and Jane Marple has released my favorite kettle ever. Even AP has joined in, with their Tea Cup Accessory set. And have you seen the the two teas made by Puvithel?
it was really hard to pick just some pieces to show you, but those were my favourite ones.

Fantasia Pot Necklace by Jane Marple
It´s beautiful and you can actually open it

Puvithel ~ Lemon Creamer Adjustable Ring

BB and B ~ March Hare's Teacup Necklace

Lolita gods are on you side even when it comes to legwear, I really want to spend the rest of my life in Tea Time OTKs or Meissein Collection Tighs.
But what are you going to put on your head? Your options don´t stop at matching headbows. Or kerchiefs, because the Ginza Kissaten series are awesome. At this point, you already have tea on your dress, tea on your top, tea on you legs… put it on your head. Don´t be a coward, get a hold of a teacup mini hat. 

As much as I usually don´t like them, I love the absurdity of those things. Rococo Soul United States of Chocolate (whatever that means) has put out a brown one filled withtea. TourNewSoul somehow made teacup hats their thing.

Rococo Soul United States of Chocolate Teacup Mini Hat

TourNewSoul ~ Enchanted Forest Mini Teacup Hat
If you like unusual OTT or a little tacky headwear, you should look at this brand. 

Want something bigger? AatP has your back, take a look at Twin Stars Teacup MiniHat.

You can have it in purple too!

This is already much longer than I anticipated, and I didn´t even get to boba or matcha. I quess I will have to make second part!
Also, I couldn´t add all the pictures, there would be so many. Did anything catch your attention? And how do you like your tea? 

See you soon!