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All About Ouji Fashion

Ouji literally translates to "prince" and is intended to bring a modern spin to what a Victorian boy would wear (usually a rich one, though there are styles that can be less aristocratic.) Or, as some might put it, it's the male equivalent of lolita fashion. This is historically true, however, in my opinion I think that ouji has formed its own style conventions beyond just "EGL with shorts instead of a dress." We're beginning to see the evolution of substyles that are often analogous to lolita fashion substyles. Between this and increased ease of access to ouji coordinates, it's an exciting time to be an ouji boy! Since the components are less specfic and require less elaborate prints than lolita, you can even thrift your own ouji coordinate, so why not give it a try?

...And you don't need to be a boy despite me using the term ouji boy, I just like using it for myself. :3 People of all genders can be oujis, but I personally find it to be a good way to express my own nonbinary gender.

Disclaimer

I'm relatively new to ouji but I've fallen in love with the style and want to share it. English-language information about it is thin on the ground and I'm hoping over time I can build up a good resource for other oujis. Also, ouji is not quite as restrictive as lolita can be, which is part of the appeal for me. I've also noticed that oujis tend to not be quite as critical as lolitas can be. It might be because the community is a lot smaller, though. Don't feel like you have to follow these rules to the letter, they're more like guidelines. Experiment and develop your own style, but don't be afraid to stick mostly to premade coord sets if you're not confident yet. It might take a while to build up your wardrobe and develop a sense for what to do, but there's few things better than feeling dignified and elegant in your favorite coord.

This section is still under construction!!! My current to-do list is organizing some resources aside from me and doing some more photoshoots. I have some pieces from Immortal Thorn on the way and I'm excited to show them off! I will also take the chance to talk about ouji substyles when I can!

Anatomy of an ouji coordinate

• The colors: Thankfully, brands have begun to branch outwards from just shades, otherwise I wouldn't be here. Monochrome just gets old fast for me. Outside of shades, you'll have the easiest time with jewel tones as pants and vests are most commonly found in black. Outside of that, follow your heart and general color theory. Note that patterns are rarer in ouji, which can make it a bit easier to coordinate things! Please use this as a reason to mix-and-match your coord pieces and enjoy experimenting.
• The shirt: An ouji shirt should almost always be a long-sleeved blouse, unless you're wearing casual ouji, in which case a short-sleeve button-up will do as well. Ideally you don't want a simple women's blouse. Flared sleeves or a ruffled placket are common features to help drive home an aristocratic look, while wa and qi ouji often use mutton sleeves. Make sure that it buttons up all the way to the neckline, you will need neckwear to attach somewhere. A collar of some sort is necessary, a band collar can be tricky to work and limits the kind of neckwear you can use but is doable.
• The vest: While a vest or jacket is not strictly required (and in casual ouji you don't have to use one...nor do you likely want to since you're probably wearing it during the summer!) it's another part of a coord that's quite difficult to go without. If you aren't wearing a vest, it might be because you're wearing a waist corset, cape, trailing, or cummerbund. Either way, there ought to be something covering your shoulders or waist. If you're buying outside of brands, vests and jackets should be relatively form fitting compared to normal menswear. Ouji is an androgynous style. If your blouse is deliberately designed to be baggy like the Princess Chronicles blouse in the header, you'll want to invest in a cape, trailing, or waist corset rather than a vest, though note that even a waist corset looks off without having pumpkin or lantern pants. Having a baggy blouse cinched in can look strange and uncomfortable.
• The pants: The majority of ouji styles will politely request but not demand that you wear shorts. Both straight-legged shorts, breeches, and pumpkin pants work well, with pumpkin pants being seen most often in sweet ouji. The combination of a long-sleeved blouse and shorts are as iconic as the lolita sillhouette would be for a lolita. All that said, you can wear straight legged trousers as well if you are taking cues from aristo, while both wa and qi ouji most often use wide-legged trousers. And when I say wide-legged, I mean that ideally they can be mistaken for a dress by someone looking out of the corner of their eye! All that said, your choice of pant length is more based on personal preference and comfort. I usually go for shorts or breeches rather than trousers but I live in an area with mild winters so that's not necessarily an issue.
• The footwear: Boots are a must for all styles but casual. Heeled boots are not undesirable and suit the style well, as again it is deliberately androgynous. If wearing wa ouji, geta (wooden sandals) can work but make sure they fit the rest of the coordinate's colors and that they are, in fact, proper geta. You can wear dressier sneakers with casual ouji if you wish, especially if you're going to be walking around a lot. If anyone tries to argue with you on this...the whole point of casual ouji is being comfortable. As for socks, I find that pumpkin pants and hose are a natural combination, but knee socks and thigh-highs can also look quite good with the right shorts. If wearing straight legged trousers, crew socks will be preferable. Some ouji will use sock garters with crew socks while wearing shorts to help cover up the gap and, presumably, keeping the socks from slipping down. I'm not sure, I personally don't use them in any of my coords so I'm making some assumptions here. Generally speaking, only sweet ouji will make use of the same sorts of elaborate sock prints you would see in most lolita styles given so if you're doubling up on styles, don't expect that aspect of lolita to cross over well. Plain colors are best, and if you're wearing breeches or trousers most of the pattern is just going to get covered up anyway.
• The headwear: This is another piece not strictly required, but a typical gentleman will wear a porkpie or top hat, and if you manage to obtain one you'll find that it will go with almost any aristo ouji coordinate. Try to find one with a hat band or, better yet, make your own hat band. If you do, then you can add on hat pins or other clips to customize them for each coordinate! That said, a more casual ouji coord (or, for that matter, a steampunk ouji looking to emulate the lower class) can get by well with a beret or newsboy cap, while an aristocratic ouji will benefit from having a mini-crown.
• The neckwear: Even if you're wearing casual ouji, you should try to have something for neckwear. For casual ouji, consider a neck bow, cross tie, or short necklace. Aristo or gothic ouji will call for a cravat or jabot. Curry ties or regular ties can work with several types, but particularly suit military and steampunk ouji. Hoard plenty of these so you have lots of options! All that said, if you have a ruffled or lace placket (that's the bit where the buttons are,) you may not need any neckpiece as the ruffles are doing the job on their own and anything extra may make the blouse too busy. If wearing a blouse with a band collar, note you will be limited to using a brooch, scarf, neck bow, or some types of jabot.
• The accessories: Lapel pins, tie clips, brooches, and waist chains all make for fine accessories to help draw the eye of viewers and to bring together the coordinate. I'm particulary fond of waist chains or anything that hangs off my belt loops, and as you can see in the image above I use ribbon ties for my hair since I have naturally long hair. Also, I have a very large head circumference so finding hats that fit is a nightmare. Meaning I often break my own headwear rule. Whoops! Well, just think of this as an example as to how ouji tends to be more based on vibes rather than strict rules. Also, consider investing in a cane for the aristo, steampunk, or goth ouji! You might need them if you're wearing heeled boots too.
• Wigs and makeup: Like lolita, makeup should be understated or not worn at all. Wigs are optional, but I personally am in the market for one because my hair is currently quite long and I could stand to have a more boyish style.

My coords!

Coord components: Princess Chronicles: Floating Phantom blouse, shorts, and cape, pearl waist chain and cross necklace. Brooch, knee socks, hair ribbon, and boots are either bought from non-ouji sellers or thrifted. I particularly like this and the Black and Blue coord set, as I'm fond of bold jewel tones. Part of the reason I have so much Princess Chronicles is because they agree with me! Maybe this is why they're one of the more popular small brands...?

My thought process in arranging this: Okay, okay. Part of this is cheating because a lot of it was sold as a coord set. However, I'll do my best to explain why it's set up the way it is! Firstly, a tie is not a particularly good idea with this cape. It laces in the front and that would cover up any details of the tie so I'm going to functionally consider that to be part of my neckwear. I opted instead for a cross necklace. This is about as goth ouji as I personally can get, and crosses go with gothic ouji like vampire bats and blood. It may not be immediately obvious, but the cape has a spiderweb pattern on it (there was a silver colorway that made it more obvious and would have paired better with the silver of the necklace and waist chain but it sold out before I could get it, alas.) So when I saw that spider brooch with a pearl abdomen, well, how could you expect me to resist? This ties together the three accessories and the pearl detailing on the cape, though this does mean that the gold and green decorative buttons on the shorts don't blend as well. Unfortunately I didn't realize that the pearl and gold cross on the cross tie that comes with the Floating Phantom blouse is detachable until after this photoshoot and I love the spider too much to give it up. :c Two brooches would be too busy in what's already a bit of a busy coord.

You'll notice that I try to arrange things on alternating sides! Fashionable asymmetry is very friendly towards coords consisting primarily of Princess Chronicles as its pieces lend themselves well to that due to having asymmetry naturally incorporated into their design. For example, while the side you can clearly see in the first image above the header has gold and green buttons on the shorts, the other side has a bat wing-shaped cutaway showing a fringe of green fabric. But if your coord pieces make use of asymmetry, don't stack everything on one side, having one side completely bare looks off. You don't want to have one side look too busy, remember you want the viewer's eyes to be drawn to the coord as a whole.

Coord components: Princess Chronicles: Dark Fairy Tale blouse and neck bow, Princess Chronicles: Night Instructions shorts. Out of shot are some black crew socks and black dress sneakers. Headphones not necessarily part of the coord but they happen to kind of fit. Sunglasses present because I have photosensivity and have a lot of trouble seeing in bright daylight without tinted lenses, they don't really fit but neither do my normal glasses. However, I do need to see where I'm walking. Running into things is not elegant.

My thought process in arranging this: Well...again, not much thought involved here. I wasn't crazy about the Dark Fairy Tale shorts because I already had the Night Instructions shorts and to be honest there's enough gold to suit Dark Fairy Tale perfectly well. I will sometimes wear the red colorway of the Floating Phantom brooch as a neckwear piece to bring things together a bit more! I hope this shows you what casual ouji can look like and how comfortable it can be. Nobody does a summer collection like Princess Chronicles and honestly I've found a lot of their casual ouji blouses more comfortable than t-shirts. They're usually usually made of dacron so they're very breathable and the fact they're baggy means that you can get some air circulation in your torso. You can still feel fancy without dying while walking outside. Great for me since I live in the Southern US!

Oh....and please do as I say and not as I do here, but if you're wearing a neck bow too you want to...actually tie it into a bow knot and not a slipknot. I didn't have anyone to help me out and I'm uncoordinated. Don't look at me, it's tough. I have an easier time tying bow knots on my back than on my front.

More coming soon!!! I have a few other brands I can show off. :3 But I could only fit so much in my suitcase during my visit.