Most of my recent posts have gravitated towards coverage of lolita fashion, and while I do participate in Gothic Lolita fashion, and am a member of several lolita blogging groups, this blog is intended to cover the scope of dark romantic fashions and lifestyles. This next series of posts will focus on
dark mori kei, adapted from the 30 Day Mori Girl Challenge created by my friend Lauren of
Shady Oaks.
As much as I love lolita, I have been active in the style for many, many years now and these days I feel myself drifting more towards dark mori both in my lifestyle and fashion. This brings us to the first prompt in the Mori Girl Challenge....
How did you become interested in ::dark:: mori fashion and lifestyle?
Well, the easy answer is that I stumbled upon your garden variety mori kei when it was first emerging back in about 2009/2010 through tumblr and livejournal, and other internet resources. As a young girl, I generally preferred the company of my garden and the woods behind my house to the company of other children. My mother told me stories about fairies and read me verse by pre-raphaelite and transcendentalist poets. I was utterly in love with nature and enamored with tales of girls who lived in the woods, completely self-sufficient, and I was convinced that I would grow up to be a naturalist of some sort (I really wanted to be a marine biologist). As I grew older, I found myself bound to the city, but my love for nature never died.
When I discovered mori girl fashion, I was immediately reminded of the girl my childhood self aspired to be when she grew up. A mori girl is independent, self-sufficient, a dreamer, a creative, and at one with animals and nature. Her chunky sweaters and warm scarves allow for comfort, while her delicate skirts and antique laces embrace the femininity of lolita. The many styles that can be considered mori let the wearer bounce between casual and almost hip, to very formal and historic. Although I try to let specific aesthetic principles unify my style, I get bored sticking to one "genre" of dress. Mori kei is very flexible, and much of what I find myself wearing on a day-to-day basis can fall into mori-inspired looks.
So why dark mori? Dark mori, for me, is an answer to the lightness of most conventional mori fashion. Dark mori adds an element of the obscure and the occult to the idea of the forest girl. Although I enjoy fairy tales and drinking tea, I also love the dreariness of a fog-soaked pacific morning, or looking for dead things on the beach, or collecting bones and touring cemeteries. Nature is most importantly cyclical, and death and the other side is a large part of that cycle. The witch archetype is something I identify with strongly, and dark mori helps me embrace that visually. Another prompt asks if mori kei has changed your outlook on life or your lifestyle, and I would say it has, but that's a tale for another day! Stay tuned....
Are you interested in mori kei at all, dark or not? How did you get into your fashion genre of choice? Or are you a fashion chameleon? Thanks for reading!! If you are participating in the 30 Day Mori Challenge, please let me know! I would love to read your posts.
