Wait... I thought you had to keep your shoulders covered all the time when wearing lolita. So I can wear jsk without a shirt underneath?
I always say it depends on the JSK. I tend to feel that the notion of “your shoulders have to be covered at all times or else it’s not modest and therefore not lolita” is a bit old fashioned. Most of the time they do look best with something underneath because most of the time brands will design them around the idea that they will be worn with a a blouse and otherwise the coord can come off looking sort of unfinished, especially when the top of the dress is a bit plain. However, in cases where the top of the JSK is a little on the fancier side, such as it has a big elaborate collar or a lot of lace attached to the straps, they can look great without a blouse underneath (weather permitting of course.) So something like this, with just a plain square neckline and straps that don’t have any sort of embellishment will look best with a blouse underneath or a cardigan/bolero over top:
While something like these which have a little more going on around the collar area look great on their own:
You’ll also find that in some cases, like when I was talking about formal wear, if a coord is more formal or very elaborate, you can sometimes compensate for not wearing a blouse by making the rest of your coord a bit fancier. The same can sometimes go for if the dress itself is overall somewhat elaborate. (And there may be other cases where you’re more worried about suiting the formal occasion than the coord being 100% lolita which was sort of the direction I was taking the formal wear post.)
Over the years the “rules” that once dictated what is and isn’t lolita have sort of changed a bit. It used to be that nobody wanted to be caught dead in a JSK without a blouse, but nowadays the fashion has evolved in such a way that there are plenty of situations in which it is perfectly appropriate. I feel that it has become less about whether or not it’s okay to cover your shoulders and more about just what looks good. I will say this though: if you’re someone who is very new to lolita and new to putting together coordinates, it is still a good idea to stick to the blouse guideline for a while until you get more accustomed to putting together a lolita look and get a good idea of what works and what doesn’t. As I said before, a fair majority of JSKs are designed with a blouse in mind so it can sometimes be tricky to determine whether or not it will still make for a good coord without a blouse.
