How I Travel with Lolita

Notice the title of this is "with" not "in" lolita. I, personally, am not a big fan of long distance travel while wearing lolita. I don't really even like driving in lolita, but that's mainly because my truck's seat belts are not petticoat friendly. Riding in the car in lolita is okay... as long as it's on the way to a meetup, and not actual travel. 

For airplane travel, what I typically do is pick one coordinate, or if I do need two, then one where all, or at least most, of the accessories go with both dresses. If I'm able to only have carry-on bags, it's usually pretty easy to violently cram my petticoat (and YES I do mean literally cramming it) into the corner or bottom of the bag (depends on which bag I'm traveling with) and pile all my other clothes or stuffed animals around and on top of it. Having only one pair of shoes is really essential: there's too much wasted space, especially in a carry-on bag, if you pack more than one. However, if you do need more than one pair, wear one in the airport, rather than trying to pack both and wear regular shoes (I like my Bodyline shoes for this, since they have snaps so that I don't have to mess with buckles.) I usually fold and then gently roll dresses up into a sort of sausage link shape, if I'm not able to use a suit or dress bag. I really, really, don't like wearing my dresses in the airport or on the airplane: there's too many possible stains that could happen, plus, with those new full-body scanners, you will have to be pulled aside and patted down, there's too many folds in the dress, and I've had to have a pat down with just a regular skirt. 

For car travel, it's a lot easier, and unless you're traveling with multiple people, you really don't have to worry about space as much. I still don't like wearing lolita dresses on long (I consider 4+ hours to be long) trips, since wrinkles in your skirt are a guarantee, plus they just get uncomfortable after a while, but in this case packing them is much easier. Dress or suit bags are your friend here, you can either lay it flat on top of everything else, or hang it up on the hangars that come in every car. If you're traveling with multiple people, I'd suggest laying it flat since riding in a car with someone's dress bag blocking your view is really annoying. For petticoats, I still shove mine in the bottom of a backpack, and then my other clothes on top of it. 

If you're traveling and you need to, for various reasons whether it be space or time, wear lolita, I still would advise against wearing your petticoat. In the car, traveling long distance will deflate your petticoat faster than almost anything, since you're sitting on it the whole time, not to mention if you're traveling with a bunch of people, it just takes up unnecessary space and can be rude. On an airplane, the same thing applies, and even if you're on a short flight where petti-deflation isn't as much of a problem, how would you like to be the person next to you? There's not much point in wearing your petticoat in the airport since you'd just be going through the hassle of wearing it through security, and then taking it off and shoving it into your bag anyway. 

Just remember to keep your destination in mind when you're packing lolita to take with you. I'd rather wear the same coordinate twice in as many days than over-pack and waste a ton of space that could be used to pack other things, or for bringing back souvenirs.