The original prompt was "10 things you hate in Lolita" but I don't feel like I actually have 10 things I would characterize as being "hated." Thus, I'll just go with listing things that I dislike to various degrees - most of them not particularly strongly, and only in specific contexts.
In fact, for any outfit item here, I've seen it done well, and I've loved it, but for the most part these are pieces that I don't like to wear myself, or that I think are very difficult to make look flattering on most people.
1. Knee socks. I think this length of sock rarely looks flatter, unless one is very lucky to have long, thin legs. On most people, it tends to accentuate the calf and thigh curves, and just cuts off the leg at an unfortunate point. I pretty much never wear them, except around the house in the winter, and always opt for either tights or over-the-knee socks for my outfits.
2. Scratchy lace. Okay, this applies to life in general XD But I can't stand items that have low quality scratchy lace on them. It isn't even about a particular type of lace, or material of lace, because I've seen good lace come in all designs and materials. But bad lace just looks bad, and if it has contact with my skin for more than about 5 minutes, I develop a wicked rash... T_T
3. Social anxiety. This is another one of those things where the problem is me and me alone. While one could easily participate in this fashion and avoid all social interaction, that's not entirely what I would like to do, and thus I make an effort to get to know the local girls and interact with people at meetups and such. However, this is a big effort for me, due to tmy innate shyness and constant worry about whether I'll accidentally commit a social mistake. I was not very well-socialized as a child, and as such I feel like I'm constantly playing catch-up to behave in a manner acceptable for someone of my age. Thus, meetups are part excitement and fun, but also large part constant anxiety before, during, and after. It gets better as time goes on though, so in light of that, this is a very solvable problem ^_^
4. 2D head-eating bows. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I'm not talking about the type with multiple loops and wire like Baby and AP put out. Those are very 3D and thus I think work in gigantor sizes. I'm talking about the flat style of bows, but made way oversized, and then stuck on a headband in such a way that the bow essentially sits flat against your head (if it's really huge, the bow sticks out on either side of your head so you look like you're a helicopter). Luckily, not many of those exist, but I unfortunately have a few that I need to remount on something else, or just take apart and reuse the fabric to make a better bow.
5. Rule sticklers. I think the 'rules' of Lolita are definitely very good guidelines, and are great for learning how to put together an outfit or just for when you're lazy and just need a quick and easy outfit. However, I think people keep adding more and more (what I find superfluous) rules, or being overly critical of people who don't strictly adhere to whatever the current set of rules is, even if that person looks great and definitely recognizable as Lolita.
6. Food prints. This is one of those things that I love seeing on other people, and often the food prints are adorable as pictures! But it always makes me feel a little weird to wear a food print, I don't even know why, it's just a gut reaction. So I stay away from buying them and just enjoy looking at other girls wear the pretty prints ^_^
7. Pressure to be OTT. This is maybe a bit in connection with the whole adding arbitrary rules and being such sticklers about said arbitrary rules thing. I personally think there is a wide range of elaborateness that all qualifies as being "Lolita". However, it seems like more and more, unless the outfit is very elaborate, complete with very styled hair, people will toss it to the side as "casual" or even consider it to not be Lolita but rather just some feminine Lolita-inspired outfit. While that's all fine and good, since there's no real need to label everything anyways, it does bother me that a not-insignificant portion of the community considers one to not be wearing the fashion if one is not done up to the extremes.
8. The unfortunate name association. I think the name itself is beautiful - it's sonorant, and just phonotactically very nice for many languages. And really, for people who have actually read the book, there's nothing inherently scandalous about the name "Lolita." Unfortunately, the majority of people seem not to have ever actually read the book, or really grossly misunderstood the point of it, and so the word "Lolita" contains "pedophilia" in its synset... Which makes me sad, because hearing the name seems to make some people jump to the conclusion that we're trying to look like young children (even if they hadn't thought so BEFORE hearing the name).
9. High-collar shirts. Again, something I love seeing on other people, and I do actually wear them on occasion, but this is something that generally applies to everything I wear, Lolita or not. Having close-fitting things around my neck makes me really nervous and uncomfortable, so unless the high-collar is fairly loose or fairly low, I have a hard time dealing with having it on. Give me a Peter Pan color or a square/sweetheart neckline any day XD
10. Unfortunate wigs. I have nothing against wigs in general, in fact I own several in various colors natural and unnatural myself. However, I try to buy decent quality wigs and take good care of them. I wish other people could try to put in at least a minimum effort with their wig if they're going to wear one. I guess it's akin to letting your own hair hang unkempt. It doesn't need to be super fancy or elaborate, even just a well-brushed unstyled wig looks fine. So I guess, at the very least brush your wig and get the tangles out/hidden?
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