My Favorite Liz Lisa Era

 I want to write a love letter to girly fashion for my blog, so why not do it by writing about the brand that sparked my love for girly fashion. That brand is Liz Lisa!

Background:

Liz Lisa is a brand that was founded in 1999. When the brand first started it produced clothes that appealed to the Ganguro/Manba style, which was popular in Japan at the time. Over time, as girly and more feminine details became more popular, Liz Lisa slowly shifted towards that style. The shift started around 2003.

For me, the pinnacle of Liz Lisa's girly style was between 2010 and 2013. The stores were adorned with vibrant colors, tulle, lace, cute buttons, and delicate florals. Every corner of Liz Lisa boutiques and promotional magazines exuded a whimsical, girly charm. I've lost count of how many times I've watched Kim Dao's video touring a Liz Lisa boutique from that magical era.

Post 2017 is when Liz Lisa’s style began to shift again. Their designs became more muted and toned down to appeal to the larme and jirari-kei styles which have been popular recently. Larme fashion is a style that is derived from the magazine Larme. It incorporates some elements from girly fashion, but I wouldn’t call it girly fashion because it’s more toned down. Because Larme originated from a magazine it is also a very loosely defined style that doesn’t have a lot of clearly defined elements. Jirai-Kei is a popular style that originated from the Jirai-Kei subculture. On the Jfashion Wiki, the style can be described as “dark feminine”. The style features dull colors with some girly accents, mostly bows and jewels. Some would say that there is a slight gothic element to the style.

Jirai-kei examples:

Larme examples:

(Images are linked to the original source)

Personally I think Liz Lisa’s current style is a mesh of Larme and Jirari-kei.

Liz Lisa occasionally releases items that I would consider girly. However these items are different from the ones they released pre-2017. They are less summery and more winterery. Girly items released by Liz Lisa currently are usually knits. Liz Lisa also doesn’t use florals anymore in their original prints. They rely on other “cutesy” imagery like teddy bears, bunnies, strawberries, cake, teacups, etc. These newer girly items are a safer bet for Liz Lisa because they appeal to Liz Lisa’s current target audience.

Why I love “old Liz Lisa”

Fans of Liz Lisa often refer to the 2010-2017 era of Liz Lisa as “old Liz Lisa”, so that’s what I’ll be calling this era in this blogpost.

For me to explain this I first have to explain why I love girly fashion. I was first introduced to the style in the game Style Savvy Styling Star. The style was used for people to show off their carefree side while embracing their femininity. Prior to playing the game I wore very gender neutral clothing (jeggings and a plain T-shirt from Old Navy). Being a girl’s game, Style Savvy heavily embraces feminine accents and it’s where I gained my love for all things feminine. (Bows, ruffles, florals, etc.) Style Savvy empowers girls to use fashion to chase their dreams. That's what I do. I dream of a vibrant and carefree world so I enjoy dressing in bright colors, and wear clothes with florals and ruffles. Wearing girly fashion reminds me to enjoy the smaller simpler things in life. I want to appreciate the beauty of life so I wear clothes I think are beautiful. 

Girly garments are like art to me, especially garments that came from the old Liz Lisa era. These garments often have original floral prints that look like they’re from a painting. The dress I’m wearing right now, while writing this, is an original Liz Lisa print. You can’t find this fabric anywhere else. Old Liz Lisa items are very unique in design as well. With haphazardous fast fashion being so popular and common nowadays it’s rare to find garments as unique as the ones Liz Lisa used to make.

I wouldn’t say I don’t like the new Liz Lisa. The designs are still unique and detailed in a way that fast fashion is not. The new designs just don’t match the vibe I want to have. Looking at new Liz Lisa items makes me happy because the clothes have character, it’s just not the character that ignites a spark in me. The dull colors don’t put me in a mood that makes me want to go out and do something. I’ve also heard from people online that the quality of newer Liz Lisa items has declined since the old Liz Lisa era. Personally I think current Liz Lisa items have great quality. A knit sweater from Liz Lisa will undoubtedly be of better quality than anything you could find in H&M, Shein, or Zara. However when comparing my old Liz Lisa items to my new Liz Lisa items I think I would have to agree to an extent. I’ve never had any problems with my old Liz Lisa items. I have had some minor issues with my new Liz Lisa items. I own the Twin Bears Knit Sweater. It’s incredibly cute and I got more compliments on it from my peers than I expected. However, a week after it arrived in the mail, I discovered a hole in it! And because the sweater is knit, that hole slowly increased in size throughout the day (I was wearing it). I had thought that the hole came about as a result of the sweater getting caught on something. 

That day I took the sweater to my sewing teacher who knits. When she looked at it she said that it didn’t look like a hole had been ripped into the sweater. She said the hole looked like someone had cut clean across the sweater. What this means is that the hole was caused by an error in the machine that knitted the sweater. Lucky for me this problem was fixable and I haven’t had an issue with the sweater since. Recently I also had to hot glue a gem back onto a skirt. I wouldn’t take any of this as concrete evidence that Liz Lisa’s quality has declined, but it’s definitely something to think about. 

I check Liz Lisa’s website weekly to see what the new listings are. Recently the new listings have all been restocks so I look forward to seeing what new items they will have in store soon!