Hey everyone! One of my friends recently got into lolita fashion and wanted a guide to affordable lolita items. I still have my MBOK guide up, I wrote up my first experience with Taobao, and I wrote a post for a Lolita Blog Carnival prompt about Favorite Taobao Shops & Pieces, but I never created a guide to great places to get lolita items on Taobao.

So, what is Taobao?

Taobao is like a Chinese eBay or Amazon. There are tons of different stores and sellers!

Since the pricing is all in Chinese Renminbi (also known as Chinese Yuan), you’ll need to check conversion rates to see how much it’ll cost in your own currency. Definitely keep in mind shipping fees and shopping service fees, if you choose to use a shopping service. I heard there’s a way you can purchase from Taobao directly now and have them forward packages to you, but I’m still most comfortable with a shopping service since they can help answer my questions about products and give me peace of mind.

In my own experience, I’ve purchased clothes (lolita as well as non-lolita), shoes, wigs, false lashes, cosplays, and accessories from Taobao. I’ve also purchased a bag from Taobao too (my beloved Japanese-style school bag that was my go-to convention bag for over a year)!

Taobao is a lot of fun to browse, but can get overwhelming. I’ve definitely spent way too much time browsing Taobao… For example, being on Taobao and looking at all the things I want to add to my wishlist, and then I glance at the clock and wonder how the heck it is already past 2am?!

Another thing that took a lot of time to figure out is… navigating! I speak Teochew/Chao Zhou, but not Mandarin (and I never learned how to read or write Chinese; I only know how to read numbers and a few characters). It was really difficult at first and I literally put things through Google Translate. Of course, Google Translate only works so far (like how it translates “product” as “baby” since the character for “precious item” is also “baby,” and products are listed as such). And Google Translate does not work on text within images. Most of the time, sizing is displayed in an image, so here are some sizing-related translations to help (Chinese (simplified) is on the left, and English is on the right):

• 尺码 — sizing
• 高 — height
• 胸 — bust/chest
• 腰 — waist
• 臀 — hips
• 长 — length
• 宽 — width
• 围 — circumference

Something else that confused me when I first browsed Taobao was the number of “deposit” or “reservation” items there were. I didn’t realize this meant they weren’t currently in stock. 定金 (deposit) and 预约 and 预定 (reservation) mean you have to pay a deposit to be able to eventually get the item. From my understanding, you need to purchase the item from the reservation page before you’ll be able to purchase the item on the 尾款 (post-reservation, I guess? the actual item) page. I’ve never purchased something from Taobao that was a reservation since I was always paranoid about not paying the shopping service in time for the post-reservation item page. If anyone has experience with reservation items on Taobao, let me know! I’m curious to hear what the actual process is like. I remember once I tried to buy an item from the 尾款 page and my shopping service said I can’t since I didn’t participate in the reservation.

Here are some useful terms you can use while searching for clothing and accessory items relevant to lolita fashion on Taobao:

• Dress (OP): 连衣裙
• JSK: 無袖洋裝
• Salopette: 背心裙 or 背带裙
• Skirt:  裙 or 裙子 or 半身裙
• Blouse: 衬衫 or 女衬衫
• Petticoat: 襯裙
• Bloomers:安全裤 or 南瓜裤 or 燈籠褲 or 灯笼裤
• Cardigan: 小外套
• Bolero: 短外套
• Capelet/short cloak: 短斗篷
• Lolita shoes:  洋装鞋
• Round headdress: 丸 型发饰
• Bonnet: 系带帽子
• Gothic headdress (usually with veils!): 哥特头饰
• Flower crown: 花环 头饰
• Beret: 贝雷帽
• Straw hat:  草帽
• Lace socks: 复古蕾丝短袜
• Lace gloves: 蕾丝手套
• Wrist cuffs: 蕾丝手镯
• Parasol: 洋傘

When I search, I also add in “lolita” sometimes to see what shows up.

Here are some style terms that were fun to use for Taobao searches too:

• Gothic: 哥特
• Victorian: 維多利亞
• Rococo: 洛可可
• Country: 田园
• Punk: 朋克
• Steampunk: 蒸汽朋克
• Retro/Vintage: 复古
• Sailor:  水手服
• Floral: 碎花
• Oil painting style (those classical painting prints!): 油画风
• Lace: 蕾丝
• Tartan/Plaid: 苏格兰格子
• Cross/Crucifix: 十字架 粉

If anyone wants stuff added to this list, just let me know! I’m happy to update this. Over the years, everything I learned about Taobao were from a trial and error through Google Translate and Chinese dictionaries, lurking on LiveJournal, reading blogs, and browsing Taobao-related things on Tumblr. I did pop over to CGL on 4Chan for a bit to see if I could learn about Taobao but 4Chan really scares me and the posting format confuses me so I spent barely any time on there.

I will definitely write another guide after this one, so stay tuned! My next one will be simple: a list of my favorite Taobao shops that are relevant to lolita. I’ll note if I’ve purchased from them before, or not yet. Stay tuned!

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